Why read?

[Bornieo: Fully Loaded]

So my brain stated on this tangent. I finally finished reading the Neal Gabler "Walt Disney" book, which took me since April 2007 to read - so that's what? -- 7 months. I read "The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe" in about 3 days - tried to read the Magicians Nephew and am halfway thru "PRince Caspian." I went to the thrift store and found a butt load of cool books to read including "The 5 people you meet in heaven", Goldywn bio, Cold Mountain, Bio's on Kirk Douglas and Lawrance Olivier and ShopGirl by Steve Martin. I"m about 1/3 of the way thru ShopGirl.

So, I think my question is several levels and I hope it is an interesting enough converstion to have among the swanky readers here on LoT.

I'm trying to figure out how I feel after reading the Walt Disney bio. I learned something and it was a nice read and I'm glad I read it. Now over with "THe Magician's Newphew" I got bored and found myself skipping over sentences etc.

What happens to you after you finishe a book, good or bad? Do you put it away and not think about it or does it apply to your life in some way? Why do you choose to read certain books and why do some read easy and other take forever to read? Is there a satifaction or is it just to pass the time? Have you ever finished a book or gotten halfway thru and nothing sunk in to where you had to start over again?

So why?

[flippyshark]

It really depends on the book. Some books stay with you forever, others practically vaporize the moment you set them down.

I found Gabler's book something of a chore to read, but it had its rewards. The Magician's Nephew isn't my favorite Narnia book, given that I've read it at least twice, and I barely remember it.

Recently, I had to give up on a very silly book I was trying to read. It's called Natural Selection, by (if I recall correctly) Richard freedman. The bubblegum premise is flying carnivorous rays. Stupid, yes, but I thought an airborn Jaws ripoff thriller would be fun. I had to give up a little over a third of the way through. Absolutely NOTHING had happened by then, and I felt imprisoned in the company of half a dozen of the most paper-thin, idiotic characters imaginable. According to the Amazon reviews, it has its fans, but I'll not be opening its covers again.

I'm way too tired to marshall any actual thoughts or ideas on the topic. Please accept these random dribblings in lieu of substance.

[BarTopDancer]

I read for enjoyment, entertainment, to learn and for kicks.

Currently I am consumed with school reading, most of which is applied to life.What I do with non-required reading depends on the book and why it was read. Sometimes the story has a life-applicable meaning, sometimes I was just happy to get through it. I love buying books and keep them all (or did until they were destroyed in storage). My favorite books were dog-eared, falling apart at the bindings. Books I found boring or struggled through appeared to be brand new.

I found the Lord of the Rings trilogy painful to read even though I loved the movies. I was skipping sentences and had to re-read so much of the back story because I was just going through the motions of reading it. But I can tear through the majority of the Jack Ryan Tom Clancy books in a day or two.

I am looking forward to reading The Long Hard Road Out of Hell when I am done with this semester.

[€uroMeinke]

It differs from book to book. The good ones stick with you but maybe in different ways. Lately I love Murakami, but some of that may be where I'm in in my life - I identify with his protagonists and suddenly see the magic and mystery of ordinary life. I feel differently about myself and the world when I read his stuff and find I need time to savor before I start something else.

Some books I appreciate, but know I read them at the wrong time - I was way too old when I finally picked up On the Road, but i can imagine how good it would have been had I read it right out of high school.

I used to love reading sci-fi, but found as I got older the genre has become less and less compelling. I used to think that was the place to find the most innovative thinking, but now I only pick something that's been recommended by more than one person.

I read to be entertained, to be educated, and be challenged - I like most the books that make me think differently about things. That might not always be a page turner, but usually the most satisfying to me.

[Alex]

As others said it differs a lot from book to book.

Primarily I read to be entertained. Though my definition of entertained seems to differ quite a bit from what most other people mean. For me, entertainment is learning something I didn't know or hadn't considered or had never seen in quite that light. Even with fiction I am generally looking for that.

What happens to you after you finishe a book, good or bad?

It is very rare for me to just be reading one book at any one time. Currently, for example, I am reading four books and that is a bit on the low side of average.

Do you put it away and not think about it or does it apply to your life in some way?

Both. I'm not exactly sure what "apply to my life" means but I don't often spend a lot of time thinking about a book after I've read it. But I do absorb it as I'm reading it. If it is relatively factual non-fiction then the information gets stored away (I have a very good memory in this regard).

If it is philosophy/opinion/analysis/etc. then it gets incorporated into how I think, my "arsenal" of points of view. While I have my own views on things, I like to think that in reaching my own conclusions I get to a point where I could accurately present and argue differing points of view and so reading is constantly remapping the mental architecture so to speak.

I'm not a serious fiction reader so generally what I am seeking in good fiction is that it put me completely inside a mindset or way of seeing the world different from mine. Something like The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time does that for me.

But I also usually have trash fiction (generally genre sci fi but not always) that I use for environments where I can't read for any length in a single session so it doesn't really matter if I only read 2/3rds of a page then come back to it later.

Why do you choose to read certain books and why do some read easy and other take forever to read?

Non-fiction is generally a form of bibliography trawling (I follow book A with some tangentially related book B from the bibliography followed by book C, another tangential reference in book B) but that frequently jumps the rails for any number of reasons. When the thread dies out on me I usually reset to science popularization, pseudoscience/bad science, non-American history, or classics of philosophy and that gets me off on a new chain.

Fiction is frequently just wandering the aisles at B&N and picking something with an interesting cover. Then if I like it (generally I don't particularly) I try some other things by the same author until I get bored with that and then pick at random again.

I don't really experience the fast/slow thing. I read fiction and non-fiction at dramatically different paces but within that the speed of reading is pretty constant. But when a book is boring me I don't really experience any hesitation in trashing it and moving on.

Is there a satifaction or is it just to pass the time?

Sometimes the latter (why else would I be reading anything Michael Crichton has written in the last 15 years?) but mostly the former.

Have you ever finished a book or gotten halfway thru and nothing sunk in to where you had to start over again?

Only with trash fiction. I once was reading a Patricia Cornwell novel (and only the existence of Dan Brown keeps her from looking like a total hack) and accidentally skipped about 100 pages at some point and never noticed.

[alphabassettgrrl]

A lot of my reading lately has been informational- some for school, some on my own. Some of it applies to my life, but some of it makes me think. I read books on archeology, religion, history, and just about anything else that strikes my fancy. I've got a few books on quantum physics. Some things I read for distraction and entertainment.

Something from a school reading stuck with me the other day, about how humans need some limits or we are not happy. Someone asked me about it and I had to go track down the original article. Another bit about religion has been useful in a couple of circumstances.

[Not Afraid]

I love the craft of good writing as much as I love the craft of good visual art. It's an experiential thing for me. If I can become immersed in the little segment of world presented to me then I am having a great experience. I LOVE a good story, hate trite writing, love new ideas or twists on existing ideas, and adore the immersion I get from being enveloped by a book.

Then there's the informational aspect of reading. The ability to learn some new facts or opinions on history or a take on a person's life and their place in history or just vicariously experience a part of the world I've never been to. Again, it's the transportation to a different place and time that I love.

[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.

[blueerica]

I think that for me it truly depends on the book, and I have yet to figure out the magical formula. Like BTD, most of what I'm reading is school related... I'd figure it around 97%. I think I'd have more time to read if it weren't for having presentations and case studies due (practically) two-by-two on a weekly basis. I'm spending much of my spare time (like work breaks) working on outlines and reading the material. The rest of my spare time is here or at work. Yay. Now that things are lightening up, I'm finally working on finishing The Strange Case of Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde, which I'd started a couple of years ago (sad, since it's such a short story).

In all of my readings, I find that the difference is really in how it was written. Some books are simply better than others, and that goes for textbooks, too. Some texts I can read once and it's absorbed; others I have to read twice and go over key parts a third time just to be on the right track. I'm looking forward to getting back into books again. Whee!