Do you enjoy reading?

  • Thread starter Barracuda
  • 149 comments
  • 6,524 views

Do you enjoy reading?


  • Total voters
    123
To Diablo'; try not to read multiple books by the same author in quick succession, unless they're an actual series. You'll find that the author's style causes the books to all merge in your head. It's fine to read Stephen King just now, but you'll probably find soon enough that he's not that good an author. I've read a lot of Tom Clancy, I went through a phase of reading Clive Cussler, and for those who love William Gibson, I can recommend Neal Stephenson.

I'm halfway through Misery so after I finish it, and maybe read The Shining, I'll definately look into other authors. One thing I'm finding I don't like about Misery is the fact that it shows the actual story that the main character is writing, which is insanely uninteresting.
 
I enjoy reading, but can't stand books. Too much neck and eye strain, IMO, and I don't really have the motivation to engross myself in a written story. However, I read plenty of magazine articles, spend a lot of time reading online, occasionally pick up a newspaper, and spend some time studying for classes.

Really, people do more reading than they think, without books.
 
Because I have so much reading to do at school, without a doubt I have to enjoy it to some extent. Nevertheless, my reading habits have slowed a bit in favor of writing some papers, but I'll occasionally squeeze in a few things here and there in addition to my history and politics that normally keeps me occupied. Some of my favorite authors?

David M. Kennedy
Richard Hofstadter
Howard Zinn
George Will
JK Rowling
(looking forward to the Tales of the Beetle Bard)

I'm on the verge of reading *GASP* the Twilight series, so yeah, yay.
 
I read about an hour every day and have been doing since before year 1. Reading is a great way to forget the dramas of life and just emerse yourself in your imagination. Sure you are stuck to a story and certain characters, but everyone reads a book and pictures it differently. If you find a book that you can relate to such as a book with a character around your age, it is more interesting and opens your mind a little more.


EDIT: I also do a tonne of reading online everyday.
 
I love reading. Ususally about half an hour during week days and a few hours in the weekends. Most of the books I read are in english (by origin or translated from some exotic language - like russian). When I enjoy a book, I tend to buy all author's books. Among my favorite authors are:

JRR Tolkien (Lord of the Rings, the Hobbit)
Jane M. Auel (Earth Children series, e.g. "the Clan of the Cave Bear")
Robert Jordan (Wheel of time series)
Robert A Heinlein (read most of his books, favorites: "The cat who walks through walls" and "To sail beyond the sunset")
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (e.g. Gulag Archipelago, which I'm currently reading, a very impressive and massive book about the USSR punishment camps during Stalin's era. It has been called the best non-fictional book of the previous century)

Just to mention a few. :)
 
I didn't realize that surfing the internet and leafing through magazines really counted as reading...but whatever floats your boats.
 
I love reading!!
I've been an avid reader since I was like five, I read an hour or two at least everyday. Used to be just novels but these days I read a lot of magazines, mostly car related lol. I'll read anything by Clive Cussler, Tom Clancy and Robert Ludlum. But what I most enjoy reading about is people's adventures, like people going on trips around the world and military history, more so from the soldier on the ground's point of view. I just really enjoy sitting back with a good book, I find it really relaxing and it can be hard to put down a book especially when its really good.
 
Why read when you can watch a movie :D

Jerome
 
Why read when you can watch a movie :D

Jerome

Name me 1 movie that you've ever seen which has actually been better than the book? :boggled:

I don't think it's ever happened! :P

I like to read. I'm a voracious reader, at least 2 or 3 books a month.
I read a good mixture of humourous, trashy fiction, Chris Moore or Tim Dorsey for example, along with good doses of suspense and scientific or medical thrillers such as Ken Follet, Tess Gerritsen or Robin Cook, scientific non-fiction by various authors including Matt Ridley & Richard Dawkins and non-fiction / travelogues by authors such as David Sedaris, John Krakauer and the ubiquitous Bill Bryson.
Biographies are good too. I've read Murray Walker's, Peter Cook's ("Tragically I Was An Only Twin" :lol: What a great title!) and Richard Hammond's in the past year.
I also try to reread Douglas Adams' and Grant Naylor's works periodically too just for giggles.

I overdosed on the mainstream horror authors such as King & Koontz as a teenager.
I did find James Herbert, Shaun Hutson and Clive Barker to be far superior writers of scary 🤬 though. :scared:
 
Last edited:
I haven't been reading for pleasure for very long (unless you count magazines), but I'm mostly into epic fantasy. My favorite authors so far are JK Rowling (who doesn't know what she wrote?!) and David Eddings (The Elenium trilogy). The Hobbit and LotR were great stories, but Tolkien's writing is boring as hell. I also enjoy Christopher Paolini's Inheritance cycle... yeah, I know, but I'm not a literature critic, I don't care. It's a good story, and that's all that matters to me.

I'm looking to check out the A Song of Ice and Fire series, and maybe some Tom Clancy and Michael Crichton (RIP).
 
Last edited:
Yeah, I read a lot. I'm actually self-taught; my parents didn't exactly negelect this part of my childhood, but we used to have this collection of kids books called Little Golden Readers and I apparently always used to have one in my hand, even if only to look at the pictures. One day Mum was going into town to go grocery shopping and I was in the back seat. When I started reading it out loud, she says she nearly ran off the road and into a tree.

Anyway, my favourites are probably techno-thrillers like Michael Crichton or, when I'm looking for pure escapism, Matthew Reilly. But I also love Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time saga.
 
I haven't been reading for pleasure for very long (unless you count magazines), but I'm mostly into epic fantasy...

I'm looking to check out the A Song of Ice and Fire series...

I'm reading A song of Fire and Ice now - starts a bit slow but builds well. If you want something that picks up speed a bit faster but is still truly epic, I suggest Magician by Raymond E Feist. Great series spread over generations (literally).
 
I finished Misery and I must say it kept me on the edge of my seat sometimes. Now that I'm done with it though I'm kind of blank as to what I want to read next. I know I want to read The Shining sometime but I also want to take your advice and read something by another author. I really don't know what type of book I want to read next but I probably want to stay with a more horror type of book. Does anyone have any suggestions?

Also with my dad getting a job he wont be able to pick me up so I'll have to spend an extra two hours every school day in the library. That is until I can find a job, but until then I guess I'll have plenty of time to find different books and read.
 
I really don't know what type of book I want to read next but I probably want to stay with a more horror type of book. Does anyone have any suggestions?
If you want to stick to horror, anything by Clive Barker.

I would also suggest checking out a relatively new author, Scott Sigler. He has independently published his books Earthcore and Ancestor and he got his first mainstream publishing deal with Infected.

Earthcore - an alien race trapped under a mountain for thousands of years butcher a mining expedition.
Ancestor - genetic experiments to recreate the original mammal for use in medical science reveals it was an extremely vicious predator.
Infected - alien spores get in people's skin and make them insane.

Infected is the only one still in print as his new publisher bought the rights to Earthcore and Ancestor and intends to re-release them in the next couple of years. All three books hit Amazon's horror top ten in their launch (Ancestor hit #1 in horror and sci-fi, and #7 overall) and Infected was one book off from being on the New York Times bestseller list.

Hint: These three and others are available for free as audiobooks through his Website and possibly iTunes.
 
I also try to reread Douglas Adams
HHGTTG never gets old.

BTW, if you’ve never read any of Carl Zimmer’s stuff, I think you’d really like it. I’ve read both Parasite Rex and Microcosm.
 
Just finished Atlas Shrugged yesterday. Along with The Fountainhead, it was the one of the most thought-provoking and inspiring books I have ever read. Now that I've read those two, however, I have no idea what to read next; those two were so profound that I'm at a loss. I'll read Rand's other books eventually, but I'm looking to explore another, similar author first. Any suggestions?
 
Maybe you should take a break for a while to decompress? :lol:

Anthem takes like 30 seconds to read and doesn’t really add anything to what you’ve already read. We the Living… I’ve never been able to finish that book (I’ve tried several times). It’s written in a different style than Atlas and Fountainhead, and just doesn’t do anything for me. Once you’ve read Atlas and Fountainhead, I think the only other direction to go is her non-fiction (which, admittedly, I’ve never read – I have read a number of her essays though).
 
If you've just finished Atlas Shrugged and would like a little decompression time (as Sage wisely suggests) then I would mos' definitely read Robert Heinlein's The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress. I think you'll like the theme, though Heinlein does posesss a working sense of humour, which makes it a refreshing dessert.
 
I don't read much anymore, maybe 15-60 minutes a week.

But I read about 10-15 minutes a day with my daughter, so that makes up for it. I've memorized [wikipedia]Goodnight Moon[/wikipedia] and several others.

Oh, and if your kids are really young, read them what you're reading yourself. They don't care what you're saying, they just like to hear your voice. Both my kids had Autosport magazine as bed time stories for the first 18 months of their lives!
I'd ramble on about the races of yore, lore, and bore until Bailey (and more often than not, Kathy) was asleep.
 
Last edited:
I actually enjoy reading star wars books. (go on say it, I dont care) I just finished the Darth Bane series. great books. I just started "allegiance" which is shaping up to be great. I consider myself more of a guru, than a nerd, which is why I dont care if you call me that. Ill just go get my reinforcements :P

But I also like military books, for instance, the ones written by Stephan Coonts.
 
I enjoy reading when I do it for fun and I'm not forced to. I like science fiction and informative books about cars or trains.
I loathe reading when I am forced to (school), unless it's a good book. This has happened before, most recently with the book Ender's Game. I loved it and finished ahead of time because I couldn't put it down.

:-)
Yes thats it! oh I Efing love that book, I read the whole thing in about ten hours back in middle school.👍
 
Just finished Atlas Shrugged yesterday. Along with The Fountainhead, it was the one of the most thought-provoking and inspiring books I have ever read. Now that I've read those two, however, I have no idea what to read next; those two were so profound that I'm at a loss. I'll read Rand's other books eventually, but I'm looking to explore another, similar author first. Any suggestions?
Like others have said, decompress for a bit. Is there any other genre you like?

Yes thats it! oh I Efing love that book, I read the whole thing in about ten hours back in middle school.👍
Please tell me those of you who love Ender's Game have finished the saga.

I see too many people who read Ender's Game and stop there. Ender's Game is the book that Card had to write in order for the book he wanted to write, Speaker for the Dead, to make sense. So many people read Ender's Game and walk away thinking of Ender as this great reluctant hero, when in actuality he committed the greatest crime ever, xenocide. In one move he wiped out an entire species. He spends three more books making amends. In comparison to the other three books Ender's Game is a children's book. I hate when I see school reading lists that only have Ender's Game on them. If they are going to take that step then they should finish it and make them read through Children of the Mind. And then they would benefit equally well by having them read the Shadow saga.
 
I read Ender's Game and Speaker For The Dead, but stopped there. I liked them, but for some reason I wasn't intrigued enough to sign up for 2 or 3 more books.
 
I read Ender's Game and Speaker For The Dead, but stopped there. I liked them, but for some reason I wasn't intrigued enough to sign up for 2 or 3 more books.
Two more in the Ender saga. You missed where he stands up to the entire rest of humanity to defend a primitive race's right to live and manages to do a few more extremely crazy things along the way.

The Shadow Saga (Starts with Ender's Shadow) follows Bean as he completes Battle School and then goes to help Peter Wiggin take hegemonic rule over Earth. You even get to see some of the interactions between Peter and Ender from Peter's perspective, including their last conversation, which shows that Peter is not the sociopath he appeared to be to Ender, rather a guy who wants to do good, but has an immoral way of going about it. It also creates a great political and social drama as you get world war in the truest meaning of the word, and power has nothing to do with weapons, but having the most Battle School graduates on your side. And the closer to Ender those graduates were the bigger a target they become.
 
I read daily - i spend 40 minutes a day on trains so it gives me plenty of time to read. I prefer this to napping since it gets my brain working in the mornings.

Suggested novels: Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami, House of Leaves by Mark Danielewski
 
I love to read.
My father was not a very good reader. He started teaching me when I was about 3 years old.
I usually have 2 or three books going at a time.
I'm currently reading Salvation in Death by J.D. Robb (who is actually Nora Roberts),
You were Warned by James Patterson and Howard Roughan, and one of John Sandford's newer releases.

One of the things I love about my current job is that my boss doesn't care that we read while doing a bedside dialysis treatment. So, between getting vital signs every 15 minutes, I read.

I will say that some of my professors back in the day tried to make me hate reading by assigning so called classics such as Tartuffe, Billy Budd, and The Scarlet Letter, as well as some of the tripe written by Jonathan Edwards.
I still manage to enjoy reading.
 
Yes I did read the rest of the Enders Game books, it was just that I had forgotten what they were titled, now I am going to find them so I can read them again.
 
Back