I think it’s a perfectly legitimate line of enquiry, to be honest. I like to understand what makes people tick and “Wondering they don’t like the same stuff as me” is a part of that.
I’ll save you some time:
Different people like different things.
I really don’t like fresh tomatoes. I’ve tried to work out why, come to various explanations and tried to convey them to friends. They still don’t understand and I still don’t like fresh tomatoes. Because, get this, I don’t like fresh tomatoes. I just don’t because sometimes people just don’t like things.
Additionally, I think possibly why some people reacted to this thread (and it is definitely my reaction) is that it is the latest in years of back-slapping Dope threads where we show how great we are in comparison to the proles. Because we’re The Straight Dope! We’re all clever and shit! We’re a community of people that are a touch above the rest of the unclean masses! Why don’t the stupid other people read as much as oh-so-clever me? Maybe then they wouldn’t be as stupid as they are now! I’m not stupid as I read! I’m never without a book in my hand! I can’t imagine not reading! My family bought books about everything! I launched from the womb quoting Dostoyevsky! Me! Me! Me! Read! Read! Read!
Face it guys, we’re the same as everyone else. Some of us read and some of us don’t. Some of us are clever and some of us are as thick as pigshit.
That’s one of the more direct responses in the thread. SurrenderDorothy simply accepts the OP’s thesis that there is something wrong with non-readers, and attempts to describe the origin and experience of the fault in their own case.
I really tend to think that people who don’t read at all just haven’t found something they’re really interested in yet. And it’s not always condescension. I mean, I’ve opened up so many worlds by reading; sometimes I wish I could share that wonder and that feeling with the people that are close to me.
I don’t think my SO reads more than a few books a year, though, if that. I on the other hand by four books a month on my Kindle and usually have gotten through them by the middle of the month and am looking around for more (I generally re-read at this point). But we get along well enough. And I go elsewhere for book talk.
I think the only other reader I’ve ever known is my grandma. And she has never read anything (to my knowledge) except Harlequin romance novels and the Bible. But she taught me to read and took me to the library regularly.
Even my kids don’t really read, though I did my best to guide them in that direction.
I’ve always felt that it’s one of the things that makes me different from everyone else, not necessarily in a good way. I don’t understand a lot of people, and they don’t understand me.
The main reason that I come here is to listen to other posters talk about books.
I go through cycles of reading, depending on availability of books and whether I’ve discovered a new author recently. My girlfriend tends to prefer to do puzzles during our down time, but that’s partly because I can download books at any time to my Kindle and she’d have to order a paper one (she’s not an eReader fan). I do read to her, though, and she brought four bookcases with her when we moved in together.
I assume non-readers have other things to do with their free time. I have so many things available to me when I’m not at work that I can easily see myself not missing one of them.
Note: Every single one of us here likes to read. But much of that reading is in the form of reading Internet sites and forums, and not necessarily books or novels more narrowly…
All of my friends read, but they don’t watch TV. So I want to talk about TV and they want to talk about books. And it’s not like they’re reading philosophy texts and I’m watching Real Housewives - they’re reading a mixture of deep fiction, trashy fiction and nonfiction and I am watching a mixture of dramas, sitcoms, reality shows and documentaries (TV and movies).
We’re all on the Internet reading shit for the “be informed” angle. In fact I tend to be more informed than most of them, just from the company I keep online.
Anyway, I see my entertainment instead of read it now. I don’t see much of a difference in what I do versus what they do. Except I have fewer books to dust or return to the library.
I grew up reading, BTW. After I outgrew juvenile fiction, I lost interest.
Of all the replies in this thread, this one really jumps out at me.
If you mean that you used to read a great deal for your personal enjoyment, and now you don’t enjoy it, doesn’t that trouble you at all? If it were me I’d be talking to a doctor to find out if I have some kind of mood or incipient cognitive disorder.
It happened to me for a while. I used to read all the time—I’m not a fast reader but I always had something going and generally read pretty high-quality books. I read about 40 books in 2009 and 20-something (including the unabridged Count of Monte Cristo which took me forever) before October of 2010. Then my daughter was born and I absolutely could not concentrate long enough to read. I had the same book on the coffee table for months and only made it about halfway through before finally giving up. It took about eight months for me to finally get back on track. I also almost completely lost interest in television and movies during that time, and am just now starting to have interest in them again. It was definitely troubling to me, and I am happy to feel like my normal self again.
Ah. I see it now.
I wouldn’t neccessarily freak out. Thinking about this thread today I remembered as a kid I read a fair bit. In college it was mostly assigned reading. After that is was mostly tech stuff that needed to be learned and the occasional real life whatever hobby related stuff.
At first, this realization bothered me a bit. Then it occured to me. As a kid there was very little I could do. Little freedom, little opportunity, little money, and lack of transportation to name some of the problems. As I got older I could actually GO OUT and DO exciting and interesting things so book reading just naturally lost some of its luster because I now had a better substitute.
yeah, but not when phrased as “what is wrong with these people?”
I’ll make one last attempt at (hopefully) clarifying what I meant.
I meant people who don’t read at all. Not one thing. My dad didn’t read anything. Not fiction, not non-fiction, not magazines, not text books,…only the paper (sometimes). The newspaper was the only thing he ever read. He didn’t read one book in his entire life…not one.
My mom beats him on the non-reading scale, though…she has never read anything that wasn’t just a page long (like a letter or a cereal box). Nothing…no books, mags, newspapers…nothing.
These are the people I don’t get. Who don’t (and have never) read anything, at all. These are the people I was meaning in the OP (and title). If you’ve read at least one book in your entire life, then I was not talking about you. I don’t get the people who go their entire life completely reading-free. No books (fiction, text, cooking or otherwise), magazines, digests, anything that you can read, basically, that isn’t just the mail. : p
My dad lived his entire life and died never having read one book (of any kind) or magazine (as far as I know). It’s people like him I’m just wondering about.
Again, I’m very sorry about the wording and that it seemed I was thinking that non reading was out of the norm. I fully admit I should have chosen my words better. In my mind, however, I was thinking about people who have never read one book at all. If you have posted in this thread and can say that (that you have never read one book at all, and plan on dying that way, as well), then you are who I was talking about. But again, nothing wrong with you if that’s the case. I’m humbly sorry.
Hmmm. Your Dad wasn’t Thai, was he?
No, but my girlfriend (who I also mentioned in the OP) is..and she fit your description perfectly.
No time.
Two hour commute to work; two hour commute home. Two acres of grass to cut. Pool to clean. Snow in the winter. Garbage night. Lunches for the kids; for me. Feed the dog. Walk the dog. Car maintenance. Cleaning bathrooms. Doing laundry, dishes. Vacuuming. Cook supper. Fix broken stuff. Help kids with homework.
How’s that compare to your leisurely book-reading lifestyle?
PS: I don’t watch TV either. No time for that.
Never go to the toilet? I do my best reading in there because there are no interruptions. My wife calls it “The library.” 
I fill most of my free time with reading, partly because I really enjoy it, partly because of the self-improvement aspect. When I read a challenging book I feel like I’m working towards something. I picked up the habit from my parents who are both heavy readers.
I have two roommates, and neither of them reads at all. One spends all his free time watching TV show after TV show on his computer, and the other one playing video games. I know this because I hear the noise coming from their rooms. They’re both nice guys, interesting to talk to, but I don’t get how someone could spend hours doing that every day. It seems so empty and depressing to me. I watch some TV and play video games every once in a while but I can’t imagine doing it from the moment I get home from work until I fall asleep, like they do.
I don’t think someone should be criticized for zoning out in a laundromat, though. We live in an age of information overload and it’s healthy to be alone with our thoughts sometimes, and the laundromat is a good place for that.
I had to start getting up earlier so I could get to work earlier and read in the car (about 20 minutes). I also take a book to the gym and read after workouts while my husband goes in the sauna. Other than these times which I had to create and defend, I never get to crack a book at all. 