# How much do you read? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 12, 2009, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-do-you-read/506191 "2009-08-12T16:41:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![LVBoPeep](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/858c86/32.png) [@LVBoPeep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LVBoPeep)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2009, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-do-you-read/506191/41 "2009-08-13T13:59:06Z")
Growing up I was always reading- especially in school. I learned to be really sneaky about it and one teacher told my mother (many years after I was in his class) that he gave up trying to catch me at it because if he gave me a question in class, even with my nose buried in the book, I always had the correct answer. I can blame the internet for my cut back in reading, plus a really bad rash of buying horrible books that I really resented paying for. So I went from 1-2 books a week to having a re-read in the bathroom or night stand and maybe 3 new books a year. That was until I re-discovered the library. It ROCKS!! Our library is not the library I grew up with- the one that you had to wait 3 months to get a decent newer book. It helps that I was inactive for so long, so I have the last 10 years of new books to read and all I have to do is request them and pick them up. If I don’t like a book, shrug- it was free. FREE!! That’s how I feel now :). So I’m up to a book ever 2 weeks, with still my re-read in the bathroom. I love to read while BBQing especially, and I read at lunch and before bed. I pick grilling recipes on maximum reading time capacity LOL. I have to be friendly and outgoing in my job, which does go against my basic personality. Growing up I would much rather read than interact with classmates. One of my earliest school memories was faking a sick note so I could spend recess in the library and not the playground. I have times where I just want to be left alone with my books and could conceive of being imprisoned with a ton of books and not being too put out about it :). As long as they were decent books… ---
**Author:** ![silvermist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cc9497/32.png) [@silvermist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silvermist)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2009, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-do-you-read/506191/42 "2009-08-13T14:16:15Z")
I read a lot. For years I read only non-fiction, but then I lived in a community where the neighbors wouldn’t talk to you unless you had lived there for a year, so I got into novels for entertainment and realized that you can learn quite a bit because the authors research so much of the detail. It also stimulates my imagination so I enjoy fiction more now. Mostly I like courtroom and medical thrillers because I worked in the legal field and for a hospital so I’m familiar with terminology and procedures. After all that I’ve seen, some of these tales are quite believable. When I moved into a large apartment complex, I was ostracized for reading in the sun, on the patio. It was considered bad manners. I was supposed to sit with the groups who liked to belabor what they had for supper last night and gossip about the other tenants. Didn’t stop me from reading though. ---
**Author:** ![EmAnJ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d2c977/32.png) [@EmAnJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EmAnJ)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2009, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-do-you-read/506191/43 "2009-08-13T18:39:53Z")
This brings up something else - how do you read more then one book at a time? I only ever read one at a time (not counting magazines, etc.). I like to keep focus on the book I’m reading! ---
**Author:** ![Covered\_In\_Bees](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7ab992/32.png) [@Covered\_In\_Bees](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Covered_In_Bees)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2009, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-do-you-read/506191/44 "2009-08-13T18:44:43Z")
> [@Katriona](#): > > I used to work with people who were proud of the fact that they didn’t read anything. At a school district. I know a couple of people that are proud not to have a read a book since high school. Or even during high school. Most of them are slutty girls, for whatever that’s worth. ---
**Author:** ![misling](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3ab097/32.png) [@misling](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/misling)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2009, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-do-you-read/506191/45 "2009-08-13T19:40:07Z")
I’ve cut down a lot. When I was 11 we first moved to a place that had a library I could get to without my parents taking me there. I checked out, and read, their limit every week (20 books) through my teen years. In college I had enough other stuff going on, and enough of a social life, that I cut down to 6 or 7 books a week, not counting textbooks. Now I read about 2 books of fiction and 1 of non fiction a week, and 5 magazines. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-do-you-read/506191.md?page=2)