like, I know Jay can read. webseries Jay especially, we do see him read Treasure Island to Matt. but, even there and especially later on, I feel like Jay just very much gives "has never read a book" vibes and I think it's kind of fun. comic books, probably. he likes the pictures <3 but a full, all words book? nah
Matt, obviously. he talks like he reads the dictionary for fun (because Matt Johnson does, nerd), and I believe that if he has downtime in between planning, executing, rehearsing, playing video games, and Thinking About Jay, like... he's definitely not got the time to finish 100+ books a year but he gets through a couple. I could see him being like, "BIRD! I've got it! I just finished reading Macbeth--have you read this thing? fucking crazy shit" and it just. works. (also. the plan is can we kill Vic Valence and inherit the Rivoli and Jay's like... that literally makes no sense. shut up)
but Matt... like, definitely nothing contemporary because that would require he actually seem to be participating in the present day world, but he's reading!!
and I can picture Jay like whining in high school like "our teacher wants us to read Animal Farm, can you f*cking believe this, MJ?" and Matt's like "oh yeah, it's a pretty cool one." and it's like. Yeah, Matt's younger than you and he's already read it, Jay! ALSO. girl. it's like. ~100 pages. get over yourself
he ends up... literally just skimming the CliffsNotes. he barely passes his English class
and, god, Jay realizes like, sometimes he can just be like "so, Matt, what do you know about this book?" and get Matt to just explain it for him instead of reading it, but even then. he'll get distracted thinking about like. "huh. the scene Matt's describing is actually really cool. you could picture it with really dramatic score underneath. kind of... quiet at first..." and then you've completely lost him to Piano Thoughts, sorry
but it's a really kind of special dynamic between them that's already there, that Matt, the impulsive, bold, passively suicidal one who is kind of Insane is also. the booksmart one. Jay's brain knows Piano. Video Game. Matt. Movies. and he has no room for anything else
Matt would make him watch the movie adaptations of books he really liked so Jay gets it but he's then commenting like "it was different in the book" and Jay's like "dude! I can't hear the movie!"
and. speaking of adaptations. Famous Jay would be in the Animal Farm movie (I'm so sorry, I hear someone else said this but idk who) and Matt would see that and just be like "I KNEW he was lying about actually reading it" cause like. GIRL!! come ON!













