Do you read?

Dial Hard · 24-01-2016 05:40PM

I'm an absolutely voracious reader, have been since childhood. Outside of the academic year I could easily read 3-4 books a week. Don't really have time to read for pleasure during the academic year as I also work full-time but my degree is in Literature and History so I still read a LOT - just not stuff of my own choosing :-)

I've come across people over the years who actively boast about not having read a book since secondary school and I can't really understand why they think it's something to be proud of.

etoughguy · 24-01-2016 05:43PM

Incessantly
I have read 100s (probably a few thousand by now) of books - the answers to so many things have been written down in books from overcoming depression, increasing your net worth, losing weights, spirituality for people like me who aren't intellectual enough to be atheists etc. You name it, the answer is most likely written somewhere. There is so much quality fiction out there also

Skatedude · 24-01-2016 05:47PM

I read 5 or 6 full novels a week since i was old enough to read, mostly scifi and have hundreds of books but using kindle on my tablet for a while now as it's so convenient and the authors actuality get some money where they dont from most sales as they are second hand.

Ruu · 24-01-2016 06:00PM

Not much of a reader person but yes to audio books when out for a run/bike.

darkpagandeath · 24-01-2016 06:20PM

Shock horror the medium of entertainments changing... Brig back embroidery !

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1 · 24-01-2016 07:27PM

darkpagandeath wrote: »

Shock horror the medium of entertainments changing... Brig back embroidery !

I don't know if it has changed too much where reading is concerned. Libraries are still busy and, I believe, 52% of us use our local libraries regularly. Many libraries changed the number of books you can borrow because of public demand.

Yes, sales of books in Ireland dropped by 14% recently but it is thought that internet purchases from abroad and the growing number of second hand outlets balances it out.

I think the OPs question is valid even if reading was a minority activity. Threads discuss MMA and suchlike which have a smaller audience than reading.

Embroidery hasn't gone away you know.

Figbiscuithead · 24-01-2016 08:01PM

osarusan wrote: »

Yes.

Love reading, love it.

I'm not any kind of fan of the argument that 'if you don't like X, it's just because you haven't found the right X for you', but I feel a kind of pity for people who just don't get the kind of pleasure I get from reading.
(I suppose they feel the same about music or art or whatever floats their boat but not mine).

Dickens, Coetzee, Steinbeck, Marquez....I could go on forever.

Yeah, reading is not for everyone and there's no point in feeling guilty because you feel it's something you *should* be doing - if it doesn't float your boat, then so be it.

24-01-2016 09:27PM

I read constantly, both fiction and non-fiction. I know people just aren't into it, but I do feel they're missing out. It's a far richer experience than watching tv or a movie, but I suppose that's only my experience and everyone's different.

I'd read up to about three books a week, outside of the many hours of reading I need to do for my job.

razorblunt · 24-01-2016 09:50PM

Mainly on holidays, over 2 weeks I'd fly through book, never tend to keep it going during the rest of the year but I do enjoy it.

freshpopcorn · 24-01-2016 10:08PM

I can go through phases of reading. Generally only like something humorous or maybe a good murder/mystery. Not really into reading books about historic events or books that were written along time ago.
When I do get into a book I do like it but I do understand why some people hate reading.

Dial Hard · 24-01-2016 10:21PM

freshpopcorn wrote:

When I do get into a book I do like it but I do understand why some people hate reading.

I don't.

Not being facetious here but I genuinely don't get how anyone could hate reading.

To paraphrase Stephen King, books are a uniquely portable type of magic.

freshpopcorn · 24-01-2016 10:29PM

Dial Hard wrote: »

I don't.

Not being facetious here but I genuinely don't get how anyone could hate reading.

To paraphrase Stephen King, books are a uniquely portable type of magic.

I really believe in this saying.

One man's meat is another man's poison.

24-01-2016 10:44PM

Books aren't poison, they're an antidote.

Shenshen · 25-01-2016 11:37AM

I love reading, and I love books. I'm what I call a story-adict, and the best stories are written down.

I don't read as much as I used to any more, life just gets in the way sometimes, but I still go through 2 - 3 books a week these days. More when I've got time off, or when the weather is bad.
I'd never leave the house without a book in my bag.
It used to be mostly novels, but I do like to read a good bit of non-fiction as well now.

I have to admit I never got into electronic books - just not for me. I've be terrified of losing the reader thing when carrying it around with me, just because they cost a good bit of money. So I'd only use it inside the house. And there, I really prefer the paper experience.
Also, how do you lend an electronic book to a friend? Or borrow one from one? If they do have a reader in the first place. It's just too awkward and too much money.

sebcity · 25-01-2016 12:01PM

My new years resolution is to read 12 books in 2016.
The problem is that I read when I go to bed and I fall asleep after 2/3 pages so it takes aaaaages to read a book.

25-01-2016 12:08PM

Hammer89 wrote: »

Our attention spans are shrinking. Why read Oscar Wilde when you can pwn somebody on Call of Duty? Why read Stephen King when we can watch the latest film or television show that Netflix has sh*t out? For me, both activities dwarf reading in terms of something to do, but I'd love to change that.

Well one approach is not to HAVE a television or games machine. I have neither myself. So although I do not feel all that drawn to wasting hours of my life in front of a flickering box at home - even if I did the option is not there to tempt me in the first place.

I do try and read when I can - but there are other aspects of life that I engage with that are a draw on my time and resources.

Permabear · 25-01-2016 12:17PM

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c_man · 25-01-2016 12:54PM

I read somewhat regularly (leaving aside news and work related stuff), I always have a book on the go. Starting into a collection of Robert Burns stuff today (anyone doing anything for Burns night? :pac: ) and just finished a bunch of Beckett's novellas. That makes me sound very high-brow but I read a wide range of stuff (went through Johnny Giles autobiography recently).

25-01-2016 01:14PM

Its hard to understand people who do not read, its not just entertainment it helps you develop a inner life.

25-01-2016 01:17PM

It also gives you insight into other lives and perspectives and ideas, fiction or not

OldMrBrennan83 · 25-01-2016 01:17PM

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kfallon · 25-01-2016 01:20PM

Don't read an awful lot, go thru phases where I do like to read a good book tho.

At the moment, I'm not in one of those moods, the most reading I do is the maybe the back of the shampoo/shaving gel bottle when I'm sitting on the throne taking a dump :pac:

Maximus Alexander · 25-01-2016 01:23PM

Wibbs wrote: »

I've got some attention deficit mentalism going on and it comes out in needing to know more and more about random shíte, so reading is a big part of that. Non fiction mind you. I could count on the fingers of one hand how many fiction books I've read. The coming of the interwebs just broadened my supply TBH.

Heh, I have a similar, but different problem. Ever since I switched to doing most of my reading on an internet connected tablet, I find myself reading a fiction book, wanting to know more about a setting / time period / piece of technology / historical figure and jumping over to the Wikipedia rabbit hole. I finally surface and come back to the book, only to rinse and repeat within a chapter, max.

"I wonder how close to the truth this is... Let me just..."

*18 Wikipedia tabs open*

megaten · 25-01-2016 01:26PM

Yup, read a lot when I was a teenager and have started getting back into it in the last few years. The Kindle really helps a lot since it's so slim you can bring it anywhere with you.

25-01-2016 01:30PM

Maximus Alexander wrote: »

Heh, I have a similar, but different problem. Ever since I switched to doing most of my reading on an internet connected tablet, I find myself reading a fiction book, wanting to know more about a setting / time period / piece of technology / historical figure and jumping over to the Wikipedia rabbit hole. I finally surface and come back to the book, only to rinse and repeat within a chapter, max.

"I wonder how close to the truth this is... Let me just..."

*18 Wikipedia tabs open*

I think everyone does that even with a paper book for example because of a book I was reading I looked up everything about Raleigh North Carolina I even started to fantasise about going for a holiday there:D

Maximus Alexander · 25-01-2016 01:33PM

mariaalice wrote: »

I think everyone does that even with a paper book for example because of a book I was reading I looked up everything about Raleigh North Carolina I even started to fantasise about going for a holiday there:D

At least when I used to read paper books I would forget most of the things I wanted to know more about by the time I put the book down. Now there's just no escape.

ancapailldorcha · 26-01-2016 05:49PM

I try to. I'm working my through a difficult military fantasy series at the moment while trying to get through a whole issue of The Economist every week.

wrmwit · 26-01-2016 06:11PM

I do read books but not as much as I'd like to. I'm reading Black Mass at the moment. It's good. The only time I get to read is when the family are in bed at 10pm and if there's no good documentary on Channel 4! However I'm finding at the moment that I'm 2 or 3 pages in and I'm falling asleep on the couch!

I never read a book in school, apart from English class. I was too busy hurling! I read my first book when I was 20. I used to get the train from Dublin to Waterford at the weekends so it was something to fill the time. This was before smartphones! I remember really getting into the book and surprising myself how much I enjoyed.

My favourite book was The Kite Runner. A real page turner. I was using the Luas at the time to commute and I missed my stop a couple of times.

TV has got so bad recently so I find it easy to turn it off at 10pm and pick up a book.

ScumLord · 26-01-2016 06:28PM

Custardpi wrote: »

The power of the human imagination is boundless when sparked by a good story -

That doesn't seem right. A book does pretty much put borders on your imagination. It's not like you can read Game of thrones and instead of knights you imagine astronauts.

I just can't buy into fantasy worlds anymore. Whether I'm reading a book or a TV show I find unbounded fantasy a waste of time, Half the time my mind just wanders off on it's own tangent and next thing I know I've spent half an hour just staring off into the distance not paying attention to what I'm doing. At least with watching a TV show it doesn't look to bad because I look like I'm actually watching the show. Reading a book I must look like a loon staring off into the distance holding a book I'm clearly paying no attention too.

I've had a running day dream about going back in time to Roman times. It started by me imagining I'd be class and advance the Roman empire by a millenia just because I'm from the future, then I realised I don't really know how to do anything. So I've been learning how to make things like soap, steel, how to harness steam power, just in case I end up going back in time. Then it's back to imaginary Rome to see if it works out.

GLaDOS · 26-01-2016 06:33PM

Between commuting on the train and reading before bed I usually get a minimum of one hour reading per day in, sometimes more when I have the time.

Give me a book over a film or tv series any day.

Do you read?

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