People who pride themselves on not reading

Am I the only one who doesn't get people like this? Now as a kid, about 10 and so, I didn't care MUCH for reading but as I said before, that was a time when I didn't have a lot of books of my own, I had Fright Time books for my own reading, and that was about it, the rest was for school curricular, and to this day I do not know HOW I got through Around the World in 80 Days to pass my test on it because I HATED it. But I never hated reading and I was never proud that I didn't read much because I always did want to go to the library, and get books, read the monster books that my brother had, but that didn't happen for several years.


Now I have a friend who told me once about a man she knew, I think he was a lawyer, who boasted about never reading a single novel (I'm guessing he either means outside of school or he had a very different kind of school than we did). And on one hand you think 'well what do novels have to do with being smart?', least that's what people elsewhere have said, but on the other hand...how do you do that? Never, ever, ever reading Tom Sawyer? Fahrenheit 451? To Kill a Mockingbird? Dracula? And Then There were None? Or even the lesser known works like A Conspiracy of Strangers, The Forgotten Murders, Never Cross a Vampire, The Missing Man? I can't imagine that, I really can't imagine going my whole life without even thinking to crack any of them open.

And I've heard of other people who take it the next step further, not just novels, they don't read ANYTHING. And we especially seem to be raising a lot of these in the last few generations, I personally know three kids that even when they are grown up, will never think to read a book for any purpose be it entertainment, self-improvement or the proverbial mind feeding. And I already spent several years trying to get another one interested in reading something, to no avail; as a teenager he had quite a few books on his shelf, but he never read any of them, that would've taken time away from his Xbox and his car.


And you could understand an attitude like that if this was a century ago when not everybody DID have to have an education and you could just go right into working at factories and other hard labor for a living but we're not in that era anymore. These days you get a 12 year minimum of education where you HAVE to know how to read and write and on a relatively high level, to get anywhere. And I get that there are still people who hate and resent education and learning, I was one of those people myselves, I did not like school for the most part, but I still worked hard and graduated, and it was not just by the skin of my teeth, I had great grades for most of my school career despite the fact I hated it so.

So in today's world where you really can't get anywhere without being able to read and write, how do we have people who take pride in never reading? To me, that's just not an option, and it's especially odd to be occurring THESE days when you have a lot to pick from, it's not like we just have boring Victorian era 'classics'.

And one thing I really wonder about these people is what do they do with all of their spare time? I imagine most of them have hobbies of other sorts, but I also know people who don't read and because of it are constantly, almost continually bored because they have nothing to do, but even acknowledging that this is the cause of their boredom, refuses to do anything about it. That they would rather be bored and in want of something to do than actually have something to do that's not in their field of expertise. To me that's just how about everyone else?

I disagree about the classics you list. I feel like popularity doesn't necessarily make for a good read. I personally hate Fahrenheit 451. I think it's important that people at least finish one novel by age 20. The fact that some people have never accomplished this is shown by the overwhelming lack of knowledge about the English language. It's sad, really.

Rockbird wrote:I disagree about the classics you list. I feel like popularity doesn't necessarily make for a good read. I personally hate Fahrenheit 451. I think it's important that people at least finish one novel by age 20. The fact that some people have never accomplished this is shown by the overwhelming lack of knowledge about the English language. It's sad, really.

Popularity certainly does NOT make for a good read, we have the Twilight series as proof of this...but with these it's not just a matter of they're popular, and I think part of the reason they ARE popular, some of them, is because in the past and even now they have been censored, edited, or outright banned in schools and libraries...and for someone like me, that sparks an interest, WHY would they ban it?


And Fahrenheit 451 had the opposite effect on me; it was actually the novel that got me interested in reading more things that were outside my area of comfort because I was VERY picky, only wanted murder mysteries and haunted houses, that one was a wakeup call to me, I stayed up all night reading it because I just had to know what happened, how it ended, I've very rarely had that experience with a book. And so I think I owe a large part of my love for reading to Ray Bradbury for that story, but also to the Disney show The Famous Jett Jackson because that was how I had first heard of the book, my mother never heard of it, my brother never heard of it, nobody I know ever had.

I know, it's a very sad state of affairs. They say that half of the adults in this country can only read on a 4th grade level, but boy I have seen kids who will be lucky if they ever even get that far.

I'm just not a fan of Bradbury. I also read The Martian Chronicles and wanted to drink cyanide. But I guess the important thing is that I've at least read the man.

I'll give credit to any decent piece of literature that sparks an interest in reading. I may strongly dislike Harry Potter, but I would shake JK Rowling's hand for creating such an imaginative world that it inspired millions upon millions of kids (and adults) to pick up her books. Respect.

Andy Dufresne: All right. But you should know that sudden serious brain injury causes the victim to bite down hard. In fact, I hear the bite reflex is so strong they have to pry the victims jaws open with a crowbar.
Boggs: Where do you get this shit?
Andy Dufresne: I read it. You know how to read, you ignorant fuck?

Supernova wrote:Am I the only one who doesn't get people like this? Now as a kid, about 10 and so, I didn't care MUCH for reading but as I said before, that was a time when I didn't have a lot of books of my own, I had Fright Time books for my own reading, and that was about it, the rest was for school curricular, and to this day I do not know HOW I got through Around the World in 80 Days to pass my test on it because I HATED it. But I never hated reading and I was never proud that I didn't read much because I always did want to go to the library, and get books, read the monster books that my brother had, but that didn't happen for several years.


Now I have a friend who told me once about a man she knew, I think he was a lawyer, who boasted about never reading a single novel (I'm guessing he either means outside of school or he had a very different kind of school than we did). And on one hand you think 'well what do novels have to do with being smart?', least that's what people elsewhere have said, but on the other hand...how do you do that? Never, ever, ever reading Tom Sawyer? Fahrenheit 451? To Kill a Mockingbird? Dracula? And Then There were None? Or even the lesser known works like A Conspiracy of Strangers, The Forgotten Murders, Never Cross a Vampire, The Missing Man? I can't imagine that, I really can't imagine going my whole life without even thinking to crack any of them open.

And I've heard of other people who take it the next step further, not just novels, they don't read ANYTHING. And we especially seem to be raising a lot of these in the last few generations, I personally know three kids that even when they are grown up, will never think to read a book for any purpose be it entertainment, self-improvement or the proverbial mind feeding. And I already spent several years trying to get another one interested in reading something, to no avail; as a teenager he had quite a few books on his shelf, but he never read any of them, that would've taken time away from his Xbox and his car.


And you could understand an attitude like that if this was a century ago when not everybody DID have to have an education and you could just go right into working at factories and other hard labor for a living but we're not in that era anymore. These days you get a 12 year minimum of education where you HAVE to know how to read and write and on a relatively high level, to get anywhere. And I get that there are still people who hate and resent education and learning, I was one of those people myselves, I did not like school for the most part, but I still worked hard and graduated, and it was not just by the skin of my teeth, I had great grades for most of my school career despite the fact I hated it so.

So in today's world where you really can't get anywhere without being able to read and write, how do we have people who take pride in never reading? To me, that's just not an option, and it's especially odd to be occurring THESE days when you have a lot to pick from, it's not like we just have boring Victorian era 'classics'.

And one thing I really wonder about these people is what do they do with all of their spare time? I imagine most of them have hobbies of other sorts, but I also know people who don't read and because of it are constantly, almost continually bored because they have nothing to do, but even acknowledging that this is the cause of their boredom, refuses to do anything about it. That they would rather be bored and in want of something to do than actually have something to do that's not in their field of expertise. To me that's just how about everyone else?

TLDNR




OK, that was a JK.

I did read that very long post and perhaps you should consider that we forum board members DO READ! Just not novels or other books (I will crack a book for reference but even that is now done mostly online).

And the joke I gave you has actually been done to me in earnest by ppl who don't read more than a tweet. So, there are some who don't even read online.

But like most ppl I do read even if I don't read BOOKS or NOVELS,

The last novel I read was Jaws in 1975 in Afghanistan. Traded an English copy of the Koran to another traveler for it - and it is noteworthy that I read it in a landlocked country with no oceans. OH, I did read some Nero Wolf stories in India at the same time. I read these books because there was no Internet or TV or Movies.

My free time is spent doing other things and I rarely get bored and I have over 500 DVD's if I do get bored.

Like I said, I read very well and do it mostly for research, or magazine/newspaper articles. I also write published articles and have had over 200 letters to editors published in the past quarter century, so my reading is more selective and purposeful than someone snuggling up with a good book.

Reading is your form of entertainment and it is a time honored one (from a time when there were few alternative communications going on). Mine is different and I don't feel I am less intelligent or accomplished because I choose not to read novels. I watch movies (even those made from said novels) and I enjoy that. And, I don't need to know the original source material because I do not compare one medium to another - just enjoy it or not on its own merits.

You have a wonderful love of the written word, and that is so awesome. I am not as well read as you, but do love to read. But, I do know many very intelligent people who choose to not read for a variety of reasons and I don't hold it against them. It is not for everybody.

People read. They just read what interests them. Growing up, I LOVED to read. I was the kind of kid that always had a book at the dinner table, reading while I ate. Nowadays, I don't read for entertainment nearly as much. I read the paper everyday. I don't even read magazine articles unless one catches my eye.