[Closed] Anybody else find reading books (novels) boring as hell...?

I should be at Mountain Mayhem this year. I could do you a signed picture of me, for a donation to the Bullheart charity. How's that sound? 🙂

Try to contain yerself until then, eh? 😉

Aw diddums, he's gone all shy and edited his post. Bless.

Ooh look, it's back again...

Books r gud, they improove ur inglish I rekon.

I should be at Mountain Mayhem this year. I could do you a signed picture of me, for a donation to the Bullheart charity. How's that sound?

Try to contain yerself until then, eh?

Aw diddums, he's gone all shy and edited his post. Bless.

Ooh look, it's back again...

Still sore after your Mleh embarrassment eh?

Oh and try and not to shit your pants at any events this year will you..

I love reading books and have found that I enjoy non-fiction now as well which never used to be the case. I've avoided buying one of those e-reader/tablet things as I like going to the local second-hand bookshop so much and just seeing what's down there.

Currently reading The Complete Sherlock Holmes, a book by some guy who worked at Enron and The Big Nowhere by James Ellroy.

I can see why it doesn't appeal to everyone though, it's often difficult to find the time and with stuff like Ellroy I find that you need to keep reaidng pretty regular or it's easy to forget what's going on and lose the plot (in literary terms)

I find people who read a lot more interesting, otherwise you find you're engaging with some sort of sub-Daily Mail mentality.

Still, to the OP: I personally wouldn't like to live without books, but I'm hard pushed to find any real reason that people are somehow "better" for reading more

Literacy was, and still is to some extent, a sign of education, and before free education, a sign of class and social status. Probbly why reading is still seen as quite an 'intellectual' thing to do, and something that people may think gains approval amongst their peers. I have noticed some folk dropping names of books/authors into condversations, as if somehow to try to appear 'cleverer' and impress others with how 'well read' they are.

And then there's the kind of books/authors that a person may think sets them apart from others. Maybe some scoff at those who enjoy Harry Potter or Andy Mcnab, because they themselves prefer the more intellectual fruits within a good Dostoevsky, or Solzhenitsyn or whatever. Lot of snobbery.

And Lo! BillMC proves me right! 😀

Hey Duggan, try Ellroy's 'My Dark Places'. It's brilliant.

Let me know what size pic you want, King****. 6x4", 12x8", or A1 poster size?

I will hopefully be doing a range of Elfinmerchandise too. Mugs, tea towels and a fabulous illuminated chess board. No, it's true!

Books are rubbish - they'll never take off....... 😕

Books r gud, they improove ur inglish I rekon.

My inglish is gud cos I red wen yung.

Butt I cudnt tell u wat a pronown is cos I didn't doo eny werk at skool.

Solzhenitsyn has provided me with one of the most sublime moments of my life elfin. What worries me is that people categorise books like his as intellectual and not for the masses. I don't think Harry Potter is suffering from a lack of exposure 😉

No i'm not saying thaat only certain people should be allowed to read certain books, Rich, but you know what I mean; if someone sez they're reading a book by X author, then maybe people will have a certain view of them, bit like if they say they enjoy EastEnders or Corrie. Yet if they were to say they were reading a book by Y author, considered to be 'greater' literature, then they may get more kudos, which is a bit silly.

Solzhenitsyn is fantastic, just not 'feel-good' reading. I read 'On day in the life of Ivan Denisovitch' as a kid, and was struck by how someone could write about a potato and yet make it so compelling. Yeah, proper good make you change the way you think type stuff. Got Cancer Ward sitting here, but I just can't face it. Read it years ago, and it's not uplifting, is it? 😥

Like with most forms of culture and cultural production, literature suffers from snobbery and elitism. But then, people need to think for themselves and decide not to be victims to such stuck up attitudes.

I've read all the Harry Potters, I've read all the Dan Browns and I've read all the Ian Fleming James Bonds.

My favourite work of literature is the 12 volume novel A Dance to the Music of Time by Anthony Powell. In which, er, nothing happens.

Varied diet. (I only read trash one day a week, iDave stylee).

If anybody wants a treat, try The Selected Works of T S Spivet by Reif Larsen.