No. Reading is not painful, it's awesome. I wish I had more time to spend doing it. The older I get the better I appreciate truly good writing. Spending time with the language of Moby Dick or the living characters of War and Peace was an absolute pleasure.

It has everything to do with the experience, and nothing to do with "being seen reading a thick book." I'm not on Instagram or Tik Tok with images of me reading. I'm reading because I want the experience and actually enjoy it.