"reading isn't a hobby, it's just something people say when they don't have any actual hobbies."
what's wrong with reading?
Farmer considers reading in and of itself not to be a hobby. He likes reading. He himself has plenty of books, as you can see in his house. But when someone's response to hobbies is 'reading,' he personally takes that as 'so you don't actually have hobbies.' To him, that would be like saying reading the newspaper is a hobby, rather than a habit.