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Who Reads Books Anyway?

ICO7 said:
A lot of hasty generalizations amongst the replies here. How about reconsidering your idealism and realize there's nothing wrong with what's happening? Especially you shouldn't get all high-and-mighty from some bullshit poll.
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Honestly, so what was the last book you read and for the love of God do not say Harry Potter.
 
Well i haven't read a book in... What like a novel? Or a textbook? I haven't read a novel since, jeeze i really don't remember, Junior year in high school probably... So... 2000. Books are so analog. I mean, where's the scroll bar on the pages? ;)

Seriously, everything i read, i read online. And i honestly don't care much for novels, i prefer the visual experience of a movie. Which kinda fits with my particular vocation in life. I am a Digital Animator and PC game designer, very art and visual oriented fields.

And i do kindof agree there's nothing wrong with the progression away from the printed page. Saves trees #1, and makes way for digital versions. I want that clear plexi paper touch screen newspaper you see in all the movies!
 
How about reconsidering your idealism and realize there's nothing wrong with what's happening?
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There's a lot wrong with Americans dumbing down.

Also a lot wrong with Americans losing their moral compass.

It negatively impacts our well being, our interpersonal relationships, our professional lives and the quality of our society.

But hey, get a prescription for happy pills to get you through the day and sleeping pills to get you through the night, and it's all good.
 
ICO7 said:
A lot of hasty generalizations amongst the replies here. How about reconsidering your idealism and realize there's nothing wrong with what's happening? Especially you shouldn't get all high-and-mighty from some bullshit poll.
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ICO, I'm not sure I follow what you're trying to say here. Would you care to elaborate, please? (And you know the gaming comment wasn't personal, right? ;))
 
I've read 37 books in the past year...and these are ones I bought to read for pleasure and not counting the ones I was reading for class.

Maybe the more educated you are the more likely you are to read b/c you want to keep up with the latest ideas/findings or stories.

I mostly read non-fiction.
 
The last book I completed was Flyboys by James Bradley. Fantastic look at the Pacific Theatre in WWII, told with broad strokes as well as the intimacy of telling the tale of six US Navy Flyers who had been officially MIA since the war's conclusion.
 
ICO7 said:
A lot of hasty generalizations amongst the replies here. How about reconsidering your idealism and realize there's nothing wrong with what's happening? Especially you shouldn't get all high-and-mighty from some bullshit poll.
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Of course there's something wrong. A large percentage of americans are limiting their sources of information and ideas to things which they can watch on TV or Youtube. That means they're not being exposed to ideas which for all practical pourposes predate the mid 70s, and more likely the mid 90's. It's the old "those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it" argument. We've thrown out the scientific method & journalistic standards in favor of goodfacts & infotainment, traded Atticus Finch for Fifty Cent, and in the process rolled up our understanding of what's right and wrong and packed it away in the attic if not the dumpster.
 
Soilwork said:
There's nothing wrong with people not reading?

OK, that's a scary thought.
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Scary if you think of it from an over-simplified context. Of course reading is important. But the question is, what type of reading is important? Is someone that indulges in nothing but romance novels any more intellectual than a literate person who reads very little but watches alot of news?

There is a big difference between not knowing how to read vs. simply not reading because one has little desire to do so. And just because a word is written doesn't automatically make it more important than if it is spoken.
 
Qix, I think one of the most important things about books is the time a reader spends developing his/her imagination. Of course the author describes the scene, but how many details does one create for oneself? With the visual images of television, movies and the internet, there really is no outlet for the creative imagination. If that means that someone reads a romance novel, then so be it. If nothing else, the reader's vocabulary should expand through the reading.
 
springboksfan said:
Qix, I think one of the most important things about books is the time a reader spends developing his/her imagination. Of course the author describes the scene, but how many details does one create for oneself? With the visual images of television, movies and the internet, there really is no outlet for the creative imagination. If that means that someone reads a romance novel, then so be it. If nothing else, the reader's vocabulary should expand through the reading.
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Absolutely! As I posted before, the alternatives to reading literature remove imagination from the process. Imagination is how our minds truly engage. . . it's how we really learn.
 
I've read somewhere over 30 books this summer. The toughest was actually science fiction -- but of the "parallel universe / alternate history" genre, which sent me scrambling to read history covering the period so I could tell changes from realities. Second toughest was a history of the last month of the Civil War. After that it's hard to call, though the fantasy series set in a parallel universe to the Byzantine Empire got me digging for some ancient history material about the nomadic tribes of the period. Then there were other history books, a couple in theology, one of physics, one economics, one on (firearms) law....
 
Qixote said:
Scary if you think of it from an over-simplified context. Of course reading is important. But the question is, what type of reading is important? Is someone that indulges in nothing but romance novels any more intellectual than a literate person who reads very little but watches alot of news?

There is a big difference between not knowing how to read vs. simply not reading because one has little desire to do so. And just because a word is written doesn't automatically make it more important than if it is spoken.
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for sure.

But ANY kind of reading is exercize for the mind. Be it fine literature or trashy novels.

Sitting like a zombie staring at a TV isn't going to help you. Reading and stimulating your mind will. Even if you're reading Mary Cheney's book.








Well, OK, maybe not Mary Cheney's book.
 
dunno whats up with it

i just finished al gores latest book and im getting ready to start on canon

its a new science book that tries to do one of those theory of everything type concepts

i guess tv and internet have really killed the art of book reading
 
One thing I found amusing talking with my history professor at my college last semester was that she said, those who tend to read for pleasure tend to be better writers.

Sure we all use 1337 speak online but when it comes down to "formal" writing, it is inherent in the person's writing if they read alot or not. How they develop their ideas and form their arguements. Words do not magically appear on the screen coherently.

I am sure many teachers on here would agree with the statement my history professor made.
 
Soilwork said:
for sure.

But ANY kind of reading is exercize for the mind. Be it fine literature or trashy novels.

Sitting like a zombie staring at a TV isn't going to help you. Reading and stimulating your mind will. Even if you're reading Mary Cheney's book.








Well, OK, maybe not Mary Cheney's book.
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It has to be written well to be much good. One reason I threw out a bunch of the official material for the college remedial reading course I taught was that it was badly written -- poor grammar, poor punctuation, incomplete sentences, and so on. I found that material that's poorly written helps reading comprehension less than stuff that's well-written.
I presume that extends to other mental benefits.
 
I will say that I've read tacky erotica that - when I'm in the right mood - is riveting.

And I was bored silly reading War and Peace, although I did manage to make my way thorugh it and it really is a great book and I'm glad I did read it.

but yeah.. after you've been reading enough you'll get a taste for good writing.
 
^Give the Ubermensch a burger, I have to agree that other forms of media are as useful and valid as reading. It is natural that people would not read as much with all the other forms on information available. Still, there is something about reading and writing that sharpens and organizes thought better than other forms of media. Each media seems to have a different affect on the mind.

The other good reason for not reading today is the lack of really good things to read. The great literature that came out of the 19th century hasn't been equalled.
 
Reading stimulates the mind in different ways than other media, and makes the mind work harder given comparable content. With that and the fact that most of our information today is still in written form, not reading should be considered a mark of a barbarian.
"Literary conservative elites" have, I think, little or nothing to do with this poll. It didn't ask if we read great literature, only if we read a book. "How To Shit In the Woods", or "The Cat in a Hat", or "LIES My Teacher Told Me", or "Build Your Own Deck" would all qualify, along with romance novels and porn.
But it is worth asking how much people read online. I saw a lament that people aren't reading newspapers as much -- in an article purporting to show that more Americans follow "the news" than ever before, due to the availability of news online.
Yet for all the benefits of reading, other media offer mental exercise that reading doesn't. Measuring the intellectual climate of a country by measuring just reading doesn't tell the whole story -- it's possible (I'm dubious, but it's possible) that people are exercising their minds more than before there were other forms than the printed word... but this poll doesn't measure that.
 
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