What does it mean that the world’s biggest live-streamer is broadcasting himself reading?

It’s a dizzying, humbling, ages-you-a-year-in-a-minute experience to come across the name of a public figure you don’t recognize, and then discover that the name belongs to one of the most popular people in the entire world.

What I’m saying is that looking up Kai Cenat after reading about his new habit of live-streaming himself reading felt like a bouncer at a bar waving away my ID. The ache in my knees grew three sizes that day.

Cenat, I now know, is the biggest Twitch streamer in the world, known for his marathon live streams filled with celebrities, stunts, and music. New Yorkers may remember that he was one of the people behind the Playstation giveaway that the cops thought was a riot, and all of us have encountered the words he’s popularized, like rizz, fanum tax, and gyatt. (If these are new to you, ask your cousin—they tend to be up on these things.)

Cenat stepped away from streaming for a bit, but he’s back and his new thing is reading books in front of the camera. He’s describing this as a self-improvement project to get better at public speaking, and in general the response from his fans has been positive. A few people were rude about him having to look words up while reading—it’s still the internet, after all—but overwhelmingly, people seem excited and inspired.

I’ve always been pro-reading in public, and I don’t think there’s a wrong way to read. Sure, I could make an argument that audiobooks are a different way to experience a text, distinct in crucial ways from reading on paper, but the short of it is that if you’re into books, that’s good by me. Cenat is reading, and in public for a massive audience. It’s a win for books, especially as American reading rates continue to tank.

Annabel Iwegbue looked at the phenomenon for Cosmopolitan, and noted that in the comments people are already saying they’re feeling inspired to read. Iwegbue noted that reading aloud works as community building and is destigmatizing reading and striving to understand them. She also cited the psychological concept of “body doubling,” where the presence of someone else who shares a goal with you helps keep a distracted mind from drifting to the phone, or to a stressor, or to something or someone who’s not on the page.

The social media aspect of Cenat’s reading is a new wrinkle. The fact that Cenat, who is a performer, is hopping onto a stream for millions of people to see invites bad faith interpretations of his performance. It’s too easy to dismiss The Youth and live streamers specifically as unserious, especially when they’ve pretended to explode a house with Mr. Beast, but that shouldn’t breed so much cynicism that we’re not willing to give this a chance.

Various groups have tried to gatekeep reading for centuries. But that’s stupid, of course. Not all books are good, but if you’re reading, you’re on the path, especially if you listen to Doechii and pick up some Toni Morrison.

Besides, I just don’t see how Cenat reading Atomic Habits online to his fans is much different than celebrity book club discussion groups, or quiet reading nights at wine bars, or ritzy weekend reading getaways with chefs and swag and cute Instagrams.

My only big gripe is that Cenat is situating reading only as a means, and not as an end in itself. I hope that there’s space for reading to become more than just a way to improve public speaking, or as part of a larger, grindset-y project of self improvement.

Don’t neglect pleasure. Time with a book doesn’t have to improve a measurable statistic, it can simply be its own reward. And sharing that out-of-the-ordinary time spent with a book is wonderful: there’s nothing lovelier than reading to someone, or being read to, or reading alongside someone, on a lazy morning with legs intertwined and nowhere to be.

This sort of intimacy doesn’t scale up to a social media stream, but the pleasant community in connecting over a book can find a home in any media.