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Chernabog · 11-28-2007, 02:12 PM

I'll join the "it depends" chorus on here -- some books stick with you and others don't. I read fiction 95% of the time, and I read books for entertainment. Unless I re-read a book (like I've read most of Stephen King's books a few times over), or it was a book from my childhood (Roald Dahl, Madeline L'Engle) the names and places don't really stick with me. Sure, I remember if the book was enjoyable or not, or whether I'd recommend it to others. But besides some works of Stephen King, Clive Barker and Anne Rice, it is very rare that a book truly affects my life in a way beyond it just being pure entertainment.

I also rarely cry when reading, but every so often, it hits me. Last week, actually, I was surprised when I was crying while reading a Stephen King short story that appeared after the novel "Blaze" (written under his pseudonym Richard Bachman). There was a part that involved a disabled man's response to a neighbor's dog getting hit by a car (yea yea cheap shot) but the characterizations, the writing, and the response was so powerful that it left me shaken.

I don't read as much as I'd like to, but I always have a book in my briefcase for when I have time to kill. Right now my briefcase book is John Steinbeck's "East of Eden", which is AMAZING. And amazingly sordid. I hadn't really read Steinbeck before, thinking he was dry English lit stuff, and it SO isn't. Kinda like how I prejudged Kurt Vonnegut, and his stuff is so wonderful to dig into.

I'm also reading a collection of short vignettes by David Sedaris called "Naked". Highly recommended because the stories call up strong emotional responses in me that I don't often get from reading.

Books are odd things though, I read them like I play video games -- that is, I buy them, play/read the first part, just to test the waters and see what the "mood" is, and then set it down for a time. When I'm in the mood to pick it up again, I do. And sometimes, years go by before I'm in that mood (though that may be the product of too many entertainment options at my apartment lol...).

I do have a lot of books that I read halfway through and put them down forever because I just cannot get into them. I'll start skimming through boring parts, and if that doesn't produce something interesting after 20 pages or so... well... my attention span just isn't that long

11-28-2007, 02:12 PM	#7
Chernabog Biophage Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: The Moon Posts: 2,679	I'll join the "it depends" chorus on here -- some books stick with you and others don't. I read fiction 95% of the time, and I read books for entertainment. Unless I re-read a book (like I've read most of Stephen King's books a few times over), or it was a book from my childhood (Roald Dahl, Madeline L'Engle) the names and places don't really stick with me. Sure, I remember if the book was enjoyable or not, or whether I'd recommend it to others. But besides some works of Stephen King, Clive Barker and Anne Rice, it is very rare that a book truly affects my life in a way beyond it just being pure entertainment. I also rarely cry when reading, but every so often, it hits me. Last week, actually, I was surprised when I was crying while reading a Stephen King short story that appeared after the novel "Blaze" (written under his pseudonym Richard Bachman). There was a part that involved a disabled man's response to a neighbor's dog getting hit by a car (yea yea cheap shot) but the characterizations, the writing, and the response was so powerful that it left me shaken. I don't read as much as I'd like to, but I always have a book in my briefcase for when I have time to kill. Right now my briefcase book is John Steinbeck's "East of Eden", which is AMAZING. And amazingly sordid. I hadn't really read Steinbeck before, thinking he was dry English lit stuff, and it SO isn't. Kinda like how I prejudged Kurt Vonnegut, and his stuff is so wonderful to dig into. I'm also reading a collection of short vignettes by David Sedaris called "Naked". Highly recommended because the stories call up strong emotional responses in me that I don't often get from reading. Books are odd things though, I read them like I play video games -- that is, I buy them, play/read the first part, just to test the waters and see what the "mood" is, and then set it down for a time. When I'm in the mood to pick it up again, I do. And sometimes, years go by before I'm in that mood (though that may be the product of too many entertainment options at my apartment lol...). I do have a lot of books that I read halfway through and put them down forever because I just cannot get into them. I'll start skimming through boring parts, and if that doesn't produce something interesting after 20 pages or so... well... my attention span just isn't that long __________________ And they say back then our universe Was a coal black egg Until the god inside Burst out and from its shattered shell He made what became the world we know ~ Bjork (Cosmogony)
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