Gary’s Journey Through Hell

Gary’s Journey Through Hell

Why Has Reading Gotten So Hard?

Is it me? It's just me, isn't it.

Gary Shteyngart's avatar
Gary Shteyngart
Aug 26, 2025
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A while back, when Bob Dylan won the Nobel, I tweeted my support of the Nobel folks by saying “I get it, reading is hard.” This created a minor brouhaha with Stephen King saying I was angry that I didn’t win the Nobel myself (lol) and many other Boomers were writing to, quite literally, threaten my life.

But I wasn’t kidding. And I wasn’t angry. I love Dylan and was happy he won. Because, guess what? READING IS HAAAAAAAAARD!

Recently I got the new Sam Tanenhaus bio or William Buckley. It’s uniformly excellent, Sam did his research and knows how to wield a pen. But it’s also 868 pages long. I’ve been reading it for two weeks and am maybe a third of the way through.

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