I know that the SDMB is a breeding ground for bibliophiles, so I expect many responses to this.
At home, I have a bookcase that’s filled to the brim. I’ve read 80-90% it. The issue I run into is that I have to force myself to sit down and read. When I finally do, I nearly invariably enjoy it. For some reason, however, it just takes a lot more energy of activation and sustained effort than watching TV, playing video games, or surfing the internet.
I’ll gladly read all the time if there’s absolutely nothing else to do. When I was in tech school in the Air Force, I would get back to my dorm room and read a book almost cover to cover every evening. Hell, I even tried my hand at writing one. I read everything from fiction to science fiction to books on mathematics and religion. I just finished Gates of Fire by Steven Pressfield and started the Song of Ice and Fire series. I’ve never really had much interest in reading Dune or The Lord of the Rings (punishable by death on this message board), though I’m sure I’d like them if I read them.
But why should it take me all this effort to sit down and do it?
My question to you is: Why do you like to read? Why do you prefer it over, say, watching TV or playing golf? What do you read and how much time per day do you spend on reading?
You aren’t interested in Lord of the Rings. Blasphemous.
I read because I enjoy getting lost in words. I enjoy the excitement of what is around the next turn. Books are like fibrous wonder waiting to get unraveled. What knowledge can I gain? What laugher I can imbibe? Who will make me cry?
It appears you are having a tough time deciding to act on your wont to read. I often use habit of association to read…meaning I have a place where I love to hunker down with a hot chocolate and a book, I often have the book(s) lying right next to the favorite sitting spot. Any any given time I’ve got 10-15 books going…sometimes more. I have ADD so sitting with one and only one is nearly impossible for me.
I don’t prefer reading over other activities, I like it just the same as say hiking, fishing, exploring ect. I read to feel. If that makes sense. I try to know what I am reading well before hand, so I know what emotions to expect - although I will admit enjoying the unexpected as well.
I spend usually an hour or two a day reading, usually in the evening and night time. Unless it is a weekend and I may spend more time with a good book. I also enjoy some magazines like Nat Geo. I’ve been reading National Geographic cover to cover each month since the 80’s. Very good stuff.
I can always remember us having a housefull of books going way back to when I was a kid. I just love reading, it leaves me feeling a lot better than if I’ve seen a good movie, tv show or played a good video game. Its a lot more relaxing and its nice to let my mind wander picturing what the writer is describing.
I couldn’t tell you about more than a small part of what I’ve read, I’m not great at quotes or telling you why I “got” one book more than others. Sometimes I wish I could, especially when there’s a book discussion on the boards.
If I had to do without games, tv, radio or books, I’d do without books last.
I really love reading, but oftentimes I ask myself why. Because I often feel I don’t retain enough of what I read. And many times I will find my eyes almost mechanically passing over the page. But I do find the activity pleasurable. So I am interested in hearing other answers.
I read more than 50% non-fiction as I love learning things and find so much about science, nature, and history fascinating. Just wish I retained more. When I read fiction, I am far more a fan of plot and character development than language. Although I do not tend to read closely and revel in beautiful phrasings, I will not read a book that is IMO poorly written.
I read for the 40 minute train ride to and from work, will prefer to read instead of turning on TV except for a few favorite shows, and read for 30 minutes or so in bed before falling asleep. For the past few years I have averaged just over a book a week.
I have the opposite problem: TV and movies bore me but reading keeps me engaged. I surf the internet but it’s mostly reading text articles. I can easily lose track of time exploring wikipedia. And “surfing” SDMB is all about reading.
I’ve come to the conclusion that there’s a genetic predisposition to reading enjoyment. A colleague explained that when he reads, he gets “sleepy” and it doesn’t matter the subject. I used to think that was ludicrous but I realized that I’m not able to drive a car for more than 1 hour without getting drowsy. Others can drive 20 hours without a cup of coffee. I’ve had this driving boredom problem all my life and it doesn’t matter how many hours of sleep I’ve had the previous night.
As far as rational preferences for reading, it’s a faster way to accumulating knowledge than TV. In the past, I’ve written whole essays on why TV is inferior to reading but I’ve come to realize it’s a pointless rant because of the genetic predisposition (see paragraph above) and the big picture life goals (see paragraph below).
I don’t think it’s useful to compare non-physical activities (like reading) to physical ones such as golf, skiing, tennis, etc.
To me, that’s like asking “why do you like sex over eating?” Sometimes you want to do one but not the other.
I read non-fiction about 4 hours a day. I try to finish 3 books a week. I’m trying to streamline my reading efficiency to finish 1 book per day.
In the end, I don’t think people should feel guilty for not reading more. It’s necessary to force yourself to read more. There are infinite activities available to make life fun and reading is just one of them. If you happen to have goals that require reading, then you’ll naturally gravitate to reading without being forced. In my case, I have several goals that cannot be achieved any other way but to read books.
Many good points so far. Thank you. I wanted to address this one in particular:
I can easily sit and read things on the internet for hours on end, but books seem a bit more… daunting. Like I need to “prepare” to read a book.
ETA: Also worth noting: When I go on a long trip, I’ll bring books, magazines, and my Nintendo DS with me. The magazines are the ones I end up using the most on the trip.
The physics of reading I was told a few years ago: when you read from a book (or a piece of paper), you’re looking at light being reflected off the page. When you read a computer monitor (LCD), you’re looking at light directly – you’re basically staring into a flashlight in other words.
So there might be a subconscious preference for reading reflected text vs illuminated text. I don’t know if that theory is true but I mention it as a possibility.
The other observation is that your attention span may be naturally suited for text chunks of 5000 words or less. This is what magazine articles typically get edited down to and most people can finish them in less than 20 minutes. Most authors of books are longwinded. (It’s hard for me to criticize this because I’m also naturally longwinded and it takes considerable self-editing to be more succinct.) Herman Melville’s “Moby Dick” is 210,000+ words. Tolstoy’s “War and Piece” is 560,000+ words. The Bible is 800,000 words. It’s going to be very tough to get through books like those if there is no innate joy to reading.
It fosters empathy in me, like speaking with a best friend or, to a lesser degree, watching a truly excellent film. I know, I know, editors tinker with the text, but I live for those ‘Yes! Yes! I feel this, too!’ moments. Plus what everyone else said.
I like to read because it’s the only way I can get my brain to be quiet and focus on something else. It’s an escape. It pushes away all of the worries and to-do lists and action items and fills it with crazy and fantastic things instead.
I “watch” a lot of TV because my husband (and most people I’ve ever been around) think on is the default setting, but I wouldn’t say I enjoy it. I turn the TV off as soon as I’m alone with it and very rarely turn it on for any reason. I find TV noisy and reading calming.
I also don’t like movies very much. If you ever watch a movie and then read the same story in a book, the book wedges in a lot more detail and subplots (admittedly, you take it in over a longer timespan). Sometimes people will say stuff along the lines of, “How can you read that, it’s so thick!” which to me is sort of like saying, “How can you eat that chocolate bar, it’s so big!” If there’s good stuff, you want more of it, right?
Anyway, I don’t think I’m answering the question very well, but I guess I’m trying to say it has to do with how you best process information. With reading, you’re sitting down, performing small repetitive motions, and hopefully it’s quiet, so that is soothing to me and settles me down to concentrate. It’s how I relax.
I read both fiction and non-fiction for pleasure. If allowed to, I would do it for hours every day, but realistically it’s hard for me to find the time. My resolution this year is to read at least ten minutes a day.
I read when I go to bed at night, and depending how tired I am, it could be from three minutes to an hour or more a night.
I tend to read books that have a story based in reality, with “real” people interacting and moving through some sort of life-affecting events. I think it’s partly to experience a different but imaginable reality, partly to understand how other people might think/what makes them tick, partly to think about the emotions and processing of hypothetical events.
I do have the TV on a lot during the evening as I quilt because it keeps me company. But books allow me to make the picture up myself and let the words someone chose create a reality in my head. And sometimes the words someone choose are just gorgeous, or express some idea I had in a way 1000x better than I could. That’s magic.
I have the same problem as the OP. I love reading but I have a hard time getting myself to actually sit down and read but when I do I usually will read a couple books over the next week and then I go back to TV and video games to pass the time. Sometimes months will pass before I get myself to sit down and read again.
I like to read for the stories and characters. I like fantastical stories so I mostly read fantasy and SciFi. I like the escape from reality and being off oin my own little world from time to time.
Let me preface my comments by saying that I read a lot of what I call “junk” reading. I’m utterly and completely addicted to magazines, and can devour a paperback fiction in under a few hours (depending on the book and the author). I sustain on mysteries, suspense and sometimes, depending on my mood, a romance or two, with a contemporary fiction thrown in.
For me, reading is necessary. I’ve found that if I go too long without reading, then I’m grumpy, easily distracted and just overall on edge both physically and emotionally. When I’m in a book, that becomes the world in which I’m existing for that moment. Those characters become my friends, my enemies and my family. Books have moved me to laughter and tears. They’ve caused me to think about my life, and sometimes forced me to make changes. Contrary to this, I read strictly for entertainment, and rarely ever for information only. (Not since I’ve graduated from college and swore off text books have I read solely for information.) I agree with Phlosphr, in that I read to get lost in the words.
On the weekends, I’ll go through 2-3 paperbacks, depending on what else is going on. 9 times out of 10, I’ll take a book over television (except when I’m dead tired mentally and physically, then I veg-out with TV).
For me, torture would be no books and the absence of reading.
Reading and writing fiction have both been a form of escape for me since I was very young. I was the nerd who sat on the concrete at recess and read. I was an only child, and my teachers would frequently inform my Mom, ‘‘I’m worried about her. She never talks to anyone else, just reads. I’m afraid she’s unhappy.’’ And my Mom would say, ‘‘No, she’s perfectly content. That’s just how she is.’’ And I was. As I got a little older I started being a little more active socially, but given the choice between a good book and an all-night kegger, you can be damn sure I’d choose the book.
To this day cracking open a book evokes a feeling of deep nostalgia. Today I read for a lot of different reasons, not the least of which is I want to be a good writer. Second I find the landscape of fictional characters and circumstances to give me insight into all the ways the world is and could be. Fiction inspires me to try new things and find new ways of looking at life. Nonfiction fulfills my thirst for random knowledge and enhances the way I look at the world. Both contribute to my overall life outlook, and I value both, but fiction reaches me on a gut-level.
I even have certain books for certain occasions. When I’m sick I read Calvin and Hobbes. When I’m depressed, I read my favorite books about Zen Buddhism. When I’m searching for inspiration or need a refresher course in creativity, I read Nietzsche. I try to make Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and The Catcher in the Rye a once a year tradition, because Alice is a work of genius that only accumulates depth as I age, and The Catcher in the Rye most fundamentally affected my own voice as an author–I still consider it a blast of a good read. The skies broke open the day I read that book, because I understood, for the first time, that writing is not supposed to be safe.
Though I have my favorites, I am not a picky reader. I’m one of those people who will read the back of a shampoo bottle if it’s sitting there. My interest in the Straight Dope is fueled by the fact that it’s a place to read and write, and it’s a collective of a very intelligent and diverse group of excellent readers and writers.
I surf the web more than I actually read books. I enjoy video games just as much as reading. I like movies too. I would have difficultly actually choosing between all of these options. Reading is more of an ingrained part of me than these things, but sometimes I pick the game because I’m in that kind of mood.
Escapism for me. I read like I’m downloading. I can get through a 300-pager in about eight hours of dedicated reading, and I can recall the information, but when I’m reading I don’t hear anything, or see anyone, I am completely still and absorbed.
I’m one of those folks that is always doing something, so this is a good opportunity to relax.
Say you’re reading a conversation between a king and his daughter. You picture the two dressed up in the clothes of whatever era the story takes place. Besides the content of the dialogue you picture the castle, the room, their moods, the lighting, the dampness or coldness of the season. You do this with very little input from the author. It’s all in your head. Your own little world. I also like the interior monologues - the things characters think but dare not say. That’s where the good stuff is. It’s hard to get that anywhere else.
That said, most of my reading is internet stuff like this board. I spend a lot of time going through the comments sections of news articles and blogs. I get a kick out of the things and perspectives people come up with. When I read a book it’s usually fiction. I just read The Naked And The Dead and now I’m reading Till We Have Faces, mostly before going to sleep. If it gets really can’t-put-it-down I’ll read in my chair even while my two 5 year old daughters are crawling all over me.
I listen to audio books while commuting. I give my wife a preference and she goes to the library and picks something out or she just picks out something random she thinks I might be interested in like Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time. That was good. I usually enjoy bestseller action/spy/detective type stuff while I’m on the road.
