kylith wrote: » I can't agree, I'm afraid. I have a real problem with the concept of books being in someone else's possession. I have books that I read as a child and it brings me great pleasure to still have them on my shelves; so many good memories. Every so often I'll get the urge to reread something and there's nothing like the pain of going to the shelf and realising it's not there.
Capt'n Midnight wrote: » And the new edition is different https://www.flickr.com/photos/kokogiak/sets/1425737
Shandashey wrote: » Do you have a kindle?
conorh91 wrote: » I like factual writing: biographies, history and textbooks. Can't remember the last fiction I read. It wasn't recently. I just don't see the point. I'd rather learn something useful than waste my time with unemployed chancers describing the colour of a wood at sunset, which is a laborious waste of time and paper.
suicide_circus wrote: » It's called escapism, nothing wrong with it.
Aongus Von Bismarck wrote: » I'm not a lover of the Kindle, but I have come around to acknowledging that it does have its purposes. One, it is extremely convenient when travelling. Secondly, living in Germany, the bookstores tend to have a limited range of English titles, usually amounting to little more than the latest Dan Brown or Stephen King. So I can get through my reading list using the Kindle. I still miss the wonderful tactile quality of a good book. The way the spine cracks as you move through the book. The simple pleasure of picking a book off the shelf, heading out to the balcony, and passing an hour away engrossed in the work of someone who has toiled to put these words in a form worth reading and talking about. My trips back home to Galway will always see me spending at least an hour in Charlie Byrne's bookstore in the city, adding to the collection. A wonderful bookshop, and a veritable bazaar of idles, curios and the obscure. Suffice to say I end up having to pay a surplus charge when it comes to checking in my luggage!
conorh91 wrote: » Another good way of escaping is to go and look at a wood yourself. I dunno. Sometimes I have the impression that such fiction thrives because people are too busy wasting their lives on activities they find less fruitful. Whoever reads books about working in call centres or banks? Even if such books exist, such an existence is merely the background to a thrilling event not usually associated with those places. Escapism is a symptom of personal dissatisfaction, maybe. I am happy with my job and my life, so I read books that make me better-able to do what I do. At the same time, I didn't mean to ambush fictional writing in my post. It's not something I've thought about before posting in this thread.
conorh91 wrote: » Another good way of escaping is to go and look at a wood yourself. I dunno. Sometimes I have the impression that such fiction thrives because people are too busy wasting their lives on activities they find less fruitful. Whoever reads books about working in call centres or banks? Even if such books exist, such an existence is merely the background to a thrilling event not usually associated with those places. Escapism is a symptom of personal dissatisfaction, maybe. I am happy with my job and my life, so I read books that make me better-able to do what I do.
eviltwin wrote: » Anything and everything, currently reading one of the Game of Thrones series, the Panti autobiography, a Neil Gaimen and a psychological thriller.
suicide_circus wrote: » Says he posting on boards
job seeker wrote: » Thats a wild amount of books to be reading.. Do you read them at the same time? Does the different plots not get mixed up in your head???
Aongus Von Bismarck wrote: » My trips back home to Galway will always see me spending at least an hour in Charlie Byrne's bookstore in the city, adding to the collection. A wonderful bookshop, and a veritable bazaar of idles, curios and the obscure. Suffice to say I end up having to pay a surplus charge when it comes to checking in my luggage!
conorh91 wrote: » What's your point? I mostly use board for discussion of topics with a practical focus on people's lives, i.e. law and politics. I'm not suggesting that reading is ever bad, or that we should all be building models of suspension bridges in our spare time. I simply stated that I like practical/factual reading-material.
kylith wrote: » Jaysus, you sound like some dry shyte.
I have better things to do with my time out of work than studying how to work.
Give it a try, you might like it!
kylith wrote: » If I have two copies of something I'll always keep the older one
Earthhorse wrote: » I think it was your flip dismissal of fiction that elicited those responses not your preference for non-fiction.
conorh91 wrote: » You sound charming.
conorh91 wrote: » (i) How many hours per week do you spend working? (ii) How many hours per week do you spend reading fiction?
conorh91 wrote: » I have owned plenty of fiction books. Occasionally, I read fiction classics. Nothing wrong with fiction, I just wouldn't make it my main focus. Different strokes and all that.
kylith wrote: » We can't all have whatever amazing, stimulating job you have.
kylith wrote: » I work 40+ hours a week and read about an hour a day, more if it's something that's really grabbed me. What does that have to do with anything?
conorh91 wrote: » Yes, someone has to man the phone in the call centre in the industrial park in Balbriggan. Someone has to be the on-call nurse. Someone has to reject loan applications. Someone has to do those jobs, but in an ideal world it should be someone who wants to.
Earthhorse wrote: » sorry but your escapism argument doesn't really hold water.
Junkyard Cat wrote: » There's nothing you can get from a book that you can't get from a television faster.
conorh91 wrote: » Sorry but read the thread. 'Escapism' isn't my explanation for the popularity of fiction, I am responding to another poster's 'escapism rationale' for reading fiction. Nevertheless, if someone is spending a substantial portion of their week engaging in escapism, that's probably symptomatic of a lifestyle or career problem in my opinion. I go to the movies for maybe two hours once a month; if I were doing this every day I'm pretty sure my friends and family would begin to feel concerned.
conorh91 wrote: » I go to the movies for maybe two hours once a month; if I were doing this every day I'm pretty sure my friends and family would begin to feel concerned.
conorh91 wrote: » It has everything to do with everything. You said you don't have time to read non-fiction related to your work.
conorh91 wrote: » Fiction can indeed be escapism. Escapism means escaping from a world we'd rather not inhabit.
conorh91 wrote: » Yes, someone has to man the phone in the call centre in the industrial park in Balbriggan. Someone has to be the on-call nurse. Someone has to reject loan applications. Someone has to do those jobs, but in an ideal world it should be someone who wants to. If you want to do your job, then great. My job is dull in they eyes of some people, but I enjoy it.
conorh91 wrote: » In any case, escapism is something which should be escaped to begin with.
conorh91 wrote: » 'Escapism' isn't my explanation for the popularity of fiction, I am responding to another poster's 'escapism rationale' for reading fiction.
conorh91 wrote: » Nevertheless, if someone is spending a substantial portion of their week engaging in escapism, that's probably symptomatic of a lifestyle or career problem in my opinion. I go to the movies for maybe two hours once a month; if I were doing this every day I'm pretty sure my friends and family would begin to feel concerned.
