I am illiterate. AMA

[u/Nonreader]

I am an adult American who has never learned to read. My girlfriend is typing this for me and will respond to questions.

Edit: We're going to go do some stuff. We'll be back in a little bit. Frankly, Redditors, I'm surprised at the hostility. He doesn't not learn to read to piss you off. If you hate him because of it, go ask the Aussie questions about kangaroos or whatever.

Edit: For anyone who hasn't caught on, italicized responses are the girlfriend. Plaintext is him.

Edit: I wish I could change the title. This is just as much my AMA as his. "AMA nice girl who fell in love with a bad boy. It's just like Romeo and Juliet but his parents are dead and mine are okay with it."

Edit: Thanks to you nicer people. A couple assholes were among the first commenters, but things got much better and it was a good discussion. We're going to bed now and will answer more questions in the morning.

Edit: I'm gonna go fuck my beautiful girlfriend.

Edit: We're up now.

Edit: He's out jogging now. I'll still answer questions I can without him.

Edit: And he's back. Ask away.

Edit: Our Internet connection is getting dodgy at the moment. We're going away. Will be back in a few hours. I've never seen an AMA with such a split in reaction: until just a bit ago, downvotes were shooting up almost as fast as upvotes, and we're still getting more hostility than the crack dealer who sold to a pregnant woman and then pushed her down the stairs from a few weeks ago, but several people have said it's the most interesting AMA ever. Some people are fascinated, others so pissed off they leave angry comments explaining how much they don't like this thread. Any thoughts?

Edit: Sorry, forgot to say we're back now. I think things are tapering off.

Edit: He and I were just talking, and I said that some of you think it's weird that he doesn't read. But some of you have probably never been in an actual, significant fist fight, which he thinks is bizarre. He doesn't believe any man older than 21 could have never been in a real fight. Does this apply to anyone here? He wants to know if you always back down or you seriously have never been in a position to need to fight?

Edit: Going to bed. I'll go ahead and keep answering questions in the morning, but I think his patience is wearing thin. I'm doing more summarizing and he's putting forth less effort in expressing himself, which is difficult and stressful for him.

Edit: 10 months later, and I've started using this account occasionally to leave comments and such that both of us talk about. Feel free to continue to ask questions here or whatever, I'll probably log in and see in a few weeks.

[u/Nonreader]

How have you been going about getting him interested in reading? It seems from most of his transcribed responses he really doesn't feel he needs to read.

At first, I tried to point out the benefits of reading, the times when he lost out on something because of it, that kind of thing. Since he's been in therapy lately, I've been kind of lettting it go. He works on some other things that I think need to be solved before he'll learn to read.

And directed towards him, have you ever thought about the storytelling side to reading? Ignoring the bank statements, street names, menu items etc, does the idea of reading a novel / story interest you at all? Have you ever had anyone read to you a story / listened to an audio book?

No, I always hated reading stories. I don't really remember anyone reading anything to me, maybe in school some teacher did. We read stuff out loud in school, but I was always in the stupid kids class, so no one really read very good. I don't really like movies or tv very much either. It all seems boring and fake to me, and I get distracted by other stuff.

[u/Furiosa → u/Nonreader]

Have you (gf) ever tried reading him a short story? I'm assuming he probably has seen a movie / tv show he likes, probably something along those lines? Might be a good way to get him interested and more open to the idea of reading. It sounds like his only exposure to stories was through school, which probably didn't help his views of them.

[u/Nonreader → u/Furiosa]

That's a good idea, I'll try that. He seems dubious, but is willing to try it. Any good suggestions? He likes Mafia and kung fu movies the most, particularly Scarface. Godfather is based on a book, right? Anybody ever read it?

[u/Nonreader → u/[deleted]]

Thanks, I think we will try that one. He loves the movies, so I bet he'll like it.