Can you
imagine being an adult and unable to read this blog post?
Being
illiterate is a huge disadvantage for anyone. It impacts every part of your
life. Society loses out, too, when citizens fail to be as informed and
productive as they should be. But we know there are tens of millions of
individuals in the United States of America, a powerful and wealthy nation, who
are unable to read.
Now, imagine
being one of these people who can’t read and then finding the drive and
opportunity to become not only a reader, but the author of a book. Oliver James
has done just that.
Okay, you
must have lots of questions.
How could
someone slip through the cracks and graduate high school – without ever failing
a grade – and left unable to read his worthless diploma?
How does a
poor black kid, raised by a single mom, learn to read despite his OCD, ADHD,
dyslexia, and PTSD? How does the ex-convict finally learn to read by the age of
30 when he spent an entire life without this skill that most of us take for
granted?
Oliver not
only learned to read, he became a voracious reader. On one year, he consumed
100 books. Featured on Today, NPR, ABC News, and in Newsweek and the LA
Times, his story was turned into a book, A Memoir of Learning (and
Loving to Read on Tik Tok). The 2023 recipient of the Barbara bush
National Literary Award, Oliver has penned a raw, honest, and inspiring book
that details his journey from being read to, to being a writer who reads to
others.
“You’re
never too old, too far behind, or too uneducated to travel to the kingdom of
knowledge,” he writes. So true. He adds: “For me, reading is all about feeling
engaged in life and not just looking at it from the outside in.”
Studies show
that we need to get to every young child early in their development, to help
them learn how to read and to show them how to appreciate reading books.
Oliver’s book features a full-page call-to-action to join and support www.joinraisingreaders.com. I implore you to click on that site.
Here
are some selected excerpts from Oliver’s book:
“When you
don't know how to read, your world is small. You might not realize it. You
might even think it's comfortable the way it is. Until you run into the walls,
which becomes more and more frequent. Because when your world is small, your
opportunities are small. Your dreams are small—not because you don't have the
capacity to dream big, but because you don't have the tools to stretch beyond
what's in front of you. But once you start reading-really reading—you see
what's possible. You see proof that people like you have made it out, have made
something of themselves, have fought and won. You see the steps, the pathways,
the patterns.”
“READING IS
A DRUG. It's mind-altering, escapist, and fun. It stimulates the brain,
therapeutically, and hits you with emotional highs and lows. It can fuck you
up, it can heal you, it can excite you and, yes, it can bore you. It can save
your life. It can give you so many new ideas that you can't stop talking to
your friends about everything you learned, how it stretched your imagination. As
I read books that were recommended to me, I honestly felt like I was tripping.
I was suddenly somersaulting through time and space into worlds and minds
different from my own. And how was it that there was this crazy magic that no
matter how different my life was from the characters' lives in the books I
read, I could see myself in their stories? The more I learned, the less I knew.
But the more I seemed to
understand.”
“Reading
those hundred books made me realize that every part of life needs maintenance.
My emotions needed to be exercised. My ability to handle stress needed to be
worked on. My perspective on relationships, on time, on purpose—it all needed
training. I wasn't only out of shape in my reading. I was out of shape in life.
And every book I picked up was another workout, another step too long. toward
strengthening the parts of me that had been neglected and then there was the
biggest lesson of all: time. The more I read, the more I understood that time
is finite. That every moment we spend avoiding growth, and avoiding hard
things, is a moment we don't get.”
“It's never
too late to change your story, to rewrite the narrative that has been placed on
you, to step into the life you deserve. No matter where you are, or what you've
been through, you are not stuck. You are not defined by your past. You are not
limited by what you thought was possible. You can always grow, always learn,
always move forward. And if nothing else, I hope this book proves that. I hope
it shows that learning to read at thirty-four years old isn't a failure—it's a
victory. That struggling is the proof that you haven't given up. That asking
for help, taking your time, doing things your own way—none of that makes you
any less worthy. It only makes you human. This isn't the end of my story. It's
just the beginning. And if you're reading this, wherever you are in your own
journey, I hope you know that the story is never over. We're the authors. And
there is always another chapter waiting to be written\.”
Marketing Help?
Brian
Feinblum can be reached at brianfeinblum@gmail.com He is available to help authors like you to promote
your story, sell your book, and grow your brand. He has over 30 years of
experience in successfully helping thousands of authors in all genres. Let him
be your advocate, teacher, and motivator!
About Brian Feinblum
This award-winning blog has generated over
8,200,000 page views. With nearly 5,700+ posts over the past 15 years, it was
named one of the best book marketing blogs by BookBaby http://blog.bookbaby.com/2013/09/the-best-book-marketing-blogs and recognized by Feedspot in 2026, 2021
and 2018 as one of the top book marketing blogs. It was also named by www.WinningWriters.com as a "best resource.” Copyright 2026.
For
the past three decades, Brian Feinblum has helped thousands of authors. He
formed his own book publicity firm in 2020. Prior to that, for 21 years as the
head of marketing for the nation’s largest book publicity firm, and as the
director of publicity at two independent presses, Brian has worked with many
first-time, self-published, authors of all genres, right along with
best-selling authors and celebrities such as: Dr. Ruth, Mark Victor Hansen,
Joseph Finder, Katherine Spurway, Neil Rackham, Harvey Mackay, Ken Blanchard,
Stephen Covey, Warren Adler, Cindy Adams, Todd Duncan, Susan RoAne, John C.
Maxwell, Jeff Foxworthy, Seth Godin, and Henry Winkler.
His
writings are often featured in The Writer and IBPA’s
The Independent (https://pubspot.ibpa-online.org/article/whats-needed-to-promote-a-book-successfully) and (https://pubspot.ibpa-online.org/article/10-things-my-dog-taught-me-about-marketing-books). He was recently interviewed by the IBPA: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0BhO9m8jbs
He
hosted a panel on book publicity for Book Expo America several years ago, and
has spoken at ASJA, three times at BookCAMP, Independent Book Publishers
Association, Sarah Lawrence College, Nonfiction Writers Association, Cape Cod
Writers Association, Willamette (Portland) Writers Association, APEX, five
times at Morgan James Publishing Red Carpet, and Connecticut Authors and
Publishers Association. He served as a judge for the 2024 IBPA Book Awards.
His
letters-to-the-editor have been published in The Wall Street Journal,
USA Today, New York Post, NY Daily News, Newsday, The Journal News (Westchester)
and The Washington Post. His first published book was The
Florida Homeowner, Condo, & Co-Op Association Handbook. It
was featured in The Sun Sentinel and Miami Herald.
Born
and raised in Brooklyn, he now resides in Westchester with his wife, two kids,
and Ferris, a black lab rescue dog, and El Chapo, a pug rescue dog.
You
can connect with him at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brianfeinblum/ or https://www.facebook.com/brian.feinblum
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