How is it "odd" that he watches House but doesn't read fiction? How many millions of people does that describe?

Why is watching fiction not a waste of time, but reading fiction a waste of time?

The real question is, however, why are we arguing about this?

I read through this thread thinking the same thing (re: the arguing).

It was a fairly intimate article providing an insight into the habits and life of JF and I found it slightly disconcerting that people were so quick to criticise what seems to be a personal choice.

You can digest a movie much faster than a novel, so it's easy to see why you'd avoid novels if your time was limited.

But a movie is significantly less content than a novel. If you read manga instead, the time invested would be about the same.

(And of course, neither are as intellectually stimulating as a well-written novel. Which is the point of reading them, for me anyway.)

I think the peculiar bit is that he is conscientiously avoiding fiction rather than the practical fact of the matter that this is not an uncommon phenomenon as you rightly point out.

Maybe it's something about the online medium which is conducive to people making categorical statements or maybe that's just Jason's personality, but still I do find it odd.

Although I do agree with you that we've spent way too much time talking about it at this point...

I think it's a cost/benefit thing. You can probably watch a whole season of House in the time it takes to read one long book. I love fiction, but I certainly don't find his position hypocritical.

Time is a big part of it, yes. I'm a slow reader too.