Why We Read

Shannon Reed
Why We Read: On Bookworms, Libraries, and Just One More Page Before Lights Out
(Hanover Square Press, February 2024)

Read The Washington Post Review of Why We Read
Read an Excerpt of Why We Read in TODAY
Featured in “The Best Books We Read This Week” in The New Yorker
Featured in BookRiot‘s “The Best New Book Releases”
Featured in BookBub’s “New Bios & Memoirs”
Featured in LitHub‘s “24 New Books Out Today”
Selected as the Good Housekeeping Reads (GH+) Pick for February
Read An Excerpt of Why We Read in The New Yorker
Read The Publishers Weekly Review of Why We Read
Selected as the February 2024 Notable Nonfiction Pick in LibraryReads
Read An Excerpt of Why We Read in George Saunders’ Substack “Story Club”
Read an excerpt from Why We Read in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Read a review of Why We Read in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Listen to Shannon Reed discuss reading culture on Studio 2 from NPR

A hilarious and incisive exploration of the joys of reading from a teacher, bibliophile and Thurber Prize finalist

We read to escape, to learn, to find love, to feel seen. We read to encounter new worlds, to discover new recipes, to find connection across difference or simply to pass a rainy afternoon. No matter the reason, books have the power to keep us safe, to challenge us and, perhaps most importantly, to make us more fully human.

Shannon Reed, a longtime teacher, lifelong reader and New Yorker contributor, gets it. With one simple goal in mind, she makes the case that we should read for pleasure above all else. In this whip-smart, laugh-out-loud-funny collection, Reed shares surprising stories from her life as a reader and the poignant ways in which books have impacted her students. From the varied novels she cherishes (Gone Girl, Their Eyes Were Watching God) to the ones she didn’t (Tess of the D’Urbervilles), Reed takes us on a rollicking tour through the comforting world of literature, celebrating the books we love, the readers who love them and the surprising ways in which literature can transform us for the better.

Praise for Why We Read

“Shannon Reed gives us grace to love the books we love and reminds us, by sharing her own tender memories, why certain stories stick in our hearts for a lifetime. Shannon is one of my favorite writers—brilliant, humble, and wickedly funny. I envy her students and will return to these pages again and again. And I’m thrilled that she officially let me off the hook for never reading Middlemarch.”
—Elizabeth Passarella, author of Good Apple and It Was an Ugly Couch Anyway

“Why We Read is a rare thing—a joy on its own, as well as potent inspiration to revisit the formative books from your own reading journey. Shannon Reed’s warm, authentic voice in these invigorating essays invites us into her literary universe while at the same time encouraging us to expand our own. I cannot wait to gift this marvelous book to all the readers in my life.”
—Caitlin Kunkel, coauthor of New Erotica For Feminists: Satirical Fantasies of Love, Lust, and Equal Pay

“What a charming book Shannon Reed has written, a love letter (or series of love letters) to reading as avocation and as art. The title, of course, is both question and declaration, and in response, Reed offers a variety of takes on why we read. In the end, there is no answer, which is only as it should be; reading is too capacious to be pinned down. Better, as Reed illustrates throughout here, to consider it a process, undertaken on no terms other than its own.”
—David L. Ulin, author of The Lost Art of Reading

“The more I know about Shannon Reed, the more I like her. This is a rich, funny, poignant book, and the author will be your new best friend.”
—Mary Norris, New York Times bestselling author of Between You and Me: Confessions of a Comma Queen

“Why We Read is deeply delightful—a hug of a book that will remind you that there is simply nothing better than the King’s Pastime. OK, I made that up, no one calls reading The King’s Pastime—but they should, because it’s the most sublime way to spend your time, and Shannon’s funny, heart-tugging prose reminded me precisely why.”
—Jen Spyra, author of Big Time: Stories

Shannon Reed is a lecturer in creative writing at the University of Pittsburgh and a contributor to The New Yorker‘s “Shouts & Murmurs” pieces. Her work has also appeared in Real Simple, The Paris Review, Slate, LitHub, Longreads, The Guardian, AFAR, The Washington Post, and The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, and most notably, McSweeney’s. She holds an MA in Educational Theatre and Teaching Secondary English, and an MFA in Creative Writing.