Student Spotlight: Kid Who SWEARS They’ll Read Their Library Books “One of These Days”
Iowa City was the first UNESCO City of Literature in the United States of America, primarily due to the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and its continued involvement in the literary arts.
No one exemplifies this involvement more than Ariel Massey (she/they): a second year creative writing major who loves getting books from the Iowa City Public Library once a week. The only question is whether or not they read them.
“Look, I’m going to be honest,” Massey started before sipping her Daydrink cortado. “I haven’t read any of them yet. But I swear, I’ll get to them one of these days.”
Janet Clare, Massey’s roommate, said that Massey’s book borrowing habits have become a problem: “There are piles of books all over the floor. It’s a fucking minefield!” Our Doily Allergen investigator can attest to this, as they stubbed their toe in the process of getting this comment.
Massey did express embarrassment for the mess they’ve made. “I don’t like it either. But like, when I see these books with these cool-looking covers and then flip them open—yeah, I don’t only pick books because of pretty covers—and read their blurb, I’m like, I want to read this. This sounds super interesting. But they just kept piling up.”
The Iowa City Public Library’s auto-renew policy, while helpful, continues to enable their behavior.
“I have so many books out right now. I think I’ll need multiple trips just to return them all… Once I read them, of course.”
Massey is clear about her intent to actually read these books and does whatever she can to maintain a positive mindset.
“Even though I’m not reading as much as I want to, I can still take solace in that my heart is in the right place. I want to be well-read, I want to support my local library, but it just hasn’t been in the cards for me. I can sleep comfortably knowing that I’m better than those BookTok skimmers that only read dialogue or those performative readers that carry a book around to get laid. I’ve been seeing a lot of that lately.”
The word performative has a couple different meanings. The meaning in popular culture is “being done in a fake or insincere way, typically to gain attention,” whereas in the philosophy of language, it refers to the act of speaking or writing something actively changing the social reality the words are describing. Such is the case when one makes a bet or a promise. Ariel Massey is, however, not a performative reader in either of these contexts.
“To be honest, I don’t consider myself much of a reader at all lately. I’ve been working on my novel, and I don’t like reading while I’m in the middle of a writing project because I’m worried it’ll change my signature style.”
A common struggle, surely.
“Sure, I get assigned readings in my literature classes, but those honestly feel more like homework than reading because I enjoy it. But also, I’m not even sure if I do enjoy it anymore. Obviously I like books and literature as a concept, but do I even like to read? Maybe it was something that changed as I grew older, the same way I fell out of love with Taylor Swift and Sour Patch Kids. Reading now is just picking those citric-acid-encrusted gummies out from the back of my retainer with a raw tongue. I was always a bookworm growing up. Does this mean that I’m just a worm now? Would you love me if I was?”
Our Doily Allergen interviewer blushed and told her that they’d have to think about it. They have a lot on their plate right now, and they’re not sure they’re ready for this kind of commitment.
Be on the lookout for chapters of Massey’s upcoming novel Cassidy Firebrand in an upcoming issue of Cave Writing Magazine. They plan to submit it one of these days.