How often do you read books for your personal enjoyment?

[yoda313]

So how often do you read books for fun? At times I am every night depending on the book. Sometimes I can go months without picking one up. Other times I'll be every other week.

I recently bought all of the robotech books on ebay. Can't wait till they ship!

[gadgetguy]

A few times a year. The last book I read was the latest Harry Potter, but since I have limited reading time, most of my recreational reading is reserved for Star Trek novels.

[dcsos]

I DON'T READ THE F*CKIN' MANUAL

Just gimme some fiction instead make it comprehensible please (no Faulkner)
Reading is an activity hard to quantify. Like the commercial, somtimes you feel like a nut, sometimes no

[DereX888]

yep, sci-fi (no fantasy pls), dramas and some documentary-style is what Im reading every day. But I try not to spend time on reading-only Since life is too short, I decided to always read when I'm "on idle" (i.e. taking a bath, in the washroom, while traveling etc). The only time I designate for reading-only is before I sleep (if Im alone in bed ofcoz ). Thats when digital-format ebooks loaded into phone always come handy
I hate audiobooks though, never been fan of it. I tried to listen few audiobooks in the car, but it didnt work for me, I simply prefer music while driving. Audiobooks shouldn't be considered "reading" anyways, hmm.

[lordsmurf]

Audio books on long trips. Nancy Drew has been my recent favorite (the original 1930s stories, first few books). I might grab some of the written books when the audio ones run out.

[JohnnyMalaria]

Well, being the sad old git that I am , I derive pleasure from reading technical things or factual stuff. So it can be quite often. I rarely read fiction (though some TV news website fall into that category). I've become increasingly interested in history, too.

Much of what I do read for pleasure is on the web - like this forum . My laptop is all but nailed to my thighs

[redwudz]

I have a good collection of the classics, Robinson Crusoe, A Tale of Two Cities, Ivanhoe, etc.. Just paperback versions, but I re-read them several times a year. There's really no comparison to the images a good book makes in your mind, compared to a movie that is someone else's vision.

[Bjs]

The only books I read are workshop manuals for vehicles .

Everything else is considered "plug n play"

Then throw in the countless online , forum posts , small business services , IT course notes .

[impmon2]

I read a lot. I'm not talking just the current popular books like Harry Potter but many more (mostly older books) including Thornton Burgess series (around 50 or so total), Hardy Boys and the Case File side series, Chronicle of Narnia (huge book) etc. Not counting kids book (pictures, few or no words) I probably have read a lifetime total of about 1,000 books plus another 1,000 or so ebooks mostly fanfictions. Poor PDA has quit working after so many ebooks

Curent book: Through the Wolf's Eye by Jane.

[mats.hogberg]

A day without reading (for pleasure) is a day lost.
Classic SF (Asimov, Clarke et al) is my genre par preferance, even if I can endure the occational crime novel. And like DereX888 - No Fantasy. I can't understand how SF and Fantasy is always bundeled. They are more like opposites IMO.
Manuals and programming books of course, but that's not for the same purpose. (Well, reading the manual for that new hardware gadget is actually quite a pleasure too!)
Favourite reading place: In the bath tub. And it would really have to be a hottie to keep me from reading at least a few minutes before attending other bed business.

/Mats

[Epicurus8a]

Who has time to read anything these day? Sometimes I listen to Audio Books while I'm driving, but that's about it. If I'm waiting while my car is being serviced I'm watch something on my iPod.

[träskmannen]

A day without reading (for pleasure) is a day lost.

Well said! I always try to get time to read at least a few minutes before going to sleep. I am usually part of the way through at least two books at the same time, one brain-dead entertainment for when I am really tired and one that gives a bit more of a challenge but at the same time demands a bit more from me.

[Radixmind]

as a younger man, i got thru a book every couple of weeks. nowadays, i have trouble finding the kind of hours required to commit to a really good book.

Different books demand different reading schedules. i'm currently about halfway through book 2 of Neal Stephenson's Baroque Cycle (a sort of Dense Historical Fantasy with tons of actual real events and info in it) but i dip into that, probably no more than 20- 40 pages a week, then leaving it for a long while. Alternateively, when a Terry Pratchett comes my way, i suck it up in one session, giggling at the frothiness of it.

a freind of mine swears by audiobooks, because they can be listened to in the car, as he commutes. i've tried and enjoyed them, but they dont really compare to words on a page. Even unabridged ones feel like an adaptation, so i wouldnt include them in my book reading any more than a good tv drama.

i also recommend reading two books at one time (not simultaneously, stupid). you can balance a heavy tome with an easier one, and give your brain a more rounded work-out. Fiction, it appears, is good for the brain, better at stimulating new pathways and staving off mental decrepitude than hard factual journals or biographies.

[Marvingj]

I love reading basically at night when I can get a break from the wife....I love Tom Clancy's. I just starting on Debt of Honor.

[mats.hogberg]

Neal Stephenson's Baroque Cycle

Probably the best trilogy in the World. Heavy, but brilliant. If you've not read earlier Stephenson's novels (Somehow I can't decide between Diamond Age or Cryptonomicon whic I enjoyed the most) you have much to look forward to.

/Mats

[Xylob the Destroyer]

no where near as much as I used to.
no where near as much as I should.

I read new comics every week.
That does not count!

I used to read for entertainment almost constantly.
Didn't even have a TV for several years.

Now, I can't remember the last time I read a book.....
Probably about 8 years ago when I read "The Silmarillion".

[Salva Veritate]

I don't really read much fiction, but I read a lot of non-fiction and political stuff. Right now I'm reading Prison Writings by Leonard Peltier. I read to expand my mind and gain knowledge. And since I like reading, and I'm interested in the subject matter, it's not a chore!

[oldfart13]

I used to read nothing but tech manuals up to about 1999 but after meeting S.M. Stirling at a convention in 2000 I don't let a day slip by without reading a book. His Nantucket trilogy of books was so good I have read it several times. Currently saving up to purchase his latest hardbound novel "The Sunrise Lands" which was released a few days ago. Nice of him to have posted several chapters of his books on his website to get you interested first. Many authors are doing the same. Check them out if you have time....

[Nitemare]

At the risk of sounding traditional (and gross) I keep a book on hand in the bathroom and one on the nightstand. It drives my wife crazy when I re-read a book, but there are certain books/series I have to read annually. (I get my $$$'s worth out of a book)

LOTR, The Dark is Rising sequence (movie coming out... already planning on NOT seeing it), Harry Potter books (every time a new movie/book comes out I re-read the entire series), the Anne McCaffery dragon series(tri-annually), Left Behind, Narnia, and R.A. Salvatore's Drizzt books.

For brainless and fun reading, nothing is better than E.R.B.'s Tarzan series, the OZ books, or anything that Mickey Spillane ever wrote.

You can never go wrong with Lovecraft either.

[Radixmind]

Mats.Hogberg wrote:
Neal Stephenson's Baroque Cycle - Probably the best trilogy in the World. Heavy, but brilliant. If you've not read earlier Stephenson's novels (Somehow I can't decide between Diamond Age or Cryptonomicon whic I enjoyed the most) you have much to look forward to.

mats,

Stephenson, yeah. i got into him with Snow Crash, then Zodiac, Diamond Age, Cryptonomicon. Of course, Cryptonomicon is sort of the unofficial 'pre-sequel' to the Baroque Cycle, featuring as it does the descendants of those books (and at least one character who seems immortal - i think).

but i've enjoyed watching how his style has changed over the course of these books. Snow Crash is almost the ultimate 'Teen Sci-Fi cool guys and sexy chicks with guns and swords' book, except for the smart stuff about the origin of language and the nature of communication. by Diamond Age he's got some beleivable female characters and he's playing with the narrative, using a child's book to parallel the story. By Cryptonomicon he's in full 'Kitchen Sink' mode, seemingly unedited, moving from talking about roleplaying games and world simulations to Bletchley Park and Turing machines, to Japanese prisoners of war, in the space of a couple of chapters. Quicksilver is that X10, and a lot more besides.

Also, i am of the opinion that Neal Stephenson writes the best fights in the world.

[oldfart13]

At the risk of sounding traditional (and gross) I keep a book on hand in the bathroom and one on the nightstand. It drives my wife crazy when I re-read a book, but there are certain books/series I have to read annually. (I get my $$$'s worth out of a book)

LOTR, The Dark is Rising sequence (movie coming out... already planning on NOT seeing it), Harry Potter books (every time a new movie/book comes out I re-read the entire series), the Anne McCaffery dragon series(tri-annually), Left Behind, Narnia, and R.A. Salvatore's Drizzt books.

For brainless and fun reading, nothing is better than E.R.B.'s Tarzan series, the OZ books, or anything that Mickey Spillane ever wrote.

You can never go wrong with Lovecraft either.

You might like S.M. Stirling's homage to the Burroughs books, "In the Court of the Crimson Kings" (Mars) and "The Sky People" (Venus...should be out in paperback soon). If you want to check out chapters of his books, go here:

http://www.smstirling.com/

Lotsa reading even if you don't buy his books....

[Nitemare]

Thank you!

[Constant Gardener]

I used to read a lot, but that was before wife, house, kids, and an intense job that leaves my brain somewhat numb after hours. So now I'm lucky to read a couple of books a month. SF ( Iain Banks, Sean McMullen, George Turner), thrillers (just found Gavin Lyall's first, "The Wrong Side Of The Sky" from 1961), and a bunch of non-fiction, currently Jared Diamond's "Guns, Germs, and Steel", with a biography of Edison in the queue.

[somebodeez]

As a young girl during summer vacation from school, my parents use to take us to the library and I'd stock up on quite a pile of books (usually mysteries for young readers by Phyllis Whitney).
Sometimes I'd take a book or 2 outside with me and climb my favorite tree and read away the afternoon perched on a limb high above all of my cares that were below .

Ahhh the memories.

These days, I read just about every night before falling asleep (in our bed, not a tree ) and I just love curling up w/DH and a good book, especially on rainy afternoons.

[DereX888]

ATM seems like 1/4 of those who answered the poll does read a book every day, and 1/3 including occasional readers.
What a surprise!
I thought it'll be great if only 1/10 would admit to be literate at all

[yoda313]

ATM seems like 1/4 of those who answered the poll does read a book every day, and 1/3 including occasional readers.
What a surprise!
I thought it'll be great if only 1/10 would admit to be literate at all

Hey that's just a sign of the high quality of the members of videohelp.com!!!!

[MeDiCo_BrUjO]

Just for the record:

FHM, Stuff & alike does NOT count!!!!

Playboy neither, it doesn't matter how good the articles are...

I am lucky enough to be able to read books in two languages with master writers in them.

Miguel de Cervantes's work is fascinating, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Mario Vargas Llosa, Borges, etc.
Dante Alighieri, Dickens, Homer... not much of a Shakespeare guy.

But my favorite book ever: 1001 Arabian nights!... that damn book is like 1500 pages..... (there are several versions of it, and this one was loooooooooong!)

[dadrab]

Well, I have to weigh in on the other side of the scale.

I read A LOT, but hardly ever books for pleasure. I read at least two newspapers a day and scan a couple more. I read manuals for whatever the hardware du jour is. I read guides on this site like I know what I'm doing. 8)

I read enough material to sucessfully put a fuel-injected/turbo charged engine into a twenty-year-old vehicle that came from the factory with carbourated one. Brand new (1987), the truck put out a whopping 92 horsepower. She does considerably better than that now. I was 46 at the time and had never done anything more under the hood of a car than change a valve cover gasket.

I read a good many magazines too.

I have found that my intense interest in prehistoric creatures led me to read the entire MEG trilogy by Steve Alten. He's a young writer and, I think, quite good. His stuff is well researched and based in scientific fact. Riveting stuff: Picture a great white shark that's 75 feet long - that's a MEG (carcharidon megalodon) - that's loose in modern day ocean waters...

In the early years of my career, I was a newspaper reporter. I read books and wrote much more then. Now, with younger kids and the sports and activities that go along with them, I stay busy as Hell, but not reading for pleasure.

As a kid, I took a speed-reading course. I use the techniques to this day. I read quite quickly, but, somehow, the joy of curling up and savoring a book just isn't there any more. I tend to bury myself in other things, though.

For brainless and fun reading, nothing is better than E.R.B.'s Tarzan series, the OZ books, or anything that Mickey Spillane ever wrote.

Nitemare,

I spent an entire afternoon with Mr. Spillane some years ago. Nice man...and funny.[/b]