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Posted: |
Aug 17, 2022 - 3:35 AM
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By: |
Graham Watt
(Member)
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I know we have the thread, "What Are You Currently Reading?", but those who "don't read" won't post there, so this is more of a general streamofconsciousness rabbit based on my own recent (and not so recent) experience(s).
I used to read a lot, I mean a LONG time ago. I think I spent my childhood reading, right up until about the age of seventeen when other distractions seemed to be more important and took over. In my adult years I'm ashamed to admit that I'm down to about one book a year. There are always "easier" things to do, like checking how many likes I have on Facebook, looking at FSM, listening to music, dozing on the bed. Working also seems to take up an inordinate amount of time. After work I'm usually too tired, but that might be an excuse.
However, just this month, and largely thanks to Covid, I was holed up for a period on holiday with only books for company. I'd never read F. Scott Fitzgerald, but I got through some of his short stories and found some of them to be absolutely amazing.
I also picked up John Fowles' The Collector in a charity shop for one pound, and, although I'd read it as a youngster, it becomes completely different when read as an adult. I was surprised at how much it affected me. It sounds like a cliché to say that it was "life changing", but that's how I feel about it. Tragic, horrifying and beautiful, I felt as though I was seeing the world through different eyes when I'd finished it. I'm still in that kind of trance. I'm left with a kind of deep melancholy, but also a deeper understanding of the world.
But then I realised that it wasn't just The Collector which had touched me in that way. It was all "great literature". I'd been missing out just because I hadn't been reading enough.
Anyway, I'm way behind with reading. I do hope to catch up, but I know that other more trivial things will sadly take its place and I'll be back to one book a year. I should make the effort. I know it's worth it. It's almost like a vital necessity to me now, but I know how easily that feeling will evaporate. A tragedy in itself.
I'd be interested to hear what yooz lot have to say on the subject.
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Sounds quite nice-
Reading is a large town on the Thames and Kennet rivers in southern England. It’s known for the annual Reading Festival, an outdoor rock music event. Shops and riverside restaurants dot the town centre. The Reading Museum contains exhibits on the town’s history.
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Posted: |
Aug 17, 2022 - 3:51 AM
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By: |
Hurdy Gurdy
(Member)
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Graham, every word you typed there could have come straight from my brain or my mouth or my fingertips (or all three!!). Apart from the recent Covid bit...and my - much better - book reading habits lasted way into my 30s/early 40s.
As a teen, I used to get skitted by my mates for READING EVERY THING!! (Look at him, he picks up anything and everything and reads it, they would say in mocking tones).
And I did.
I would devour books in days (sometimes A DAY).
Stephen King and Robert McCammon were my two top faves as a younger.
I would say they really enhanced my love of books and reading (especially King).
But yes, as time has gone on, my reading has fallen off alarmingly.
It got to being that I would get through one or maybe two books when we went on a resort or beach holiday, but even that has wilted these past years.
I still buy them, so I have a stack of new, unread books that are waiting to be devoured by me.
But I wonder when I will make the time to have at them.
I spend way too much time reading rubbish on-line (and I don't even have the likes of FakeBook or InstantTwit).
I do choose to spend most spare time listening to music than reading a book (and I can't do both at the same time, cos I have to commit to one or the other completely).
Maybe when the old body starts to seize up (I'm 57 but still play footy regularly and still in decent shape) I will sit in a comfy chair and while away my time playing catch-up.
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Posted: |
Aug 17, 2022 - 7:09 AM
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By: |
ibelin
(Member)
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I don't think that reading is all it's cracked up to be. Don't get me wrong: I think that reading is great for the mind, but I won't necessarily look down on someone who doesn't read. I suppose that in the 1900s and further back, reading was seen in the same way that television and movies are seen now: It was simply a way to pass the time. In other words, reading was seen as a substitute for living. So that begs the question: If one is to replace living with consuming, is the written word a better medium than moving pictures? I think that the answer partly depends on what exactly one is reading or watching, but I get a strong feeling that reading, on the whole, is better for the mind. I don't know if studies have been done to try to prove this, but they ought to be, since the medium is the message.
Now, as long as one has a job that is mentally engaging, and has hobbies that are mentally engaging, then I don't think that it is the end of world for him if he doesn't read a lot. The important thing is to keep the mind active!
Also, all of the important life lessons that I have retained did not come from books.
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I'm always reading something... Non-fiction books, fiction, novels, short stories, Internet Blogs, Articles, and, and, and... I like processing information through reading. Even for many "how to" things I prefer reading than the many (and sometimes no doubt useful) "how to" videos on YouTube. It's just that I can find the information I need much faster when I read then when I watch a video.
I don't read as many novels any more than I used to (but then again, I don't watch as many movies as I used to anymore either.) But I always have a book that I am reading, currently it's Tim Harford's HOW TO MAKE THE WORLD ADD UP.
I made it a point that every year I read (and I mean: really read and work on it, not "browse through it") at least one of the "great" books (I consider "great" books books that have stood the test of time (usually over centuries), are often quoted, referred to, mentioned, interpreted, etc.). There are so many great books that people only "talk" about without really having ever actually read through them, or even just attempted that. It is amazing how "easy" to read some of the great books really are if you just start and go with it. This year, it's going to be Dante Alighieri's DIVINE COMEDY. I haven't started yet, but already got myself a very beautiful illustrated hardcover addition of it, and also have a (different) translation of it on my eBook reader.
I tend not to watch a lot of TV (from 2007 to 2012 I didn't even own a TV), so I prefer reading. So reading is about on par with listening to music for me, I would not want to give up either. I could do without TV, even without movies, but don't take away my books (or my music).
Reading (and in consequence writing) is the process, more than any other, that schools thinking, that enables one to clearly think and communicate those ideas.
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Posted: |
Aug 17, 2022 - 7:41 AM
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By: |
Graham Watt
(Member)
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Also, all of the important life lessons that I have retained did not come from books.
Interesting comments all! Keep 'em coming.
I've highlighted the last line from ibelin's recent post just because it touches on something I felt deeply after reading "The Collector" (although that was possibly just a coincidence, considering that it's the most recent book I've read, after hardly touching them in too long). I would probably be in agreement with you in that the important life lessons I have retained probably didn't come from books either, but when a really great book hits you (let's say "me"), it usually makes me re-evaluate those important life lessons, and the new assessment can often make me "understand" them inside a deeper framework, in which I'm not the centre of the universe and where "my" life experiences include the acknowledgement of how others, integral to the experiences themselves, perceive them in very different ways. It somehow makes me feel more humble, less lonely. I've also re-experienced the wonderful, awful fragility of life, and the terrible fleeting beauty of youth.
And if all that sounds like a pile of shite, here's the straw that broke the camel's back for you. Feel free to vomit. After having read those recent novels, evocative of the essence of humanity, I was sitting at the airport pondering anew our existence on this planet, when a distinguished man appeared and asked the crowd if he could play the airport piano. The "airport piano". They're becoming really popular I think. The public just sits down and bashes out a few tunes. This gentleman, after charmingly checking that it "wasn't anybody's luggage" then gave us the most beautiful rendition of "What a Wonderful World". Or it seemed much more beautiful to me at that time. I'd almost become a different version of myself thanks to the power of good literature.
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Also, all of the important life lessons that I have retained did not come from books.
Interesting comments all! Keep 'em coming.
I've highlighted the last line from ibelin's recent post just because it touches on something I felt deeply after reading "The Collector" (although that was possibly just a coincidence, considering that it's the most recent book I've read, after hardly touching them in too long). I would probably be in agreement with you in that the important life lessons I have retained probably didn't come from books either, but when a really great book hits you (let's say "me"), it usually makes me re-evaluate those important life lessons, and the new assessment can often make me "understand" them inside a deeper framework
Yes, absolutely. That's why I would see this the other way around. The important lessons I have ever learned and retained probably came in some form from books. Books provoke and challenge your thinking, I would say books more than anything enable you to really think on your own, or at least advance your thinking much, much faster than if one would try to figure out everything all alone.
I actually equate speaking and listening with reading and writing. Except that before one writes, one tends to think things more through, which is why it is usually more interesting to see what people have written rather than what they just said. Writing is refined language, and as such perhaps the most precise current form of communication. So why would I not read?
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I’m also one of those folks who is always reading something – novels, short stories, bios, comic books, newspapers, critical studies, and everything in between or that I’ve left out. So yes, reading is worth it. Since I believe in the power of the imagination to help us live and learn and flourish as human beings, reading seems crucial to me.
As a gay kid in a smotheringly small town in the Midwest, subject to daily bullying and harassment, the arts were just about the only means of finding some kind of emotional support when I was on the verge of suicide. Yes, it did get that bad. Books offered rays of hope and guidance where there were previously none.
So a huge “yes” from me as to the power of reading as an aid to understanding the world around us and finding light in dark places.
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Posted: |
Aug 18, 2022 - 11:17 AM
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By: |
edwzoomom
(Member)
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I am a voracious reader. I've been meaning to post here about a trip I made to one of the largest used book sellers in my state a few weeks ago. It consists of barn like buildings all over the site where the books are arranged by genre and broken down by topic. There are multiple floors in each somewhat compact barn. There are books EVERYWHERE but you can find everything. I came home with 8 books in amazing condition (more than half hardcover) and it cost me $40.00. They also take books in trade and give a very fair price. I swear my heart beats faster when I go into a library or book store. I know, weird you say.
I read two books at a time, one fiction, one non. Reading transports me to a different place. I have found that it relaxes me and helps me sleep better. I have a Kindle and have tried the Audible route but I find reading with a real book in my hand makes the experience sweeter. When I noticed my eyesight possibly fading a bit this past year, I was panicky thinking that I would no longer be able to read my books. A thorough eye exam, a new prescription and new set of specs restored my happiness. I just got back into James Clavell and due to the new glasses, I can read my paperbacks.
Beach reading is my favorite. I stick my earbuds in and listen to a favorite score and read all day. Whenever I pack for a trip, one of the first things I plan is what book I am going to take.
I subscribe to several online newspapers and periodicals and read those daily but it's a book I always go back to. One of my favorite books of all time is one called "My Son, My Son" by Howard Spring. I've probably read it 3 times and will probably read it again. I love the M. M Kaye books "The Far Pavilions" and "Shadow of the Moon." I fell in love with the works of author John Hersey in High School and actually wrote to him and received a personal letter back from him. Sadly I lost it in our house fire. My biggest book collection is by far World War II books. The topics vary from personal stories, epic battles and pictorial collections.
Not everyone is a reader and that is perfectly fine. There are many ways we fill our time and our minds. We are fortunate to have so many choices.
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The bonus of the day was the family of cats who inhabit the top floor of the annex. They are a mom and two daughters,. Mom is a petite, long haired calico, one is a muted calico the size of a generous loaf of bread and the third is a gorgeous long haired tuxedo who sat there like a queen. I am further addicted to this place.
Sounds like an establishment I wish to patronize.
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but morning routines changed significantly when my better-half retired!) I enjoy reading for 30 - 40 minutes whilst consuming the first two cups of tea of the day ... prior to commencing breakfast.
