I am heavily disabled and live off a fixed income. Though these days you can say my job is being a househusband. As for considering the artistic fields, you can say I have. I've even made some money off of it in my lifetime too, though nothing to reliably depend on. Strangely enough, I am a little afraid of it. I have a kind of obsession; this is related to my love of reading, and stories, and language in general. It is difficult to describe, but I am obsessed with something in the underlying rhythm and flow of words. It is why my primary artistry tends to be poetry. Not much money there.
Reading might be an obsessive addiction for you, but I'd dare say that reading is not universally addictive. That's why I'd suggest that it's a trait of your own character. In fact, the human mind is programmed to be addicted to its primary functions or everyone would get hooked on drugs while doing nothing.
You may entertain the thought that your mind is diseased and sick for prioritizing such things that have no immediate use in the concrete world. It's easy to envy people who navigates so easily in the physical world, loving cleaning and cooking and all without getting distracted by anything. It's easy to realize that you "lack" something when what you priority makes such a visible mess on the physical life. It's easy to get depressed over the inadequacy of your personality to navigate the real world and the feeling of alienation from other people.
Regardless of how much the conscious mind is jealous of other's people disposition, it acts as the bridge between the subconscious and the real world. The subconscious is an inflexible, chained self; a bundle of instincts refined through countless generations of ancestors. It's a multi-objective optimization machine, and its objective weights were set by fate. It determines everything that is important to each individual, and we have little say on this matter.
Is life obbjectively valuable? No it's our innate fear of death, the sadness left by the void, and the disgust of seeing a life extinguish that teach us that. And it's even questionable, as killing a mosquito or fly probably doesn't even arouse anything but joy.
If your rational mind tell that its current subconscious is unfit for life, the latter might as well kill itself from hopelessness. But instead, the rationale mind's duty is to try and make it work, no matter what. The conscious mind's duty is less about judging the subconscious and more about doing its utmost to understand and serve the subconscious' agenda. This is Maslow's self-actualization to manifest one's unique potential (only topped by the visceral need of tax evasion). Each human has the deep desire to give back value to the world thousand folds what they consumed through their own potential.
This life quest is more durable and resilient than the drive for money or reward. “If anyone on the verge of action should judge himself according to the outcome, he would never begin.” ― Søren Kierkegaard, Fear and Trembling. It's a mistake to think that humans spend efforts and take risks solely based on end goals (on long term basis). In practice, we see that some jobs attract specific type of personality (creating stereotypes) instead of being diverse.
In conclusion, you may treat reading addiction as a liability and clinical problem. I want to raise the possibility that it could be the other way around.
People aren't equal when it comes to how they're born. Sometimes, you get a shitty roll and your subconscious that's hella hard to redeem.
I'd say loving the art's medium is much rarer than loving the art's content. Not everyone can enjoy the medium's hidden beauty, while the content speaks to the subconscious to create feelings. Like how abstract painting (putting more emphasis on the strokes, the rhythm, etc) is more a niche (and maybe a money laundering meme). Since it's rarer, it might make it harder to please to wide audiences, but on the other hand it could make your writing unique.
The only thing I can do is to cheer you as you struggle with yourself.
And don't think you might be limited to reading. It's a mere single face of the iceberg of your being. I found myself that my passion for drawing can be transposed equally to both writing and music. I know my skills and my way to fulfill myself would have been shaped differently in other circumstances.
