Do you enjoy reading?

[homeforsummer]

I enjoy reading a lot, but unfortunately I rarely make the time to do so. When I do sit down and read, I love travel books such as those by Bill Bryson or the recent Long Way Down/Long Way Round, the Motorcycle Diaries and my current read which is Michael Palin's Himalaya.

 

[FoolKiller]

Or you can just use the library where the books are you know, free. I get audiobooks all the time from the library and just rip them onto my Zune so I'm not holding up someone else who might want the book. I typically get the abridged stuff too since most book do not require the full text to be entertaining.

I prefer to own my books, audio or print. I usually give a story multiple go throughs and I like to compensate an author that I enjoy. This goes for the free independent stuff too. I now have four print version books (of his previous audibooks) from Scott Sigler and one on pre-order, one from Mur Lafferty, and am going to get one from JC Hutchins soon as well. Once Mark Jeffrey finishes his last book in the Max Quick trilogy I will likely buy all three of them in paperback.

The other benefit to my subscription service I use is that they will sometimes have different versions. Sometimes it is abridged vs unabridged (unabridged for me, always) or in the case of Atlas Shrugged, which I picked up in a $5 sale, they were two different readings. With their sample I managed to tell that one was a very monotonous reading, where the reader obviously did not care. The other was a reader that either felt what he was reading, or did a good job of pretending to. The passion of the characters was evident in his voice.



Currently, I am reading HG Wells' "In the Days of the Comet," which is the final novel in "The Complete Science Fiction Works of HG Wells" book I have been working my way through. I just finished listening to episode 49 of Podcastle, a fantasy short fiction podcast.

 

[Mark T]

I love reading and I should really allocate more of my time to it. I always have half an hour reading before I go to sleep.

 

[Joey D]

I prefer to own my books, audio or print. I usually give a story multiple go throughs and I like to compensate an author that I enjoy. This goes for the free independent stuff too. I now have four print version books (of his previous audibooks) from Scott Sigler and one on pre-order, one from Mur Lafferty, and am going to get one from JC Hutchins soon as well. Once Mark Jeffrey finishes his last book in the Max Quick trilogy I will likely buy all three of them in paperback.

Oh don't get me wrong I own a ton of books, both in-print and in audio form too (used book sales FTW). It's just some stuff I don't bother buying because it's going to be a quick read. For instance I would never buy a James Patterson or Tom Clancy novel, but rather just get em from the library.

The other benefit to my subscription service I use is that they will sometimes have different versions. Sometimes it is abridged vs unabridged (unabridged for me, always) or in the case of Atlas Shrugged, which I picked up in a $5 sale, they were two different readings. With their sample I managed to tell that one was a very monotonous reading, where the reader obviously did not care. The other was a reader that either felt what he was reading, or did a good job of pretending to. The passion of the characters was evident in his voice.

Ya I know what you mean, but for the most part free (OK libraries aren't exactly free with taxes and what not) is always better.

Readers make the or break the book though, I have had numerous stories ruined because of a poor reader. On the flip side though I've had numerous poor stories turn out to be tolerable because the reader is good.

 

[FoolKiller]

Oh don't get me wrong I own a ton of books, both in-print and in audio form too (used book sales FTW). It's just some stuff I don't bother buying because it's going to be a quick read. For instance I would never buy a James Patterson or Tom Clancy novel, but rather just get em from the library.

I was about to say I agree, but then I realized I own nearly every Clive Cussler book. But I think those make fun vacation reading.

 

[Joey D]

I was about to say I agree, but then I realized I own nearly every Clive Cussler book. But I think those make fun vacation reading.

Oh good lord, Clive Cussler? I hate his books because they try to hard and end up being awful. If you want something with a Clive Cussler feel without the awfulness read something by Lincoln Child or Douglas Preston that isn't from their Pendergast series. One of my favorites is Deep Storm by Lincoln Child. Completely out there but well written.

 

[FoolKiller]

Oh good lord, Clive Cussler? I hate his books because they try to hard and end up being awful.

It is good classic cheesy action. Plus, I enjoy the adventure based on a historic mystery, sometimes based on shipwrecks that he himself has searched for. Plus, I love his car collection and attention to detail he gives any time he puts one into the story.

Considering your interest in archeology/anthropology I highly recommend checking out his non-fiction Sea Hunters books.

If you want something with a Clive Cussler feel without the awfulness read something by Lincoln Child or Douglas Preston that isn't from their Pendergast series. One of my favorites is Deep Storm by Lincoln Child. Completely out there but well written.

I own it, as well as a few of their joint works.

 

[Duke]

And by doing it through the library I fail to see how I'm breaking any laws since I can sit at a library all day and make photocopies of every page from a reference book.

Actually, that's a copyright violation. It's illegal to do that. Your library should have a sign up that says photocopying of copyrighted materials is prohibited.

This is not even mentioning the 100's of free, legal books I download through Gutenberg.com.

Then those are legal, aren't they? Why would you mention them?

Not to mention the fact that if you just used the audiobook directly it would be the same thing as burning it onto an mp3 player.

Except that once you rip it to the MP3 player, it's a COPY, and then you can listen to it while somebody else listens to it at the same time, even though only ONE legal copy was purchased by the library.

You people really should get a better grasp of copyright law. But that's a subject for another thread, not this one, so I'm going to drop it here.

 

[Danoff]

Nope, hate reading actually. I'm a slow reader, and I have trouble focusing on it for extended periods. That being said, I do it anyway because I often enjoy the material.

For someone like me, reading a bad book is extremely painful - because I don't like reading to begin with. So I have to be 99% sure I'm going to enjoy reading the book before I pick it up... which discourages picking them up.

Reading also strikes me as wasted time. I don't particularly enjoy the act of reading, and it takes me months to get through even a short book, so it seems like an extremely inefficient way of getting entertainment- so I don't often read for entertainment.

 

[Joey D]

Considering your interest in archeology/anthropology I highly recommend checking out his non-fiction Sea Hunters books.

Ya I've been meaning to get around to reading them.

Actually, that's a copyright violation. It's illegal to do that. Your library should have a sign up that says photocopying of copyrighted materials is prohibited.

I've never seen a sign like that at any library nor have I ever had a librarian limit me to amount of copies I could make from one book, just as long as I keep putting dimes into the machine I can keep copying. If it is illegal then they should be much clearer about it and inform people.

When I was at university quite a few books were also scanned in online, which I could easily hit print and have a hard copy of them more or less instantly without paying for it.

I still can't see how I'm violating any laws when the public library, a government ran institution, allows me to make copies from a book or when the university library, another government funded institution, allows me to view and print material through the internet.

Then those are legal, aren't they? Why would you mention them?

You keep making assumptions that I steal anything and everything and I have just hard drives full of copyright infringed material, which is not only a lie, it's also personally attacking my character and making me out to be something I am not.

 

[Famine]

Actually, that's a copyright violation. It's illegal to do that. Your library should have a sign up that says photocopying of copyrighted materials is prohibited.

Indeed - the UK law is that you may photocopy a maximum of:

• 5% of a work
• one complete chapter of a book
• one article from a single issue of a journal
• one short story or poem from an anthology (maximum 10 pages)

 

[Danoff]

I've never seen a sign like that at any library nor have I ever had a librarian limit me to amount of copies I could make from one book, just as long as I keep putting dimes into the machine I can keep copying. If it is illegal then they should be much clearer about it and inform people.

Strict liability. Lack of understanding is not a defense.

I still can't see how I'm violating any laws when the public library, a government ran institution, allows me to make copies from a book or when the university library, another government funded institution, allows me to view and print material through the internet.

The fact that the librarian doesn't stop you from breaking the law is also not a defense. Try using some sort of defense that would actually apply in court. Actually don't, because you can't. Photocopying a copyrighted work is pretty much the definition of a copyright violation. It actually doesn't get a whole lot clearer than that.

Feel free to photocopy works who's copyrights have expired though.

 

[Omnis]

I don't know if I should read the rest of the 6th harry potter book, or get Stephen Fry to read it to me. Does Fry do the American ones too, or am I going to have to look for an english audiobook?

 

[FoolKiller]

Nope, hate reading actually. I'm a slow reader, and I have trouble focusing on it for extended periods. That being said, I do it anyway because I often enjoy the material.

For someone like me, reading a bad book is extremely painful - because I don't like reading to begin with. So I have to be 99% sure I'm going to enjoy reading the book before I pick it up... which discourages picking them up.

Reading also strikes me as wasted time. I don't particularly enjoy the act of reading, and it takes me months to get through even a short book, so it seems like an extremely inefficient way of getting entertainment- so I don't often read for entertainment.

I have to say that you are probably the person I least expected to hate reading. I understand though. A few of my close friends are like this. It nearly caused one to give up on college. He stuck it through though. I do agree about a bad book being painful.

As for me, I am a turn the TV off and only have a reading light on over my shoulder kind of guy. I let myself get sucked in to a good story. Once when I was a kid I was reading a Hardy Boys novel and I was at this part where they were trying to sneak up on the bad guys by taking a canoe across a lake, and it mentioned how they had to be quiet because sound travels over water really well. My mom dropped a pan in the kitchen and I freaked out for a second.

I'm the guy you see at a library sale walking out with multiple boxes of books.

I don't know if I should read the rest of the 6th harry potter book, or get Stephen Fry to read it to me. Does Fry do the American ones too, or am I going to have to look for an english audiobook?

Looking at Amazon, the audiobooks appear to use Jim Dale.

 

[Famine]

Jim Dale? I thought he died years ago... The Carry On guy?

 

[FoolKiller]

Jim Dale? I thought he died years ago... The Carry On guy?

Apparently he didn't, and yes he is.

http://www.jim-dale.com/

 

[Famine]

Bloody hell fire... I thought all the Carryonistas were dead apart from Barbara Windsor.

You learn something new every day.

 

[TB]

Nope, hate reading actually. I'm a slow reader, and I have trouble focusing on it for extended periods. That being said, I do it anyway because I often enjoy the material.

You must really like my DVD compression posts, then...

Hopefully that last sentence applies!

I'm personally not a huge fan of reading, either. I do so every night for the kids before bed, but other than that, very seldom.

 

[Sage]

For someone like me, reading a bad book is extremely painful - because I don't like reading to begin with. So I have to be 99% sure I'm going to enjoy reading the book before I pick it up... which discourages picking them up.

Yeah, I will not pick up a book unless someone I know has already read it – and even then I’ve stopped halfway through a lot of books because I couldn’t stand them anymore.

Also, I realized recently when talking to a friend that I pretty much only read non-fiction – other than Rand, Heinlein, and Adams, I generally have no interest in fiction. I’m a visual person, so if I want entertainment I find TV much more compelling and memorable.

 

[Duke]

Huh - I never expected that from either of you two. I read probably 1000-1500 pages a month just for pleasure; a random mix of fiction, non-fiction, and comics/graphic novels/sequential art.

What's the hurdle with starting a book? Pick it up, and if you don't like it, just quit reading it. That's what libraries and used book stores are for. I almost never pay retail for a book unless I know I want to own it, but heck, it don't cost nuthin' to read a little.

That being said, I rarely don't finish a book unless it is completely execrable. For instance I'm currently taking small doses of a compilation of Diablo-based fanfic that I bought for my wife as a joke. She got through the first novella before giving up - I can't do any less and still retain my manhood...

 

[Omnis]

I got this book called Innovation Nation that I never read. It's probably out-modded already since its a few years old now. Should I read it or sell it? I have a feeling it's one of those Obama-style soft fascist, achievement through government programs kind of books.

 

[FoolKiller]

What's the hurdle with starting a book? Pick it up, and if you don't like it, just quit reading it.

My cousin saw me starting on a combined edition of The Lord of the Rings trilogy and made some comment about how seeing me flip to that first page looked like a terrifying step. To me it was no different than walking through the door of a movie theater.

I try to work in a non-fiction every third or fourth book. The count is probably off as I have a bad habit of reading more than one book at a time and mixing my Racer magazines into the mix.

That's what libraries and used book stores are for. I almost never pay retail for a book unless I know I want to own it, but heck, it don't cost nuthin' to read a little.

Please tell me you have a Half Price Books in your town. I love that place. It's like a perfect mix of back alley used bookstore prices with the setup of a Barnes & Noble, minus the in-store Starbucks.



My wife wishes I would stop buying books. I have two overloaded (as in shelves coming lose, books falling if you bump it) bookcases and a few plastic storage containers in the attic of all my childhood and young adult books. She tried to get me to sell some but I couldn't bring myself to do it.

I am actually worse about books than I am movies. With movies I get one version and one only. If they put out a new special edition or whatever that just has bonus features I ignore them. But books...I have all five "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" books in paperback, and also have the hardcover "Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" because it contained the "Young Zaphod Plays it Safe" short story.

 

[Joey D]

I am actually worse about books than I am movies. With movies I get one version and one only. If they put out a new special edition or whatever that just has bonus features I ignore them. But books...I have all five "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" books in paperback, and also have the hardcover "Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" because it contained the "Young Zaphod Plays it Safe" short story.

You can never have enough editions of the Hitchhiker's Guide. I have the Ultimate Edition, all the American versions of the books series and all the UK editions of the book series. Plus I have them all on tape or CD.

 

[Danoff]

What's the hurdle with starting a book? Pick it up, and if you don't like it, just quit reading it.

It takes me weeks to get to the point where I'm confident that I don't like it. With a bad movie, I'm wasting 2 hours max. With a bad book, I can (and have) spent my free time for a month or two before realizing I needed to give up.

You must really like my DVD compression posts, then...

Hopefully that last sentence applies!

I'm definitely willing to read if there's a payoff - like learning how to do something useful.

 

[homeforsummer]

What's the hurdle with starting a book? Pick it up, and if you don't like it, just quit reading it. That's what libraries and used book stores are for. I almost never pay retail for a book unless I know I want to own it, but heck, it don't cost nuthin' to read a little.

+1. Unless it's hot off the press I can't see any reason for buying a book brand new when you can pick up a used one for a couple of quid at a market, charity shop, used book store etc. Most of the books I get now are second hand unless I'm lucky enough to have been given a book voucher or something to buy one brand new.

But I have a bit of an OCD thing going on with books anyway. If it's brand new I baby it so the cover or spine don't get creased and get irate if other people damage it in any way. So for me a pre-knackered book relieves me some of that stress...

 

[boiltheocean]

Peter Moore got me back into reading. I bought one of his books with a name I can't say (AUP) and it just flowed from their, ending up buying and reading all of his books within a month. Read a couple of them twice and they still make me laugh.

My name is Peter Moore and I go on grand journeys and write about them. I've travelled overland from London to Sydney and from Cape Town to Cairo. And more recently I bought a Vespa as old as I am and rode around Italy.
I hope my stories convey what I love about travel - the adventure, the laughs, the tough times and the incredible hospitality of people in the most unexpected places. Most importantly, I hope my books make you want to hit the road yourself.

 

[Omnis]

My wife wishes I would stop buying books. I have two overloaded (as in shelves coming lose, books falling if you bump it) bookcases and a few plastic storage containers in the attic of all my childhood and young adult books. She tried to get me to sell some but I couldn't bring myself to do it.

Yeah I still have all my children's books too. My favorites are a book of about a 100 animals that have been illustrated as complete cyborgs/robots, and then the best of them all, called How Does It Work or something like that, which is basically a big book answering all the questions about the natural world that a child could have. I found it while I was studying optics and it even taught me stuff at 19 years old. I need to ask my mom who got that for me and send a proper thank you card.

 

[Sage]

Huh - I never expected that from either of you two.

I think my brain empathizes more with a TV producer than a novel writer. When I’m reading I tend to miss a lot of the details, but when I watch TV I feel like I get and see most of the things that people miss.

 

[daan]

And by doing it through the library I fail to see how I'm breaking any laws since I can sit at a library all day and make photocopies of every page from a reference book.

Actually, that's a copyright violation. It's illegal to do that. Your library should have a sign up that says photocopying of copyrighted materials is prohibited.

I've never seen a sign like that at any library nor have I ever had a librarian limit me to amount of copies I could make from one book, just as long as I keep putting dimes into the machine I can keep copying. If it is illegal then they should be much clearer about it and inform people.

I know I'm in a different country, but I can go and take a photograph of the notice we have up behind our photocopier in the library I work in that explains what you are allowed to copy, how much of it you can copy, and what is completely prohibited from copying.


I enjoy reading, mainly non-fiction. I'm currently reading Phoenix Squadron by Rowland White (Ark Royal sails to British Honduras to stop a Guatamalan attack in 1972). I've also got his other book, Vulcan 607, which is about the (then) longest bombing raid in history (from Ascension Island in the mid-Atlantic to the Falklands in 1982)

After them, I've got The Man Who Would Not Die: The Remarkable Story of 'Lucky' Herschel McKee Barnstormer, war hero, test pilot, motor racer, scoundrel which sounds excellent!

 

[senamic]

I would have to say that I enjoy the healthy read, even if my taste is a bit strange. My shelf is filled predominantly with science fiction/ dystopian works, of which I would certainly recommend:

Dune by Frank Herbert= Even if it goes a bit potty later on in the series (with Children of Dune), Herberts work is a true masterpiece.

A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess= Brilliant novella, which unfortunately overshadows the author's other works. This novel raises several moral conflicts, and is a joy to read. I would also recommend (from the author's list of works) The Wanting Seed and The Doctor is Sick.

Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut= So it goes. These three words are the core of this book, a masterpiece of the fatalist doctrine. A must in any collection.

Moving down to the next shelf we have my miscellaneous texts, of which I regularly read:

The Collector by John Fowles= Grants unique insight into the mindset of the obsessed, and highlights issues with a society having intellectual division and a severe level of class division.

Day of the Cheetah by Dale Brown= A cracking read for when you just want to chill. Lovely plot about a Russian agent stealing an experimental US warplane, and then some nice dogfights. My preferred brain drain.

Hope that someone will find something useful in this list!