Does anyone want to be "well read"?

Roger Ebert on never having the time in one’s life to read enough, and the problems of accepting your own mortality: 

There is no pattern. My only goal is to enjoy reading. I learn that he average American teenager spends 17 minutes a weekend in voluntary reading. Surely that statistic is wrong. Do they mean reading of “serious” novels? I would certainly count science fiction, graphic novels, vampires, Harry Potter, newspapers, magazines, blogs—anything. Just to read for yourself for pleasure is the point. Dickens will come later, Henry James perhaps never. At the end of the day, some authors will endure and most, including some very good ones, will not. Why do I think reading is important? It is such an effective medium between mind and mind. We think largely in words. A medium made only of words doesn’t impose the barrier of any other medium. It is naked and unprotected communication. That’s how you get pregnant. May you always be so.

The block quote doesn’t do the article justice. It’s over a thousand words of Ebert in pain over his inability to read everything he wants to.