The Stuff of Fiction

As a Peace Corps Volunteer, I was a teacher of junior high school math and “technology” from 1978 to 1980 in the Islamic Republic of Mauritania. It was a dreadful job and convinced me to give up my nascent idea of a teaching career. (N.B. I loved living and working overseas and made that my career.) 

I later described my teaching style as “dancing a three-ring circus.” There were 50 to 60 children in each class, seated three to a desk, and they were never quiet. I was teaching in French, after just six weeks of combined French and teacher training. The 100-degree days were blessed by winds like the gusts from a hot oven door, so our Bic pens dried out and our cheap Chinese notebooks turned to dust. And for children who lived under thatched roofs and camel-hair tents, interest in lessons about set theory and the distinction between mass and weight was … um … superficial. I escaped into novels like Thomas Mann’s The Magic Mountain and Frank Herbert’s Dune series.

Levin Born (right) with the Mauritanian Minister of Telecommunications.

Last Sunday, almost 42 years after I left Mauritania, I got a call from one of my three adult children. He’s a businessman who puts together technology transfer deals between American telecommunications companies and developing countries, and he happened to be in Nouakchott, the capital of Mauritania, for a couple of days. At the beginning of a formal meeting with the Minister of Telecommunications, a meeting that was the culmination of months of excruciating preparatory work, the Minister welcomed my son and courteously asked whether this was his first visit to Mauritania. Levin affirmed that it was, then mentioned that his parents [that would be me and his father] had once been teachers at the Lycee d’Aioun el-Atrouss. The Minister’s face froze as he paled; Levin nervously nudged his local partner to ask whether he’d said something offensive. When the stupefied Minister regained his composure, he said our full names and then stated “I learned math from your parents.”

This wondrous echo of a long-gone time and place set me thinking about fiction, about plausibility, about imagination (and of course about karma). In 1897, Mark Twain wrote, “Truth is stranger than fiction, but it is because Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities; Truth isn’t.” We learn in school that fiction refers to plots, settings, and characters that are created from the imagination, while nonfiction (truth?) refers to stories of actual events and people. Levin’s exchange with the Minister, so implausible and surprising, could have been a first, middle, or last scene in a thriller, a fantasy, a family saga, an international romance, a horror story, a children’s book. It could have been a potent event or a minor distraction from the plot. It could have been set in a fictional country or in another galaxy. Instead, in all its glorious absurdity, it is a true story. Unless we’ve entered The Twilight Zone again. 

If you were once a Peace Corps Volunteer, or know of one in the area, please let me know (legacyusedbooks@gmail.com). If there’s enough interest, we can plan a get-together.

Who Reads Books?

May is designated as “National Get Caught Reading Month,” founded in 1999 and now the highlight of a campaign managed by the nonprofit Every Child a Reader.

Do you ever talk with family or friends about what they’re reading? That’s the most common way we find the books we read. Surveys of reading habits reveal many surprises about who is reading, how they’re reading, and what they’re reading.

For example, a 2020 article looked at the reading habits of five generations: Gen Z, 5-25 years of age; Millennials, 26-40; Gen X, 41-55; Baby Boomers, 56-75; and the Silent Generation, 76+ years old.  Millennials – the busy heads of household who also form the bulk of our economic workforce – are the most voracious readers and the biggest library-goers. All generations still prefer reading physical books to digital ones (except everyone prefers to read their news online). All generations prefer fiction over nonfiction, and interest in apocalyptic fiction in particular has been boosted during the pandemic. Half of 6-8 year olds read for fun most days, but only a quarter of 15-17 year olds read for fun; and while 45% of teenage girls read books, only 27% of boys say the same.

Another article reports that 88% of the Americans who read e-books continue to read printed ones as well – and explains some of the reasons why (such as improved understanding and remembering of what you’ve read from turning actual pages). 

Internationally? Older research shows that people in India read the most – more than 10 hours a week on average – while those in the U.S. average less than six hours a week.

So who doesn’t read books? There is evidence that pre-pandemic trends were toward less daily reading by Americans and that there are significant demographic differences in reading habits. For example, richer, suburban, or college graduate Americans are more likely to read than those with lower incomes, less schooling, or living in urban or rural areas. Also, men were less likely to have read a book in the preceding year than were women.

And what do people read? This is complicated to assess, but one recent article reported that the most profitable categories of books sold by Amazon are:

1. Romance / Erotica

2. Crime / Mystery

3. Religious / Inspirational

4. Science Fiction / Fantasy

5. Horror

My own unscientific questioning reveals that lots of readers alternate fiction with nonfiction books, or keep one of each going all the time. Friends also commonly keep a book or a magazine in their bag or in the car, as they would a flashlight or jumper cables. Many admit to acquiring books that they never get around to reading, and there’s actually a name for this that’s been in use for more than a century: tsundoku.

One of the great joys of a bookstore is chatting with readers about what they read and why. Since opening Legacy Used Books, I’ve gained a deeper and broader humility about what I know about books and reading, and a greater curiosity as well. As Irwin Shaw put it, “There are too many books I haven’t read, too many places I haven’t seen, too many memories I haven’t kept long enough.” Read on!