Thread: Tell me about your reading habits

Yes - I really read a lot - with some intervals/special circumstances - will be back in this thread - cool idea.
And - not really a bad habit in my eyes - quite the opposite - if I really like a book - at least twice.

I go through about 2-3 books per month, which isn't much. Then again, school and studies tend to do things like that.

I tend to just pick up whatever sounds interesting (Which normally ends up being some crime fiction book). It's great, because we have a thrift store that sells ten books for $2. I've picked up a lot from there.

Oooh, booooks, my true love.

It used to get me in trouble with my mom all the time. All I was ever doing was curling up on my sofa with a book. I used to read a book a week. Even took books with me to secondary school to read during brakes between classes.

I didn't really care what the book was about. Although I had a preference for sci-fi, about space and time travel. From kid books to grown up books, from silly space adventure, to Asimov's Eternity trology, and to science books as well. Didn't understand much of those back then, but that didn't stop from trying. Astrophysics, geography, including maps (my second love), history of the universe and mankind, Ancient Aliens types of books, Bible scientifically explained, Mario Puzzo, Mika Waltari, Westerns, Luis Pasteur biography, World traveler's like capt. Cook biographies even medical magazines, or pretty much anything anybody left laying around, be it a magazine, a leaflet, or newspaper. Oh, one of my most favorite books was a huge encyclopedia of animals. Good, I love them so much.

Newspapers - my second love. I used to stop by the newstand every morning on the way to work and bought 1-3 papers. And I remember fights over paper that was delivered to the classroom, because they never brought enough. I even used to buy newspaper when I traveled in foreign countries, even if I didn't speak the language. And even asked friends of mine to bring me paper from their travels.

Then I moved accross the ocean. Took me a few years to get proficient enough in English to enjoy reading books. But I still kept up with reading the paper every day. I took 2-3 hours every day to read it from a-z. It helped me greatly in learning this new language. I used to write down words I didn't understand, look them up and then use them in the sentence in conversations.

I missed my european books so much, I asked my mom to take a picture of my bookshelves, so I can at least read the titles. Now everytime I go back home, I bring a few of my childhood books back with me.

I didn't want to buy too many books here in US, because I will not leave them here when I go back to Europe, and transporting them is expensive. But heck, I already have tons of books here.

Thank you Zoth for starting this thread, eventhough now I'm all teared up.

I used to be an avid, yet slow, reader. My childhood was filled with books and by the time I hit my teens I had fallen in love with Stephen King, Robin Cook and Dean Koontz. I especially love the Dungeon and Dragons series and would love to find the entire collection again.
I also loved studying religions.
And then I was introduced to the internet Since about 1998 my reading habits have deteriorated greatly. When I was taking my son to GED classes it was a waste of gas to drive home then back to pick him up. So I got into the habit of going to Library and picking up books to read for the 4 hour wait. I'd forgotten how much I love reading. GED classes are over now, though (Hopefully!! If he passes the test), so I hope to be able to chisel some time away to read a little here at home.

I've also recently discovered audio books. I love crocheting but I HAVE to do something else while spending hours on the craft. That used to be Hulu but it was killing our bandwidth, so now I listen to a book while I work. Right now, I'm listening to books by my favorite authors, but I hope to go through the Library's entire collection Expand my horizons a little lol (Ours is a Country Library so there are maybe 150 audio books total).

Veery cool, you do like science fiction - I was pretty sure about it anyway, gab!!



At the moment - I have a weird phenomenon - I am reading Winter´s Tale by Mark Helprin - and I really like it - but I keep getting stuck.
I now resorted to starting two books more - and getting back into reading.
Stephen Baxter - Manifold: Origin + Scott Lynch - The Lies Of Locke Lamora.

Both seem to be good - maybe I resort to only one of them - and go on interspersing Winter´s Tale.
It is a lovely book - there will be a movie also - and a recommendation from also lovely Sageous.
Check out my sig btw...

I did lately open the following thread - a really great author, who can sometimes be quite a lot to take on several levels - but this is a fantastic little story, and I thought, it might find friends:

K. J. Parker "A Small Price to Pay for Birdsong"




So - for gab and whoever else wants to read such a mega-post - I transfer-quote from this thread: http://www.dreamviews.com/extended-d...ml#post2059903 - taking the two quotes with me and slightly modifying my answers.

Originally Posted by aceofspades

I really got into Sci-Fi this summer and read 6 Sci-fi books in the span of 1 1/2 months.

They include:

1. Neuromancer - William Gibson
2. Old Man's War - John Scalzi
3. Ghost Brigades (sequel to old man's war) - John Scalzi
4. Starship Troopers - Heinlein
5. Snow Crash - Neal Stephenson
6. I will fear no evil - Heinlein

My favorite book was probably Snow Crash. Loved reading ever moment of it and it was quite a wild ride.

I also enjoyed Starship Troopers as it was so far apart and so much better than the movie. I will fear no evil was the longest book I read and was quite an interesting read...learned a lot about women.

Neuromancer was the first Sci-Fi book i read and was probably one of hardest sci-fi books so I might reread it later. It just went way over my head since I didn't really understand it.

Old Man's War and Ghost Brigades were easy reads and were very entertaining. Wasn't really too much philosophy like my other books. So they were alright none the less...good reads.

So what have you guys read

Also if any one wants to talk philosophy I ain't gonna stop em. Philosophical dance...."does it really exist or am I just imagining this dance"

The authors I put in fat lettering are among my favourites as well!

My first science fiction books were Snow Crash and Neuromancer, too - a friend lent them to me - and I think, I had never even read an English novel before.
So I had to put Snow Crash aside until later - I really didn´t understand a lot of it..

While Neuromancer did a lot to teach me English - having a dictionary at hand, and not wanting to give up.
Read it twice - it gets much easier.
My favourite Gibson novel: Virtual Light - I found it hard to understand first time round - but some more crucial things were coming through.

The Difference Engine is an alternate history novel by Gibson - after epitomizing "Cyber Punk" - now does begin something called "Steam Punk" - here Victorian age, and they start building computational devices - copying punch-cards from weaving-looms - good read, too.


For John Scalzi - definitively don´t miss out on "The Android´s Dream" - and I really like the "young-adult-fiction" book belonging into Old Man´s War: "Zöe´s Tale".
I love his aliens!!


Neal Stevenson, though - he is my all time hero - who wrote Snow Crash.
And "Anathem" is my favourite novel: Wikipedia Anathem

For something less than a 1000 pages of Stephenson´s and a great science fiction novel, too: "The Diamond Age".
I read every single book of his (even a small one on operating systems..) and am yet to be disappointed.. while the latest stuff - Reamde and The Mongoliad are maybe the ones I like least..
I really love the Baroque Cycle and Cryptonomicon as well.

Heinlein actually is not so much my thing - but my husband´s.

Originally Posted by Taosaur

I haven't read anything lately that blew me away, but you can't go wrong with some classics:

Ursula K. LeGuin--The Left Hand of Darkness, or any of her Hain books

Arthur C. Clarke--Songs of Distant Earth, Childhood's End, or his recent Time Oddysey series w/ Stephen Baxter

Greg Bear--Blood Music (Moving Mars is also pretty sweet)

Orson Scott Card--Pastwatch: the Redemption of Christopher Columbus, and I can't fault Ender's Game and Speaker for the Dead, though the series goes south fast from there

Asimov + ??--The Positronic Man

Lawrence Manning--The Man Who Awoke (it's a rarer pulp novel from the '30s, but I think there's been a recent reprint)

And if you don't mind veering a bit into magical realism (I highly recommend that you do ),

Vonnegut--Cats Cradle

Italo Calvino--Cosmicomics (on a less sci-fi note, If on a Winter's Night a Traveller is probably the best novel I've read in the last five years).

Maybe Winter´s Tale is magic realism..?

I really like the fattened ones!
And I am going to look into those above, which I do not yet know.
Maybe not Asimov - I don´t really know why - but I do not feel like reading him..



From somewhere else I agree with shadowofwind - Neal Asher and Aleister Reynolds are a bit dark and violent but genial both.
I have a recommendation of his as well to yet try out: Vandana Singh. - a female mathematician - who wrote this novel.
And one to revisit after a tip of dutchraptor´s - Peter F. Hamilton for his Commonwealth Saga and the Void trilogy.



My recommendations besides the above already mentioned or fattened:


Greg Egan I read Quarantine, Diaspora, short story collections Axiomatic and Luminous and more

Ian M. Banks - my favourite The Algebraist, but all of the Culture Series, and actually all others - I think, I read them all, and I´m afraid the Scott is dead now...He did write "normal" fiction as well, as Ian Banks.

Lois McMaster Bujold and her Vorkosigan Saga, read it all, and can´t wait for a new book of hers - very unique and funny

Paolo Bacigalupi - he wrote very good short stories, didn´t read a novel of his, though

Kim Stanley Robinson - Mars Trilogy - this is something with "real" scientists - in the sense, that they and other´s personalities and the story are compellingly realistic and seeming possible.

Charles Stross - Singularity Sky and Iron Sunrise, Accelerando

David Marusek - really great collection of shorts: Getting to Know You and the novels Counting Heads and Mind Over Ship

Vernor Vinge - bit easier to digest than some of the above - I did enjoy A Deepness In The Sky and Fire Upon The Deep of his, too.[/QUOTE]

Hmm, interesting thread. I suppose I will participate.

I have always loved reading, though I have always been rather fickle and finicky. I will read almost anything if it is good, though mine preferred genres are mystery, drama, sci-fi, and fantasy. Also, I tend to be drawn to novels that are written from a female perspective. I can usually read a typical novel within 24 hours.

Unfortunately, I have not had many opportunities to read as of late, due to a busy schedule. But, now that the holidays are approaching, that should change soon. I just ordered a bunch of books this month, and I plan to devour them in what little free time I will have over the next few weeks.

As a child, I was obsessed with vocabulary words (still am, actually), and would often spend hours reading the dictionary. I originally started reading books because I enjoyed finding and learning new vocabulary words. Also, mine elder brother and sister have always been extremely avid readers; I guess their habit rubbed off on me as well. As time passed, I began to find reading to be a great escape and source of comfort. Nowadays, pretty much all I ever do during mine leisure is read, write, or play games.

Due to mine fickle and finicky nature, it has always been difficult for me to find a book that really catches and maintains mine interest, especially back in the day. And mine pickiness only grew with age. Consequently, I am extremely selective with any book I decide to actually spend money on. This has often gotten me in trouble with some authors ("How dare you send it back to me without reading it all!" Well, sorry, but you don't have to eat the whole fruit to know it is rotten). But nowadays, thanks to the internet and whatnot, it has been much easier for me to find a book I am at least 90% sure I will like.

I am VERY obsessive compulsive when it comes to mine own books. For start, I always need to have mine books arranged neatly and in a particular order. Also, I hate having creased pages, and I hate having creased spines. I am always reluctant to let others borrow mine books, especially the paperbacks, because I am always afraid they will crease the spine or mess up the pages. Or leave bogeys on the pages--that just drives me insane (one reason why I usually do not buy used books or rent books from the library).

Lastly, for some reason, I cannot read, concentrate, or function without some kind of relaxing background noise; one reason why I blare mine classical music 24/7.

Overall, reading has been, and probably always will be, one of mine greatest hobbies. In mine opinion, there is no greater companion than your books. After all, who needs friends when you have fiction?

Was I always a reader? Definitely not. School made me hate reading. Or maybe it just wasn't right for me then? I'm 24 now and just got into reading around February of this year (that's when I bought a Kindle). Since then, I've read 17 books and am currently working on two more. It's not something I devote tons of time to, but I really like the Kindle. It's so convenient to take with me pretty much everywhere I go (and I purposely got the Paperwhite version so I couldn't just install games/browse the web on it), and the built-in dictionaries are a god-send for someone like me who didn't/doesn't have the greatest vocabulary.

As far as what I read... with less than a year of "serious" reading under my belt (I'm not counting the half-assed attempts of following along in a book at school simply to pass the grades), I can't say I really have specific preferences yet. The first book I read was a non-fictional piece by Carl Sagan, which was fairly empowering because I realized I could learn a lot from simply reading a book. So initially I stuck to non-fictional works, but then I decided to read The Lord of the Rings. I've never been a huge sucker for movies, and video game stories are generally horrible, so I just figured I didn't like "stories" that weren't real. This book proved me wrong without a doubt. I used to think, "I don't want to read about something that's not real, that's just a waste of time." That mindset is "swimming in the bottom of the ocean," as the character from a book I'm currently reading likes to say.


All that said, I still don't like poetry. Actually, I hate it--this was confirmed by a recent class I took at college. I appreciate it as an art form, but it's not one I enjoy--I just get nothing out of it. Though I suppose that's different than reading books.

Oh yeah - this is important to mention - it being about reading habits - since I have my kindle - my reading volume has seriously spiked.
There were intense phases before - but the kindle is a great thing to have.
I have an envelope with a little lamp to clap out on top - I have been seen on Berlin´s streets by night walking and reading a book..hehe.
But in the end - searching around - having several open - for zig other reasons - real books are a must as well - at least certain ones.

I read a fair amount. I used to read a ton. I remember in elementary school I read a book every day for a long time. Reading was really a huge part of my life then and I was totally drawn into the stories I read.

I really miss that a lot because these days I just can't get as involved in books. I don't know if that's just because I'm older or what. I still like books but they aren't like crack to me as they once were.

I usually read about 1000 pages a month I think. Some books I read are 500 pages and others are 1300 pages so it's hard to give a books-per-month count. I mostly read sci-fi, fantasy, and history, and those genres tend to have pretty thick books. Sometimes I'll read a history book and a novel side-by-side. I don't really gravitate towards hard books necessarily, but I have a soft spot for lyrical prose and rich description, and I find those traits more commonly in more advanced books. Sometimes I'll read classics but mostly I read more modern books.

I haven't read a Stephen King book in a really long time, always end up reading and walking with his work!

Speaking of Stephen King, I just dl'ed his latest Doctor Sleep, the long-awaited sequel to The Shining. So far it lives up to the excellence I expect from the Kingmeister.

As for my habits, I switched from mostly fantasy/sci-fi in my youth to a lot of nonfiction plus still the occasional fantasy/sci-fi. In nonfic my interests range from science/psychology (with a special emphasis on dreaming and the unconscious) to occasional philosophy or social issues. Lately I've been reading a lot of books debunking the prevailing feminist/leftist paradigm that has taken on so much power in the US and the rest of the developed world.

In 2009 I began reading all of Carl Sagan's books, as I had developed a keen interest in self-development through learning about various branches of science, and it was then that I wandered over here to DV, as part of that self-development thing.

It's only been recently that I've started opening up books again, now I read when I travel to school on the train (got a full hour for that). I study my meditation book which is not in my mother language and 450 pages, so that takes a looot of time. Besides that I really have my hands full.

I want to read Eckhart Tolle's Power of Now as well.

Books are the best thing in the world! Except LDing maybe Both let you experience another world full of awesome stuff like dragons and knights and vampires, hehe.
I've been reading my whole life and went through thousands of books of all genres. I used to go through a book a day when I was younger , I don't read that much anymore but the last couple days I picked that pace up again..
Steph I also bought a kindle a while ago and I've been reading non stop since! Since I've spent a year in the US my english is pretty good and I have no problems reading the books in their original language, which makes it really easy to get free ebooks!

Weell - I had just yesterday posted my latest literary encounters on this page: http://www.dreamviews.com/entertainm...eading-37.html

"God Is Not Great" by Christopher Hitchens, "The Bohr Maker" by Linda Nagata and "Why We Get Sick" by Randolph M. Nesse are my latest recommendations - all of them are great. While I didn't like "Echopraxia", the sequel of "Blindsight" by Alan Watts.
Check the link, I made a huge post about the Nagata novel and Ness book!

@lucidmats: Hahaa - yeah - beware! When I came across my beloved K. J. Parker, I wasn't much good for anything else - and she/he wrote thousands upon thousands of pages. For free - don't know, how my husbands gets at them - but he even gets at pre-publishing review texts.
Bit of a bad consciousness there, the me - I will ask him - maybe he does pay a bit - poor authors - need to get some money for what they do!
There are some great writers who publish completely free for the public domain - Cory Doctorow for example...
Anyway - kindle feels like a library card to anything (recent) you could want - except books with big pictures or diagrams, bit of a shame, that - surely a solution will come up for this as well one day...

It might well have been half a year since I read my last German book - I remember now - partly - last one was Nietzsche, but which one?
Remember @Darkmatters, it was around an exchange of ours on morality, when I found out, that the usual translations into English are seriously crappy?

Got three free to read stories of Parker's:

Fiction: A Small Price to Pay for Birdsong by K. J. Parker — Subterranean Press
The Sun And I by K. J. Parker — Subterranean Press
Illuminated by K. J. Parker — Subterranean Press

Enjoy - one of my favourite authors - genre? Fantasy, sort of. It's an alternative world, has some, but actually very few magic or gods or stuff like that. It's really more of an analysis of history and human nature.

Ah - and I can't wait till "Lock In" by John Scalzi is out - read a pre-publishing prequel of it - of the finest! "Unlocked - An Oral History Haden's Syndrome" - if you get at that - get it! Besides - the "Old Man's War" cycle is about to be filmed for television! Yeah - unusual - but he's working closely with them and promised it's gonna be good! So looking forward to all the aliens!

I have made it my life's task to read as much books as I can, my ultimate goal is try to read 50 pages a day atleast! a pretty hard challange but I think i'm the right direction

I'm an occasional binge reader. You put a good book in front of me and it will gather dust for two months while I wander around the web. Then one day, I'll start reading it, and two days later I'm done.

When I find a good book I'll read it all the way through. But sometimes I'll read a book partway and not finish it. There's this time I read a good book most of the way but for some reason didn't finish it...

Does anybody maybe have a system for keeping references?
I read so much - and I forget so much of it - it's a bit of a shame.
I'd like to one day set up a filing system on my pc and make use of the fact, that I can copy-paste actual quotes out of books on Kindle. I need to find out how exactly to do it, at the moment I put bookmarks on pages, where there is something I would like to conserve for easier lookings-ups, but one can mark stuff in the text and save it and transfer it on the pc.
I'd also like to list all the books I read there, with some comments attached - often I can't remember the titles or authors or anything - only that it was a great book.
It's planned since ages - maybe with making use of a book called "Getting Things Done". I still have a paper filing system, installed after the ideas of the book, but it's falling apart - I needed a new filing cabinet and bring it back to ship-shape - it worked great for a while and to the extent that I tended to it.

You have several options, but I heard that Mendeley is one of the best. Zotero works too, and while it was my plan to save references with it, I had so much data to store that I....just dumped it in there without much organization Still, it's pretty convenient to use, and allows you to save several types of files (I also tend to save some TED talks on certain subjects, or even audio books). Here's a picture of my Zotero (sorry that the interface is in portuguese, but that little window is the advanced search):



I currently hold 32gb of data (although I guess video lectures take a lot of space), and even without article references I can find stuff pretty easily, and you can also use the system of quote to find the specific file. When my computer stopped working, I almost had a panic attack, but luckily I managed to get everything back xD
I also have a organizational system devoted to keep my readings in check: I have a folder called "Temp" where I store articles I still didn't read well enough, another file inside my e-mail where I store links of books/articles I found while browsing on my iphone, and I also organize myself with Evernote.

I read a lot of online papers and research of my own volition but I read almost nothing in the way of books anymore--and by anymore I mean ever since I've gotten out of school. I'm about to start going to college again though, so this answer will likely change in the near future.

Why We Get Sick, the book you recommended StephL. It sounds interesting, I have no clue about it at all but my guesses are that it describes sickness caused by psychological health. Am I right? If so, those kind of books interest me.

I nearly finished reading "Man's Search For Himself" by Rollo May. It's a bit old, but it's a good read. A lot of knowledge, it's not really a roman (is that how you call it in english? idek). Also reading a study book on embryonic breathing, it's a buddhistic breathing exercise for meditational purposes. It pretty much covers bioelectricity and how we can manipulate it.

Originally Posted by Athylus

Why We Get Sick, the book you recommended StephL. It sounds interesting, I have no clue about it at all but my guesses are that it describes sickness caused by psychological health. Am I right? If so, those kind of books interest me.

No, not so much, I'm sorry to say.
Maybe you'd enjoy it anyway - take a look at this photo-copy-pdf, I found of it: Why We Get Sick
It does deal with psychology and psychopathology from an evolutionary viewpoint, it generally explores human health and disease through this lens, which is still not very widespread among the medical establishment. They propose a wealth of interesting scientific studies yet to be done, it's really fascinating to think about the human body (incl. brain), and how it evolved into what it is today, and what that might mean to how to deal with it's problems. Just to take an example - many symptoms of disease can actually be a valiant effort at self-defence and it's detrimental to try and suppress said symptoms. A review:

Why We Get Sick: The New Science of Darwinian Medicine by George C. Williams, Ph.D. and Randolph M. Nesse, M.D. Times Books, 1995 ISBN: 0-8129-2224-7

This book is a fascinating look at why our human history and prehistory is important in any research about disease and health. The authors have written a highly readable book about the new field of Darwinian medicine - finding evolutionary explanations for why we get sick. It involves the study of why certain traits from our past can cause disease today, and why some traits that are maladaptive today, may have been a help to our ancestors, the early hunter-gatherers.

There are sections on injury and infection, genetic diseases, cancer, pregnancy, aging, and psychiatric problems. Having recently had two children, I was very interested in the theories about 'morning sickness' and the fight between the mother and fetus. The authors discuss the theories of several researchers. For example one theory suggests that 'morning sickness' could be an adaptation to keep us away from strong tasting foods which are usually high in toxins during the critical first few months of pregnancy. There are also evolutionary explanations for why we crave fat, sugar, and salt.

The authors are very careful to stress that they are not just another medical fad. They want to work with the medical establishment to provide better treatment and understanding of illness. It has recently been shown that running a fever has a function in healing of certain illnesses. With the help of Darwinian medicine, a doctor would know when to let a fever run its course and when it is best to bring a fever down with medication.

I recommend this book for any library collection. Doctors in hospitals and at medical schools should be aware of it. Any public library patron would enjoy reading it and find it highly informative. And students of any discipline would find it interesting and I'm sure would get ideas about how evolution effects all sorts of things in our daily life.

They don't only write about things already well known to interested and quite well informed people, like the fever example. No - I learned a lot of new things, and contemplated a lot of novel ideas, esp. while the second half of it, and I do consider myself informed.

A little snippet of "nice news" for kids:
The fact that many children loathe vegetables, could be due to similar considerations to the mentioned morning-sickness example. There are certain substances in vegetables, which might be actually quite unhealthy for children, because they can't be properly digested yet. Something along those lines, well explained.

Cool, it sounds like valuable knowledge Steph! Especially the genetic diseases sounds like something I'd want to read and add to myself. It might give me some more insight on why me and my mother have such extreme hair loss.

I think it's cool you're into these kind of subjects. Keep reading!

Great thread! I actually want to be an author, so I write and read a lot. Stephen King and Lee Child my favourite writers, But Harry Potter my favourite book series.

I do read a lot of non fiction, but have only read a few lucid dreaming books.