[books] why do you read?

[seeksadventure]

minnalavendar started a conversation about reading over in her journal, and I was so excited by it that I wanted to know about your reading habits, as well.

Here is my comment to her, copied and pasted:

Books a week? Probably ten or eleven. During the worst weeks, I read a book a day, and usually two or three. I used to read more, while I was at university and not working full time and writing full time, probably twenty or thirty books a week, on top of my schoolwork.

I love to read. The only thing I love more than reading is writing, and that includes sex, creating photo manipulations, being with my friends and family. I can't help it; all those things are wonderful, but reading and writing always top my list.

I learned to read around two, as well, and my first memories are of my mother reading to me, big, thick books that took a couple of nights to finish. By the time I made it to kindergarten, I'd finished all the reading lists for fourth and fifth grade. In high school, when I had to do book reports, I'd go back and reread things I'd read in elementary school.

I'll read anything once. I devour most fiction, in gulps. I still hate to be disturbed when I'm reading; there's a scene in A Little Princess that describes it well, that anger at being interrupted, all the fast thinking to keep from blowing up at someone.

I read while I do almost anything. If I sit down to watch television, I have a book in hand. I read while I eat. I read while I cook (which, ok, doesn't really mean much, because I don't cook much). I read first thing in the morning and last thing before bed. I read at work, on my breaks, if I show up early. I've stayed late (off the clock, but still in the store) to finish books. The one thing I get in trouble for is flipping through books while on the clock. I read at parties, I take books to movies to read before the lights dim, I've read in bars and at coffee houses and at restaurants. I've read at games, only putting the book down to go march. I need to read like I need to write, like I need to breathe.

I love to drive, too, but I am looking forward to not having a car while at law school, simply because I can read on the commute.

I'm all gushy about reading, enthralled with thinking about it now. I love books. This is why I got a job at a bookstore in the first place, because I love to read and I wanted to share that with other people, before I became smart and jaded about corporate bullshit and customer stupidity.

I truly don't understand people who don't enjoy reading. Jacob doesn't, not really, and I just don't get it. He reads more now, because of my influence, and it still blows my mind that he doesn't like it.

I read to relax, to calm down, to learn, to laugh, to cry, to feel at peace. People have comfort food; I have comfort books. I reread voraciously, as well, a hundred times, probably a thousand times on some of my favorites. I can't comprehend trading books in at a used bookstore, or not buying things you find at the library.

So how many books do you all read a week? A day? Why do you read? What do you read? Recommend some of your favorites to me.

And if any of you don't read, could you tell me why?

~~*

Gaming went well tonight, as it did last week. Well in the way that really means our GM is an evil bastard and he tortures me, offering a happy situation just long enough for me to be happy before it's all messed up. Not that I don't still love B--- as a GM, and that should say something, because it takes talent to do something horrible, and yet I still love you as a GM. Or as a writer. It's all similar, you know, cruelty to players or readers. It's all similar, in the creation process, too.

The writing is going better than I expected, too, but I'll talk more about that after I get through with today's writing. Because now that I've a little of the feedback I owe people, I can continue with my own project for awhile. Only two more days off on my vacation, and I dread going back, but at least it has been a wonderful week.

Comments

[ladyoneill.livejournal.com]

I read all the time, too, though currently comics are taking the place of books. I also reread books a lot, including mysteries. I've read some books at least two or three dozen times over the years. If they're good I'll keep rereading them. My parents think this is weird. While they read a lot, they never reread. Well, mom probably rereads Jane Austen.

I have one friend who doesn't read much. Neither does my sister-in-law. They find other ways to fill the time, I guess, but I find it odd. My brother would read more but he works like crazy.

I'm the daughter of a historian with a basement loaded with thousands of books. Reading is in the blood. :)

I just recently finished reading books 2, 3 and 4 (backwards *sigh) in a vampire/witch/werewolf series by Kelley Armstrong. The latest book is called "Industrial Magic" or something like that. She's created an interesting world with characters that aren't always likeable (but who don't sleep with every living creature every second of the day...oops, my distaste for the turn the Anita Blake books is showing *g*) but do develop in interesting ways. Also, they're in paperback which is a nice change of pace. I need to find book 1--I think it's called Bitten.

[carlamlee.livejournal.com]

I switch into comics too, often. I've been recollecting the X-Men comics in graphic novel form, because they're easier to store and because we sell them at work, so I get my discount. I've been enjoying rereading and catching up.

Reading is in my blood, too. :-D So is writing; the whole lot of us, from my mother and father down to my siblings and my nieces and nephews all write in some form or another. It's strange, sometimes, but wonderful, too.

Show your distaste for the LKH books all you want. I feel the same way!

I've read the series by Kelley Armstrong. Book one is called Bitten and it's actually my favorite. I really like the werewolf characters more (and, in fact, tend to dislike Paige [I think that's the witch's name] quite a bit), and Bitten is an interesting introduction to them.

[nil8.livejournal.com]

Haha, my sister has becoming a tabletop roleplaying geek.
On that note, I haven't played DND in over 2 months. Our DM got a job and a girlfriend and spends all of his fucking time doing that. Damnit.

If you're truly interested in RP then you should DM a one shot. Oh yea, when are you coming back to Rolla? I have your money.

[carlamlee.livejournal.com]

Becoming? I think I've already arrived.

I am looking into being a DM. I really enjoy playing, but I'd like to try the new Vampire game, and no one else wants to run it. Could be fun.

I don't know when we'll be coming back. At the latest, we'll be coming up to stay in May/June, something like that.

[starshinedown.livejournal.com]

Your reading habits sound so much like my step-dad's that it's almost scary. Are you sure you aren't a 43-year-old Sicilian/Polish man who is a senior project manager/consultant? The man always has a novel with him, and reads rapidly. I like the way you phrased it - in gulps.

I've never been quite so voracious in my reading. When I was in high school and had (made?) more free time I'd read probably three or four a week, unless they were monsters and huge (Les Miserables comes to mind), and then that book would dominate until I'd finished.

College killed my reading bug, though. Really because all those assigned novels - sometimes 25 a semester - I couldn't just read for enjoyment. I had to analyze them. Take them apart. Write long convoluted B.S. papers on them. It was almost enough for me to hate reading. So I turned to comic books, which I couln't really analyze to death. I graduated four years ago, and I'm only just recovering from that set back.

Now I generally have about four novels/books going at once. I've over committed my time, so I don't tear through them as quickily as I could, though. Currently reading The Shadow Rising by Robert Jordan, Baudolino by Umberto Eco, The Satanic Verses by Salmon Rushdie and Po's book on working with Chakras. I started House of Leaves this fall, but got sidetracked, and I've put it back on the shelf for when I want to twist my brain around like that :)

Recommendation? The Twentieth Wife by Indu Sandresan (sp?) and almost anything by Bharati Mukherjee. Mukherjee is a great writer. So far I've only read her short stories, but I plan on working my way through her novels before too long. I also highly recommend the Wheel of Times Series by Robert Jordan, if you havne't already read it. Book 11 is due out this year, which means another two-three years before book 12, which is supposed to be the last in the series, but they are so detailed and rich it's worth the wait to find out how it ends. I'm currently going back through the series.

My dailing reading is usually Internet-based: BBC World News Online, political blogs, New York Times, Washington Post, newsgroups, etc. Also all the reading/proofing/editing I do at work keeps me reading.

[starshinedown.livejournal.com]

oh and my favorites are The Last Unicorn, L.M. Montgomery'sAnne of Green Gables (I'm pretty sure I've read that series about 20 times since I first discovered it it 2nd grade), Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follet, and the original six books of the Dragonlance series: Dragons of Autumn Twilight, Dragons of Winter Night, Dragons of Spring Dawning (Dragonlance Chronicles) and Time of the Twins, War of the Twins, Test of the Twins (Dragonlance Legends).

[carlamlee.livejournal.com]

You found me out! And here I thought I was pulling off the 23-year-old mutt woman who doesn't even really know what that job is quite well. Hee.

College did dampen my reading bug, but most of the novels I had to read I'd either already read or I enjoyed them while I was reading them. And I loved analysis, but I didn't have to do any of them until my junior year (stupid university studies classes taking up all my time).

I've never read either Sandresan or Mukherjee, but I will as soon as I can. You've made them both sound interesting. I keep intending to start the Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan, but it's a very daunting task.

I think if I proofread/edited more at work, I'd read less in my off-time.

I seem to always have a book

[iceblink.livejournal.com]

It takes me a while to finish a book, because a) I spend a lot of time here on LJ, b) I write and read for a living, c)I instant message a lot, and finally d) I had a concussion when I was 10 and I have never been the same since. I read pretty slow and as the stuff gets blurry - even with glasses and I getting my eyes checked regularly.

I just finished How to Live with a Neurotic Cat Owner (very funny)
I am working my way through Lemony Snickett (on Book 8)
Slowly reading Harmful to Minors
And finally A Constellation of Cats - which I carry in my purse/backpack.

Re: I seem to always have a book

[carlamlee.livejournal.com]

Yeah, when I worked at a publisher, I read a less in my spare time. I miss that, actually, getting to read submissions for hours every day. There was always something new. (Not always good, but that's a risk.)

I've seen that book, how to live with a neurotic cat owner, but haven't read it yet. It does look funny, and I'm going to have to read through it at work, I think.