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I'll come back to this from another angle. There is more to reading than a weak reader or non-reader could imagine. I see a parallel to viewing art. These are mediums that have the possibility of enhancing our lives, refining our own views, and exercising our intelligence. But there is a theshold of learning and experience to pass before they can be understood and enjoyed for more than their surface meaning.
It is not desirable, to me, to live in a society that only values farming, hunting, breeding, or war. Aren't those the anti-escape activities that someone really means when they refer to reading as escapist? All of my close friends are readers. Few of them are bookish. They are almost all people who go into the world and do great things.
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