Anyone here read books?

[diplomatic_lies]

Hey does anyone here read fiction books? I've noticed people don't read much fiction these days.

 

[Skel]

I read whatever I find interesting including fiction and science fiction, biographys, educations books etc. etc.

 

[Nighthawk]

My book reading, fiction and non, has largely ceased since the internet. Still read comic-books though - pictures rule.

I wrote a novel a few years ago. Didn't get published. Might write another.

 

[Microphone Fiend]

sci fi for the most part. Im on book 3 of Orson Scott Card's "Ender" saga. Reccomend it for anyone although the 3rd is paling in comparision to the gripping aspect of books 1 & 2

As for books, why do people buy the old ones brand new? Hit up a used book store for your stuff, there is more selection and cheaper prices

 

[Demon]

Wait, there's something other than nonfiction? :woo:

 

[DrMetallica]

Wait, there's something other than nonfiction? :woo:

Yeah, and it's called non-nonfiction

 

[Vincent]

I wish I could read more but with school 9/12 of the year and full time work the other 3 I don't make much time to read otherwise. I might read 2-3 books per year. I usually read a lot when I go on vacation. If only the rest of the time I could sit on the beach with a book for hours...

Currently I'm reading Kafka on the shore. If you haven't read it, I highly recomend it, it's a fantastic book.

 

[Nighthawk]

Currently I'm reading Kafka on the shore. If you haven't read it, I highly recomend it, it's a fantastic book.

Have you read any Jorge Luis Borges? He's pretty Kafkaesque, and his story 'The Garden of Ever-Forking paths' inspired both my novel and quantum physics.

 

[sifer]

I read it a lot, fiction create reality.

All imagination are creative thoughts.

Those creative thoughts end up being reality, so there's not just 'it's just fiction, it's useless'.

Example. Satellite many years ago were just 'fiction'. Who would've thought you can read newspaper with that thing or detect enemy position.

Now it's a reality. You would've been tossed into the mental hospital for thinking otherwise back then though.

 

[Deadly_Ripped]

Reading fiction is an awesome way to focus on something totally fake (like a movie, for instance) for a while. I love stephen king books for many reasons. I read a clockwork orange and enjoyed that thoroughly. I'v ebeen through many tom clancy and Michael Crichton. I picked up A confederacy of Dunces and Slaughterhouse five, but haven't had a chance to finish either of them yet.

I also read non-fiction, but usually on the can. I actually get through about 10-20 pages per day doing that! Right now it's From a Buick 8 by stephen king

For nonfiction I'm working through Pooh and the Philosophers, The Abduction Enigma, and Stem Cell Now.

Reading PWNS

 

[OddManOut85]

yes.im currently attempting to read a few at once.spaghetti westerns:cowboys and europeans from Karl May to Sergio Leone by Christopher Frayling.The Zombie Survival Guide by Max Brooks,Flags of our Fathers and If Chins Could Kill,Confessions of a B-movie actor by Bruce Campbell.

 

[diplomatic_lies]

Has anyone read anything by Phillip D!ck? He was this old 50s sci-fi writer, pretty interesting stories.

Also, has anyone noticed a trend where people these days have short attention spans? Most books seem to be getting smaller, and magazine articles are 90% pictures and 10% text.

What's so good about reading books that have zero connection to reality?

Because it's fun? Not everything we do has to revolve around reality. Nothing wrong with a little bit of escape once in a while.

 

[Centaurion]

I think I stopped reading fiction books around 9-10th grade. My favourite fiction authors have to be le'Carre (He broke my heart when he stopped writing about George Smiley) and Allistair MacLean (Guns of Navarone is worth a mention).

The best line from a novel I've read is from 'The Spy Who Came in From the Cold' by le'Carre :

"We have to live without sympathy, don't we? That's impossible of course. We act it to one another, all this hardness; but we aren't like that really, I mean... one can't be out in the cold all the time; one has to come in from the cold... d'you see what I mean?"

Nowadays I don't read anything but law books and books about FOREX.

 

[Yotsuya-san]

Science fiction but it did take a lifetime to weed out the junk. If I had to do it again, I wouldn't have wasted my time on L. Ron Hubbard's Mission Earth crap. International best seller only because scientologists bought them by the gross.
But good SF is still good:
Asimov's Foundation novels
Clarke's Rendezvous with Rama (however, ignore Rama II and the rest of the sequels)
Stephen Baxter's stuff (I just finished The Time Ships)

I'm probably one of the few left who feel that there isn't enough science in science fiction anymore. Look at the TV and hollywood stuff. It's either SPFX action or soap opera/character drama. Okay, you do have to care about the characters to some extent but I don't really read or watch SF for their personal lives. The characters in SF exist to be our eyes and ears for what strange things they encounter and how they interpret it. So science fiction that tries too hard on the emotional level is just missing the point. The original Rendezvous with Rama didn't have much character background or emotional content but the star of that story was Rama, the alien spacecraft. The Rama sequels, however inject too much soap opera stuff which isn't stuff that you can't get anywhere else. So that's why I say ignore the sequels.

 

[Microphone Fiend]

Has anyone read anything by Phillip D!ck? He was this old 50s sci-fi writer, pretty interesting stories.

"Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep"...great book to read. Better than the movie based on the book "Blade Runner", which was also good.

I saw the movie "A Scanner Darkly" which is based on a book written by Phillip k **** about his experiences with drug usage. A little bit over my head. Very very confusing, i guess heavy experience in that area would really help you understand and relate to the situations and characters

 

[Microphone Fiend]

What's so good about reading books that have zero connection to reality?

because they ARE connected to reality, or else no one would read them. LoTR has to do with WWII, Chronicles of Narnia has to do with Christianity, etc etc

 

[Panda 2000]

What's so good about reading books that have zero connection to reality?

They're fun?

 

[WhitePimp]

I try to read when I can...I usually average about 10 books every 2 months or so in pretty much every subject I can. I've been getting into sci-fi lately...Connie Willis is great, as is HP Lovecraft. He's a pretty intense writer.

 

[Scrumtulescence]

What's so good about reading books that have zero connection to reality?

lmao, I bet you're a blast at book club parties.

 

[Yotsuya-san]

because they ARE connected to reality, or else no one would read them. LoTR has to do with WWII, Chronicles of Narnia has to do with Christianity, etc etc

I hear that a lot, and a lot of people who say so think that the One Ring is supposed to be an allegory to the Atomic Bomb. J.R.R. Tolkien had always denied that LoTR was an allegory to WWII. He did write it during WWII. Most suspect that he just used his own WWI experiences to add realism to the book though. Tolkien always said he disliked allegory though and he wrote LoTR as a narrative vehichle for the Middle Earth world he created in the Silmarillon (which was still a messy pile of notes then and still reads more as a history book than a narrative).