Why do you read?

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I am ploughing through a book on Cassavetes, just finished Lexicon Devil (Darby Crash bio) and started Empire Of Signs by Barthes. After that I'll probably start a McLuhan book and Heavier Than Heaven (Cobain bio). I am always amazed when I meet people who don't read. It is not that I disapprove, it just seems as though they are missing out so much.

I kinda like Rorty's view. Reading is for me a way of travelling. So my question is: why do (or don't) you read? What do you read?

― nathalie (nathalie), Monday, 7 October 2002 09:32 (twenty-three years ago)

Oh, I don't read magazines as much as I used to. I did start a Japanese cook book so I can prepare rice 'n' noodles. :-)

― nathalie (nathalie), Monday, 7 October 2002 09:33 (twenty-three years ago)

harold bloom to threads!

― david h (david h), Monday, 7 October 2002 09:34 (twenty-three years ago)

I do read, but only on my own. It tends to be quite an anti-social thing, especially at parties.

― Mckenzie (Mckenzie), Monday, 7 October 2002 09:38 (twenty-three years ago)

To reassure myself that my brain still works on something which isn't auto-pilot bollocks.

― Sarah (starry), Monday, 7 October 2002 09:40 (twenty-three years ago)

I read to escape into a different world.

that sounds a bit negative, but I love getting lost in books.

I don't like talking about books, not in a book club kind of way. It spoils the feeling that you're on your own, and pulls apart your own world that you've created.

It makes time fly by when you're on the tube, makes it bearable.

― Vicky (Vicky), Monday, 7 October 2002 09:41 (twenty-three years ago)

I read a lot of Science Fiction, but I really love the stuff that isn't "real" scifi. I'm talking Kurt Vonnegut, Phillip K. Dick, and whathaveyou. I also like cyberpunk, like William Gibson and Neal Stephenson. Just now I have a book of Raymond Carver's short stories on my bedside table, it's great.

I read because it's a source of knowledge, ideas, different perspectives. All books are enlightening in a small way. (some smaller than others)

― Andrew (enneff), Monday, 7 October 2002 09:51 (twenty-three years ago)

I read to relax, and escape.

― jel -- (jel), Monday, 7 October 2002 09:51 (twenty-three years ago)

I mostly read non-fiction books about geopgraphy, history, current global conflicts, etc. Usually what happens is that some particular random subject will spark my interest & I'll read every book readily available on it until something new pops up. Past subjects have included the history of punk, the Iranian revolution, the Mutiny on the Bounty, Northern Ireland, etc. I read out of natural curiosity & the desire to learn about subjects that I wouldn't learn about elsewhere. Unfortunately, I am living near a poorly stocked library these days and am very sad. Desperation led me to read the Great Gatsby this weekend & boy, was it ever lousy. I agree with you about people who don't read. They're missing out & they don't even realize it.

― Miss Laura, Monday, 7 October 2002 09:55 (twenty-three years ago)

I don't know why I read, I guess its just because its nothing like the real world, and the real world suxx !!

― Fuzzy (Fuzzy), Monday, 7 October 2002 11:34 (twenty-three years ago)

I'm not doing enough reading at the moment, except for CoM/review research purposes - too much writing to do! Trying to digest the New Left Reviews MS gave me; otherwise at present it's Houllebecq's "Atomised," Franzen's "The Corrections" and Hare's "The Language of Morals" as well as of course "London Orbital" by the Godlike (well Tradescant-like) Iain Sinclair.

I read in order to understand the world better, or in more interesting ways, and articulate my understanding.

― Marcello Carlin, Monday, 7 October 2002 12:18 (twenty-three years ago)

I don't read alot, I think I'm addicted to engaging with people a bit and can't really enjoy being on my own at all.

― Ronan (Ronan), Monday, 7 October 2002 12:32 (twenty-three years ago)

Entertainment. I do a good deal of reading for graduate school, and I write for pay, but it all comes down to entertainment. There's very little I do for reasons other than entertainment

― Tep (ktepi), Monday, 7 October 2002 12:53 (twenty-three years ago)

I also read for relaxation and escape, and to gain knowledge. I have to read a lot of non-fiction for work, so most of my pleasure-reading is fiction. Since, sadly, the older I get the more difficult it becomes to find quality pleasure-reading time, I like to read novels that are interesting enough to make me think, but still readable enough that I can get involved in them quickly.

But people who don't like to read are sure missing out! It's so nice to know that if I don't have anything to do on a Friday night, it doesn't matter--I can just be happy with my book for an evening.

― nory (nory), Monday, 7 October 2002 13:01 (twenty-three years ago)

Because I can't imagine life without it. I've been reading since I was two -- if language is a virus, I got infected early and there we are.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 7 October 2002 15:05 (twenty-three years ago)

bloody long book hey Ned?

― jel -- (jel), Monday, 7 October 2002 16:38 (twenty-three years ago)

You gotta start somewhere, my friend. :-)

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 7 October 2002 16:41 (twenty-three years ago)

Yeah, all those and understanding the world and obviously for entertainment and stimulation and to explore places and ideas and other minds and loads of other things.

Currently: a diarists' anthology, a book on abstract art and a lovely novel by Anne Fine with a wonderfully unreliable narrator (more his interpretation and perspective than the facts).

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Monday, 7 October 2002 18:48 (twenty-three years ago)

i love reading, it is one of my favourite pasttimes and i can become so totally engrossed in a good book i have to sort of swim back up out of it to return to the real world around me.
it dismays me, too, when i hear someone say they dont like reading. there is so much to learn and enjoy, it really is a tragedy for people to miss out.

― donna (donna), Monday, 7 October 2002 18:53 (twenty-three years ago)

Oh, I forgot to answer what.

For school: some archaeology, mostly to provide some fundamentals; lots of stuff on church history and ancient Israel (my concentrations).

For work/pleasure: I try to keep somewhat up to date on whatever genre I'm writing at the moment. That doubles as pleasure, of course, but I make a special effort to read the latest works or as-yet-unread classics by the guys who are best at what I do or would like to do, partly to learn from them and partly so I don't repeat them. Right now I'm rereading Jeff Noon's Pixel Juice, for instance, before hitting his Needle in the Groove for the first time.

Pure pleasure: Recently read Nick Hornby's "How to be Good," Larry McMurtry's "Boone's Lick" and "Paradise," Kathryn Harrison's "The Kiss," and Neil Gaiman's "Coraline." On deck, borrowed from friends, are Lolita, Calvino's "If On a Winter's Night a Traveler," and an Updike book I forget the title of.

― Tep (ktepi), Monday, 7 October 2002 19:01 (twenty-three years ago)

I tend to read fiction more for escapism, even though I read mostly literature. I don't tend to analyze styles, though I can tell the difference. I can tell what makes Tolstoy Tolstoy, but I probably don;t read deeply enough to write a (bad) thesis.
Nonfiction is quite different. I can be quite hardcore.
Right now I am not reading anything, but I will start something tonight.

― Aaron Grossman (aajjgg), Monday, 7 October 2002 19:04 (twenty-three years ago)

I read ILM and fiction when I'm on the train. I stopped reading books after school as I didn't like shakespere (more that i couldn't understand it) but I've come back through it because of sci fi and ILE.

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Monday, 7 October 2002 19:04 (twenty-three years ago)

I'll prob move on to all types of books in the next few months.

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Monday, 7 October 2002 19:04 (twenty-three years ago)

i just pretend to be reading so people will leave me alone but think i am sort of deep.

― unknown or illegal user (doorag), Monday, 7 October 2002 19:07 (twenty-three years ago)

I'm in grad school for the exact same reason, doorag :)

― Tep (ktepi), Monday, 7 October 2002 19:13 (twenty-three years ago)

another reason was music. i spent so much time listening to it but now it's nice to read books again.

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Monday, 7 October 2002 19:13 (twenty-three years ago)

i read, like ned, because i cant imagine not. i started reading early and its just something i do in all the between times: while eating, while smoking, in the bath, on the toilet, anytime im not doing something else that requires a functioning brain, im reading.
i like biographies of fun people (deedee ramone's autobio was hysterical). but i read anything.
i read a lot of stuff over and over again. anyone else do this? i have some books i have to have read over 20 times. its comforting.
reading now: the great shark hunt, hunter s. thompson
reading next: a star called henry, roddy doyle

― amy (amy), Monday, 7 October 2002 19:34 (twenty-three years ago)

I read the Great Gatsby annually, Amy :) There are a few others in medium to heavy rotation, but that one's always there. I read Peter Straub's Blue Rose novels pretty frequently, and Stephen King's Dark Tower ones, and used to read Nicholson Baker's Mezzanine every couple months because it just read so fast.

― Tep (ktepi), Monday, 7 October 2002 19:57 (twenty-three years ago)

i'm not actually reading, just trying to find that bacon

― mark s (mark s), Monday, 7 October 2002 19:58 (twenty-three years ago)

I had a sort out of my old books yestterday, ready for my new book case, and am now flicking through the Kerrang Direktory of Heavy Metal published in 1993.

― jel -- (jel), Monday, 7 October 2002 20:24 (twenty-three years ago)

julio, you read ILM on the train?!? :-)

― nathalie (nathalie), Tuesday, 8 October 2002 14:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I thought we were all reading it on the train.

― N. (nickdastoor), Tuesday, 8 October 2002 14:03 (twenty-three years ago)

Why are you all reading? Isn't it kinda lame catch-all excuse for avoiding the issue? Aren't we reading what we want to read and nothing more? What if we read something you weren't meant to. It's real lame for people to like reading for its own sake. Philosophy is unchecked.

― Emmanuel Goldstein, Tuesday, 8 October 2002 14:09 (twenty-three years ago)

''julio, you read ILM on the train?!? :-)''

if i could nath, i would.

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Tuesday, 8 October 2002 14:29 (twenty-three years ago)

i read nath on the bus. every day i print up stevie nixed and it makes me feel warm in the autumn cold.

― Alison Houston, Tuesday, 8 October 2002 14:35 (twenty-three years ago)

it's not cold at the moment alison.

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Tuesday, 8 October 2002 14:36 (twenty-three years ago)

I cannot account for all this train ILM no-reading.

― N. (nickdastoor), Tuesday, 8 October 2002 14:39 (twenty-three years ago)

putney bridge at eight in the morning is cold. plus i've got a cold. anyway she cheers me up.

― Alison Houston, Tuesday, 8 October 2002 14:39 (twenty-three years ago)

(I am working on a WAP version NB)

― Graham (graham), Tuesday, 8 October 2002 14:40 (twenty-three years ago)

haha to fuck up the system.

(not really.)

― Sterling Clover (s_clover), Tuesday, 8 October 2002 17:24 (twenty-three years ago)

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