I have what seems like an infinite list of books I want to read, and there isn’t enough time in the day.
Which got me thinking about why I want to read all of these books in the first place.
Which got me wondering if I want the information in the books or the experience of reading them. If a thousand books could be “downloaded” into your brain in a minute, it seems that wouldn’t be enjoyable.
So, I guess the question is: Why do people who love to read love to read? What is it about reading that is pleasurable?
Though some might differ, for me it’s purely escapism. Like watching a movie or TV show, only with much more use of the imagination and that occupies a lot more than just 90-minutes to two hours. (For me, in fact, if it’s a good book then the longer it is the better. I love Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series in part because each volume is typically over 500 pages, so I am guaranteed a great, winding journey that won’t end too soon) Sure, if there was some way to zap the entire book – or series – into my brain I’d obtain the entire story just the same, but it wouldn’t be the same. I suppose the old saw applies here: It’s the journey, not the destination, that’s important.
That’s a good question…even more intriguing to me is, why do some people love it so much, and some people hate it? I am a book lover myself, and actually get a little depressed if I don’t have something good to read lying around.
Some of it has to do with attention span and how one’s brain works, I think…my husband, a pretty smart guy, almost never reads books (the last time he read a novel was the one I brought to the hospital when I was in labor, 2 1/2 years ago…I guess he must have been bored to tears sitting there, because he read the whole thing cover to cover). But he does read long, long articles in magazines like Scientific American and The Economist, which bore me because, although the subject may be interesting, they get too technical & detailed for me.
I would guess the answer to your question is intellectual curiosity (even with novels…it’s the idea that you are taking in information & processing it). Some people need more of that than others, which may answer my question as well.
Beyond the putting new ideas in your brain part of it, I also enjoy reading because it’s a quiet and solitary activity – if I’ve got my nose in a book, I’m not talking to someone else (and someone else, hopefully, is less likely to talk to me) – and if I’m in my library at home or in bed, I’m extremely relaxed and comfortable.
It’s a perfect activity for riding the bus to and from work: this last week alone, I’ve missed my stop twice because I was lost in the world of Brideshead Revisited (in which absolutely nothing exciting happens, but it’s a pretty gripping read nonetheless).
Maybe reading is so satisfying because it provides stimulus at exactly the rate at which I am able to absorb it. It’s an active way to take in information, it’s totally under my control, and it occupies my whole attention in a way that little else does.
I love to read for so many reasons. I love that books can go into much more detail than television shows or movies. At the same time, I think books require some active participation/creativity on our part. We can read what’s printed, but must use our minds to decide what something looks, sounds, or tastes like, etc. Does that make any sense? We could all probably read a description of what someone looks like and come up with a different picture of that person in our minds.
I love that reading is something I can do anywhere. In a sense, it’s a security blanket for me, I think. It’s comforting to me to sit and read a book, if even for just a few moments. No matter how far away from home I might get, I can always read a book. It’s a great portable hobby.
Like Sarahfeena, my husband really doesn’t read in the sense that I read. He reads books on his reefkeeping hobby, magazines on cars and guns, but never picks up a book. He is otherwise a very intelligent person so I don’t know what the deal is. It saddens me that he doesn’t read because I think there’s a level of intimacy that we’re missing out on by not sharing books. Part of the family dynamic for me has always been reading and sharing books with one another.
I should point out that an author can (generally) create a much larger and richer world than you can affordably put into a movie or TV show. Even the massively long Lord of the Rings movies can’t fully capture the entirety of Middle Earth in the Books.
Also, when you read a story, you tend to picture it in your mind in a way that isn’t cheesy and doesn’t suck. Movies and tv, you’re stuck with whatever they put on screen.
This is a question I’ve wondered about myself. And the answer, surely, can’t have to do with content alone. Reading is not just taking in information, it’s a kind of altered state. I bet answering the question in the OP is not so different from answering the question of why drugs are pleasurable. In other words, we need to get a neurologist to give us a fancy answer using words like “endorphins” and “positron emission tomography.”
I’m with Sal. I do believe it is an altered state. Very rarely can I get into movies/TV with the same depth as I can with even the most shoddy of books. While on the outside, it appears as if you are doing nothing except moving your eyes (or the cat) what goes on in your head is astounding. I’ve just read Altered Carbon, my husband has it on audiobook and found the spot where I was and forced me to listen to it. It was utter anguish. It moved too slow, had the wrong “voice” required attention without giving you anything besides your ears to focus on, I couldn’t rehear a passage I understood. It drove me bonkers. I went back to my dead tree of a book and reread what I had just heard.
No matter what is going on in the world or my head, when I open the book, it goes away, it relaxes me and allows me to de-stress.
I would say it’s cheaper than crack, but not really.
I, too, often wish my husband would read books I like so we could discuss them, or if he could give me recommendations. Now that you mention it, he does read books about his hobbies and interests, but they are usually factual and/or technical…straight information, so to speak. He’s interested in hobbies that are information-heavy, like gardening and beer & wine-making. I have actually seen him READ a wine encyclopedia (like, lists of winerys and what kind of wines they make, and what their ratings are…SNORE!!! ) I can’t understand how someone who is seemingly so smart isn’t bored with this kind of thing, but I guess his brain is just more technical than mine. So maybe how an individual’s brain is wired has something to do with whether they love to read, and not just how much intellectual stimulation they need (they need it, but just a different type).
In answer to the question “why do some love reading, and others not?” the only answer that makes sense to me is that “some read in this way [i.e. the altered state you speak of] and others do not”. I do not think it has to do with how smart, or curious, etc. that someone is, because I have known plenty of smart, curious readers.
Here’s a curious test: people who are not like us tend to classify reading a lot as a sort of virtue, because to them it is more like a chore (thus those who read a lot are more likely ‘hard workers’); whereas we, who read compulsively for pleasure, are far more ready to classify reading a lot as a sort of vice - hence the crack remark. We know full well that, given our preference, we’d happily read all day, and it ain’t good for us.
For me it’s almost like I get to live in someone else’s life, and I like that, whether it’s mundane or adventurous.
Escapism too. And voyeurism. I get to see people doing things I’d never do, going places I can’t go, or to places that don’t even exist. I can see the past and the future. I feel enriched, even if the enrichment isn’t evident to others.
I think I could pick out a reader among non-readers. I think readers are more aware. They might be quiet and introverted, but you can tell they’re taking things in and thinking about them.
I think you all are onto something about the altered state. I DO find myself getting very, very lost in what I’m reading, and my husband teases me that it’s my way of gaining some kind of solitude away from him & the kid. And my mom is the worst…when she’s reading, you practically have to yell to get her attention, and you have to ask her to LOOK at you while you are talking, or she won’t process a word of it!
And, Malthus, you are right about the virtue/vice thing…I have had people complement me on being a reader, and tell me they think I’m smart (I don’t know if they mean I read because I’m smart or smart because I read!), but I’m no smarter than they are…reading is kind of a compulsion, and I don’t do it for any other reason than I want/need to. I’d probably be better off if I did a little less of it…I know my house would be cleaner!
On a related question, why are some authors re-readable and others authors not? I have some authors whose books I can read twenty times and still enjoy. But there are other authors whose books I enjoy very greatly the first time I read them and never have an interest in reading a second time. I can’t figure out what it is about certain authors that makes them re-readable to me.
My husband reads, but only stuff about hot rods. He’d never sit down with a novel, or even a non-fiction book. I had a boss who said he had some sort of dyslexia or other impairment that made it painful to read. I go through long periods of time (months) where I don’t read; I have no idea why. Exhaustion, probably. I have always enjoyed it, but at times I don’t feel I can concentrate on it enough to get anything out of it so I shelve the books for a while. Another problem I have is that sometimes I get into some books to the point where I really need to call in sick so I can continue reading. That’s what got me into short stories! A useful tool if you just can’t put it down.
I think the reason people enjoy it is because it allows for quiet contemplation of who you are. There are no critics, no crosstalk; just the information and how it appeals to you. You can create the stage, the characters…all those little details that let your imagination soar. Don’t you just hate it when you see the movie after reading the book, and it just fucks up your whole interpretation of what you read? No one looks the same, the location is all wrong, the voices suck. I think reading feeds the creative side of the brain in a way nothing else can. It is your life experience applied to the author’s art.
Like others, I mostly read newspapers, opinions, new stories (like crap in the New Yorker).
When I read a novel, I (usually) need to get more out of it than just a story. I need to be shown a different way of viewing life, life through a different person’s eyes.
I’m currently reading a book from the point of view of an old man who is losing his mind, and knows it. He’s also living in a house in the Alps where it’s raining, and it seems like the entire mountain is about to slide down on him (it’s a metaphor, you see).
The last big novel I read was “Grapes of Wrath”. Beyond it’s ability to show you a different time and place, it also has so much to say about human nature. Some of the “funny chapters” really give you a lot to think about, too.
When I was a kid, I could read sci-fi and fantasy and horror, but nowadays I just feel like I’m wasting my time with that.
I think you’re exactly right. My husband is definitely gifted in technical matters. He can take apart just about anything and put it back together, build things, and all that stuff. I’m the more creative-minded person.
Yes! I often find that I don’t enjoy a movie nearly as much as I hope to if I’ve read the book first. I also hate it when they change stupid plot points that don’t need changing. On the other hand, I like to read the book before seeing the movie in most cases. About 99 percent of the time, I feel I get more out of the book than the movie.
) I can’t understand how someone who is seemingly so smart isn’t bored with this kind of thing, but I guess his brain is just more technical than mine. So maybe how an individual’s brain is wired has something to do with whether they love to read, and not just how much intellectual stimulation they need (they need it, but just a different type).