Where the Truth Lies Author, Karina Kilmore on Why it’s Never Too Late to Fall in Love… With Books

A year ago, bushfires were burning across Australia for months. Everyone was shell-shocked. I couldn’t shake the sadness as I drove, alone, across almost the whole state of Victoria, through low visibility, with lights permanently on high and speed permanently set low. There were no major fires in close range, the nearest was about 100km away, and I had the emergency app on my phone tracking me. I’d receive a text if the fire got too close. The thought of receiving a message, however, both comforted and scared me. The whole country, even fresh-aired Tasmania, even my homeland New Zealand, those pristine Southern Alps, the Pacific Islands, were suffering the fallout. But I had a deadline to meet. I had research to do for my second novel. I had a date with a sheep shearing crew and the work of shearing waited for no one.

The experience at the sheep station was hypnotising, the crew both scary and comforting. Rough as guts, salts of the earth, shy and polite, crazy dudes, laughing hyenas and a couple of charmers. A real mixed bag. Each run, each shift before a break, lasts two hours and then it’s time to talk and eat. Lots of eating. During the midday lunch break, I was asked about my book. Jokes were made as to who would be the star among the crew. The foreman, no doubt, thought he’d get a mention, stopping to stand up and present a Mr Universe pose. But I had my eye on a female shearer.

When I got talking to her, as we scoffed hot saveloys in bread rolls, I offered to send her a copy when the book was written but she said, nah, don’t bother.

“Never read a book,” she explained. “Had to leave school at 15 before they kicked me out. Hated it.”

So I told her a bit about myself. I, too, had left school early, age 14, in fact, and made a pretence of correspondence until I was 15 and legally able to get a job.

“And you’re a writer now?” She was shocked. They were all shocked. Many of the people around the lunch table had been in the same boat, early school leavers, never read a book.  

The difference between us I realised was that I learned to love reading very early in my life. Mainly as a way to escape what was happening around me. I did, however, go back to education, going to university as an adult, studying finance and becoming a journalist. But that wasn’t an option for these shearers. To suggest it was just empty advice.

So we came up with a plan. I would send them all a copy of the audio book, so they could listen on their phones and in the vehicles as they drove from farm to farm. I even suggested they could play it over the loudspeakers in the shearing sheds and give the Village People soundtrack a rest. That was a step too far!

Looking at the recent report into adult literacy and reading rates, especially the research about our increasingly short attention spans, I think we need to look at alternatives to the traditional way we learn to read. I want to flip it on its head. I want to give our children (and our non-reading adults) the love of story first, through whatever delivery system that suits them; the internet, a phone app, a human story teller. Then once they’re hooked, once they build the understanding and empathy and social skills that stories provide, perhaps then they will be more motivated to read the traditional way – or not. And as an author that might sound counter-productive but the benefits of reading don’t only come from turning paper pages in a book. The benefits come from sharing our lives and reading the stories of others.