According to Franz Kafka, “ if the literature we are reading does not wake us, why do we read it?

Answer 1

The quote goes on to mention how literature should act like an ice pick shattering our insides (or something). The idea is to not always be reading, watching, or listening to what we are already accustomed to or what we already like. As readers etc. we need to be challenged and the challenge can come artistically, formally, morally, etc. It does not necessarily have to shock us (like Bataille) but it should awake in us thoughts, emotions, and life. The goal is not simply to be entertained or distracted but to be shaken, to have our inner awareness pierced etc...

Answer 2

or, he could just be asking out loud (the sentence ended in a question mark, he didn't say "don't read anything that doesn't change your life). FOR HIM literature needs to be INSPIRING in some way. FK may accept the answer that sometimes we read to put ourselves to sleep.

Answer 3

He meant literature needs to make us think to make us see things we have not seen before or it a useless endeavor.