Why read?

[lindyhop]

I've had my nose in a book my whole life but not so much lately. I feel guilty about that but other worthwhile things have been filling my time. When I do read it's in little bursts and sometimes I just pick up a magazine instead of a book. Since I live alone one of the steps in meal preparation is finding the right reading material while I eat.

I read fast and that's not necessarily a good thing. Sometimes I feel like I'm just trying to get through as many books as possible and I don't remember a thing, even when I've enjoyed a book, after I'm done. I skip over words I don't know, assuming I'll get it from the context, and I skim through description and long paragraphs.

Currently I'm reading an annotated version of "Pride and Prejudice" and I'm finding that reading all the notes is adding to the experience but it has also slowed me down and I'm really enjoying that. For a change I'm really absorbing more than just the bare outlines of the story.

I'll read more than one book at a time but that's usually the reason I don't finish some books. Sometimes I never go back to a book once I put it down. I've stopped reading books with only one or two chapters to go. A few summers ago I was reading "One Hundred Years of Solitude" while I was on vacation and I got halfway through it before I came home and never opened it again.

I know a lot of people who don't read. I don't understand those people.

[wendybeth]

It depends on the book, and my mood. Sometimes I can just be in the wrong mood for a book but then read it later and be blown away. The last book to do that to me was 'The Road'. I know it's a good one when I immediately re-read it, as I did with this one. Depressing as hell, scary as hell, but really got me thinking and stayed with me long after I finished it. I'll read through a book for the story, then go back over it for closer examination and if it's a well written story I'll always find more to mull over. 'The Wind-up Bird Chronicles' is a great example- lots of symbolism and subtext involved, and I loved the authors writing style. Some books just don't click, no matter how often I go back to them. One that comes to mind is 'Beloved'. I truly thought it was crap, but everyone else just loved it. I couldn't get past her writing style- it got in the way of whatever story was there.