›
This forum is in permanent archive mode. Our new active community can be found here.

Read a Book!

gomidoggomidog
edited June 2008 in Flamewars
I was shocked, shocked I say! People on the forum who think reading is lame? That is because you are crazy! Sure, you need to find books that appeal to your sensibilities, but to disregard reading in general...Oy Gevalt. Maybe it is because I was raised without a television that I am a bit of a book hound, but I remember being in Japan and my friends laughing because of my frequent trips to the book store. The thing about books is that you have more control over them, to imagine. It's like watching a movie, except you make up the visuals and settings, and the only limit is your mind. People! All you non-readers out there, convince me that you are not:
1. academically challenged
2. unimaginative
...Because otherwise I might get that idea. Give me a good argument against the literary form.
«134

Comments

  • AprecheApreche
    edited June 2008
    I'm very convinced that the non-readers are academically challenged. Remember the music video? Read a book. Notice that book has other verses that tell you to do other things like wear deodorant. Of course, reading a book is the first verse, the last verse, the title of the song, and the most repeated verse. Wearing deoderant is just two verses near the end. In other words, someone who doesn't read is worse than someone who doesn't wear deoderant.

    Yes, it is that bad.

    READ.
    Post edited by Apreche on
  • ZeehatZeehat
    Who said reading is lame? I feel really sorry for them.
  • chaosof99chaosof99
    I also like to read a good book once in a while, but recently the time I got free to entertain myself with is usually taken up by movies or manga. The last book I read fully was Grand Theft Childhood (excellent book by the way) about a month and a half ago. However, I just ordered The Zombie Survival Guide today. The only thing that bugs me about that is that I still got the complete Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy on my nightstand that I want to reread. Well, summer is coming up. I'll probably have some more time when the upcoming exams are past.
  • AprecheApreche
    I also like to read a good book once in a while, but recently the time I got free to entertain myself with is usually taken up by movies or manga. The last book I read fully was Grand Theft Childhood (excellent book by the way) about a month and a half ago. However, I just ordered The Zombie Survival Guide today. The only thing that bugs me about that is that I still got the complete Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy on my nightstand that I want to reread. Well, summer is coming up. I'll probably have some more time when the upcoming exams are past.
    That's plenty of reading. We're talking about the people who do not read books.
  • AndrewAndrew
    edited June 2008
    I mainly only read non-fiction books. I just haven't really been in the mood to read anything else. I've got a couple books planned for the summer. First up is Why People Believe Weird Things: Pseudoscience, Superstition, and Other Confusions of Our Time by Michael Shermer then I plan to read God is not Great by Christopher Hitchens and then The Demon-Haunted World by Carl Sagan. I also plan to finish my H.P. Lovecraft anthology, the His Dark Materials trilogy, and maybe a couple other books
    Post edited by Andrew on
  • chaosof99chaosof99
    I got a bit off there. I think it's perfectly fine for some people not to read, as long as they got a good reason for it. Perhaps they enjoy good movies or television (and yes, there is good television) instead. Maybe they are swamped with work (and enjoy it?). Or they use the free time they got to exercise. Possibly they are creative in their spare time and have their projects.

    However, there are also stupid reasons not to read. Anyone who is afraid of paper with words on it is a fool in my opinion.
  • ......
    edited June 2008
    I was shocked, shocked I say! People on the forum who think reading is lame?
    Go read Dutch 'literature'. After the third book of "WOE IS ME! MISERY IS ME!" (note, the writers are fucking serious, not like Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei) you really start wishing those writers would hang themselves already instead of writing about their pain and torturing the readers with it. That, is what killed my joy for reading books. I have since slowly started picking up reading again, but only English books. Besides the majority of Dutch books being either translated English books or misery and woe, the Dutch language also SUCKS to write in. I find them bland and boring to say the least, whereas English is far more appealing to me.

    As for your points, eh, I think I'm academically challenged yes, but that's because I've never read many books, when I was a little kid I played outside for hours on end, days on end, a really fucking lot. My best friend and I wandered through foresty part near our town for ages, imagining we were knights, heroes, power rangers, tons of things. To this day I still imagine a lot. An hour ago I was talking to Neito, and telling him about an old character I had come up with for a forum RPG I hadn't participated in for months at that time, (this because he's trying to get a D&D; Disaster started, we need more players) I told him he's a bastard, and when I was building the character I imagined what he would do, how he would do some things, like eating the flesh of a woman... in grotesque detail acompanied with torture and display in the bloodied kitchen of the woman herself. (Yes, he's a fucking bastard with little respect for women and knows very little love. Such a young child at the age of 300-something)

    So yeah, probably academically challenged to some degree, but faaaaar from unimaginative.

    As for the argument against reading books. Some languages SUCK for the written word, and thus destroy the joy of reading or make the books boring as hell. As for what I'm currently reading, still House Atreides. My podcasts need to update less, that way I can read more on the train.
    Post edited by ... on
  • ErynEryn
    edited June 2008
    I used to read a whole lot, but I will admit that my reading in the last year or so had slumped heavily due to being caught up in a whirlwind of other geeky things (mainly anime, DS, podcasts, and lots of random internet stuff) for a long period of time. I'd only read two actual books since last summer - Harry Potter 7, and Company by Max Barry (maybe three books, if you count The Burning Wheel). Now I'm back on the book train as of late, and I'm glad to be back on it. Before I got the money to buy The Darkness That Comes Before for the book club, I read Good Omens (yay, awesome!) and Choke by Chuck Palahniuk (pretty good, but not amazing; really want to see the new film coming out starring Sam Rockwell).

    Hopefully, after I'm done the Prince of Nothing trilogy, I can finally crack open The Count of Monte Cristo again, which I started ages ago and never continued. Either that or this fun looking philosophy book my dad got me called Plato and a Platypus Walk Into a Bar.

    Okay, done rambling. XD;;
    Post edited by Eryn on
  • ErynEryn
    edited June 2008
    God is not Greatby Christopher Hitchens
    Oh yeah, I saw that at Chapters and would have bought it, had it not been too expensive for me. Need to make a note to pick that and The God Delusion up in the near future, when I have the money.

    EDIT: Oops, sorry for the double post. Normally I don't do that. ^^;
    Post edited by Eryn on
  • Kate MonsterKate Monster
    I love movies, television, AND books! I am always working on at least two books (a book for my car/purse and a book for home). I can't imagine life without steady reading.
  • HMTKSteveHMTKSteve
    Books are good when the story is good. TV/Movies are good when the story is only OK but the visuals are stunning.
  • whateverwhatever
    I find that I start and get about half way through about ten books every month but only finish one every two months.
  • Magnum_OpusMagnum_Opus
    edited June 2008
    There's something badass about reading classics and being knowledgeable about history/literature, that's just very hard to grasp. Not to say that the books aren't interesting themselves, but it just adds to them. Those are the reasons why I am reading that which is Moby-Dick, until I decided to be interrupted by Animal Farm
    Post edited by Magnum_Opus on
  • DkongDkong
    edited June 2008
    1. academically challenged
    2. unimaginative
    1. I have a 3.9-4.0 gpa (it fluctuates from report card to report card). Then again, for having a 4.0, I'm pretty sure my reading level (in terms of speed and comprehension) is abysmally low.
    2. I can't because I'm indeed unimaginative. That's one of the many reasons why I'm not a big book fan.

    Then again, it's not like I NEVER read. Last summer I read Harry Potter. Since then, I actually haven't read anything... Now I'm reading Battle Royal. I'm also planning on picking up the Haruhi novels (they've been licensed). Oh, I also have Beowulf for summer reading, which I'll probably actually read.

    And plus, reasons why I don't read (not in order):
    - school
    - work (and those 2 alone eat up a shitload of my time as is)
    - videogames
    - manga
    - movies and anime
    - hanging out with my friends
    - doing shit on the computer
    - the fact that I'm a slow reader

    And as I said in the other thread, my two biggest geeky friends read about as much as I do, which isn't that much. One read a TON last summer, but since then hasn't read anything. The other has just read Harry Potter and the Eragon books recently. As for all my other friends (most of which being significantly less geeky), none of them read.
    Post edited by Dkong on
  • kage_rodkage_rod
    While I love to read and do so often, I do have three friends who don't read often.

    One would rather watch TV, and unless it's completely silent, cannot sit still. She might also be dyslexic - she often screws up words and numbers, which slows her down further. One is simply slow (English is not her forte), but she will sit and read a lot, but it takes forever. The other is lacks speed reading skills and thus takes forever to get through one novel, so he gets discouraged.
  • jccjcc
    Blame the internet. :)
  • Sir_XanderSir_Xander
    edited June 2008
    I absolutely love to read, for my English class this year I had to read 100 pages a week and write a reading log summarizing and analyzing what I read. I usually read way more then that and I went through 7 of the 10 books in the Vlad Taltos series by Steven Brust in about one and a half months.
    I have a 3.9-4.0 gpa (it fluctuates from report card to report card). Then again, for having a 4.0, I'm pretty sure my reading level (in terms of speed and comprehension) is abysmally low.
    I suggest you do what we did in my English class and pick a book that interests you and simply read 20 pages a night, if possible. One of my friends had a similar problem and the more he read the faster he got and the more he comprehended.
    Post edited by Sir_Xander on
  • lackofcheeselackofcheese
    edited June 2008
    1. academically challenged
    2. unimaginative
    1. I have a 3.9-4.0 gpa (it fluctuates from report card to report card). Then again, for having a 4.0, I'm pretty sure my reading level (in terms of speed and comprehension) is abysmally low.
    2. I can't because I'm indeed unimaginative. That's one of the many reasons why I'm not a big book fan.
    You're in school? Also, this is 4 / 5?
    I'm in my third year of uni (college, for you Americans) and my GPA is 7 (maximum is 7). However, I have a feeling this semester I might get my first 6 :S (2 exams so far and both hit pretty damn hard).

    In recent days, I've let my reading slip a lot due to finding out just how much awesome shit I can pirate off the internet. In fact, I've probably only read ~4 books in the past year. However, there was once a time when I would read a book a week, on average. Nonetheless, as soon as my exams for this semester finish in 4 days, I'll race through the Prince of Nothing trilogy.
    Post edited by lackofcheese on
  • kiwi_birdkiwi_bird
    One of the only good things about the German school system is, that it forces you to read about 40 classic literature books, if you don't pick higher German courses in high school.
    Well, at least it is good for me, because I love classic German literature ("Storm und Drang" and "Aufklärung"), but some students hate reading.
    This forces them to at least know the basics.
  • ThaedThaed
    In High School, because I was bored, I challenged myself to read 1000 pages a week. I tore through books for months. I only stopped when I hit college. I majored in English & of course did law school after that. Reading, in many ways, is my life. However, for many years, law school killed my desire to read fiction. Reading thousands of pages of case law will do that. Now I like to think of reading as just one way to acquire information along with video and audio. It is probably the fastest and most efficient and I still read a lot for work, to learn new things and for fun.
  • Kate MonsterKate Monster
    This was in the Dodgeball episode thread, but it belongs here:
    I can't really speak for the forum as a whole, but I can speak for me and my geeky and non geeky friends combined: no one (especially high schoolers) gives a shit about reading books. 1, maybe 2 of my friends read for fun. One of my friends read just about every Stephen King book he could get his hands on last summer. Since finishing that endeavor, he hasn't read since.
    I read Harry Potter, and seldom else.
    Maybe if you read more, you would know that you just used the word seldom incorrectly. The phrases you were looking for were "little else" or "seldom anything else". Yes, it is snarky, but I am studying to become an English teacher. I like Harry Potter well enough, but it is sad when you only read work written for children. To me, you might as well have said "I read Berenstain Bear books, and little else."
  • JasonJason
    You're in school? Also, this is 4 / 5?
    Grade point averages in the U.S. are typically factored on a scale where 4.0 is the maximum, though in some cases extra credit allows you to add some decimals to that.
  • RymRym
    One of the only good things about the German school system is, that it forces you to read about 40 classic literature books,
    Good American public schools are similarly awesome. Homer Euripides, and Sophocles were the order of the day in ninth grade. ^_^
  • kiwi_birdkiwi_bird
    One of the only good things about the German school system is, that it forces you to read about 40 classic literature books,
    Good American public schools are similarly awesome. Homer Euripides, and Sophocles were the order of the day in ninth grade. ^_^
    We read those in Latin and Ancient Greek. ^_~
  • AprecheApreche
    Good American public schools are similarly awesome. Homer Euripides, and Sophocles were the order of the day in ninth grade. ^_^
    We read those in Latin and Ancient Greek. ^_~
    Pwn3d.
  • HungryJoeHungryJoe
    edited June 2008
    However, for many years, law school killed my desire to read fiction.
    Carol says that law school screwed up her ability to enjoy fiction for many years as well. Most of my friends say the same thing. However, I was actually more inspired to read fiction in order to gain even a temporary escape from those cases, rules, and statutes.
    Post edited by HungryJoe on
  • VigaViga
    One of the only good things about the German school system is, that it forces you to read about 40 classic literature books,
    Good American public schools are similarly awesome. Homer Euripides, and Sophocles were the order of the day in ninth grade. ^_^
    You only got those in the higher class rank. My 3rd H.S was split between University H.S. (smart people) Comprehensive H.S. (dumb people) and VPA program. (Artsy cool people) I got to be in a great literature class in the Uni H.S.
  • IlmarinenIlmarinen
    One of the only good things about the German school system is, that it forces you to read about 40 classic literature books,
    Good American public schools are similarly awesome. Homer Euripides, and Sophocles were the order of the day in ninth grade. ^_^
    You only got those in the higher class rank. My 3rd H.S was split between University H.S. (smart people) Comprehensive H.S. (dumb people) and VPA program. (Artsy cool people) I got to be in a great literature class in the Uni H.S.
    You guys are lucky... The only Greek stuff I've seen in school is Aristotle's Poetics(and even then, it was only to compare him to Shakespeare).
  • bunnikunbunnikun
    Great American "classics" are shoved down our throats in my high school. ;_;

    11 Classics for summer reading this year. Thank you five AP classes.

    I like reading, but generally I like reading on my own terms. When forced to read "classics" and other books that generally bore me, I don't like to do it.
    For example, hand me a good book and I'll probably have it done within the hour; hand me Catcher in the Rye and I might die within the hour.
  • kiwi_birdkiwi_bird
    Good American public schools are similarly awesome. Homer Euripides, and Sophocles were the order of the day in ninth grade. ^_^
    We read those in Latin and Ancient Greek. ^_~
    Pwn3d.
    To be fair, I did choose Latin instead of French and Ancient Greek instead of Russian. So me an my friends are a kind of special "freak" case.
Sign In or Register to comment.