Comment by OnWriting

  > ...answer to the question of why we read, there is only one response that will ever be encompassing and ambitious enough: we read in order to know everything

Anecdotally, there's a large amount of people who will read a book wholly for the purpose of being able to say they've read it. Whether it's a sense of elitism, vanity or bits of both -- it's strikingly obvious when you ask deeper questions about a book and they can only respond with basic one sentences you could infer from the synopsis.

I believe the above has been amplified due to the false dichotomy of information technology vs good ol' books.