It sounds like a concept that the author has been toying with for a while, how reading is not only a deliberate choice with an onslaught of competing options, but that the choice, even for those in a literary profession, isn't particularly "well-informed".

A lot of the writers I know say they write to understand and refine their ideas. So maybe it just started as a personal thought and then he decided to publish it, maybe because he hears similar questions often?