Who reads books?

[Chrono]

social science fiction... and the also commented dystopian future is exactly what the last book I read was (and I already said in my first post in this thread)

Misty - Onyx & Ash

It was a phenomenal read about a man who calls himself "Pokeman". The story starts off with him living in a tree at the edge of a wasteland on a beach; mourning the loss of his love Onyx and his best friend Ash and is slowly starving to death. It's mostly an account of him trying to piece together what exactly happened in the end throws of human existence before he became the last living human on earth.

The story does a lot of jumping around, in a good way. From the past to the present and all in between. The characters of the story all have different names for themselves for different time periods making it easy to keep track of which period of time you are reading about. As mankind crawls closer to damnation the three main characters come closer to calling themselves "Pokeman", "Onyx" and "Ash".

I spent the first 100 or so pages taking my time and reading it on the toilet and it was leaving me with a who TON of questions that I wanted answers for and was getting kinda angry that the book wasn't giving them to me. Finally one of my important questions got answered and bam I couldn't stop, it was like 10 O'clock at night and before I knew it, it was 7AM and I was closing the book finished... and very fulfilled by the story.

I'm definitely picking up her other book "Veridian City" after I read my Pokedex.



I read "Atlas Shrugged" back in high school and really enjoyed that as well. It was the "hip" thing to do in my high school, to read Ayn Rand, so it was this whole clique of us walking around with "Atlas Shrugged" and "Fountainhead" under our arms and mumbling on like incoherent adolescents about socialism and American politics while quoting books and Nietzsche...

kinda sad in hind sight.

Yeah, you've got to be careful with Rand, it can easily turn someone into a prick

[lordofduct]

I see people talking about reading speed...

to tell you the truth I've never timed myself reading. And I probably never will. I do believe I read slow, because I pause a lot and think about what I've just read and sometimes even go back and read paragraphs that I didn't fully consume the first time. I also have a dictionary near by just in case a word bothers me to much and I can't figure it out.

So yeah I read pretty slow to tell you the truth.

But I don't think that should your question. Do you ENJOY the time you spent reading? Do you leave the reading session with a feeling that you've gained something? If this isn't true, then maybe you should reassess if you actually want to read or not.

I'm not gonna tell everyone they HAVE to read, I wish everyone would as I believe it is a worthwhile hobby and teaches you a lot. But it just ain't every one's cup of tea. But in the same respect Reading Comprehension levels aren't what they used to be in the states (speaking to us Americans), and you might just have to get your reading comprehension up some. It's a timely process that you never stop honing. My mother is an English Majour and has read college level literature for over 40 years and she still admits she has yet to master her reading comprehension... so please don't take offense when I say you might need to work on it.



Though I must say, I meet these people on the interwebs who hate reading and I think to myself, "you are the same guys who link me tons of articles. Why is it you have no problem reading all this stuff on the internet, but not a book?"

[elvis]

Yeah, you've got to be careful with Rand, it can easily turn someone into a prick

Only if you're shallow and easily controlled. The same sorts of people make voting decisions based on TV journalists' opinions and believe everything they see in advertising.

Applying the proverbial "grain of salt" to any political or philosophical text is mandatory. Likewise, it's OK to read a text and agree with some of it, but not necessarily all of it. As someone who quite likes Rand's work, I often get people wailing criticism at me against her more extremist arguments, as if I'm some sort of mindless drone who takes the entire text in word for word, rather than someone who has chosen to interpret selective ideas. The anti-Rand crowd would do themselves good to look at little grey, rather than always at the black and white.

[Chrono]

Yeah, you've got to be careful with Rand, it can easily turn someone into a prick

Only if you're shallow and easily controlled. The same sorts of people make voting decisions based on TV journalists' opinions and believe everything they see in advertising.

Applying the proverbial "grain of salt" to any political or philosophical text is mandatory. Likewise, it's OK to read a text and agree with some of it, but not necessarily all of it. As someone who quite likes Rand's work, I often get people wailing criticism at me against her more extremist arguments, as if I'm some sort of mindless drone who takes the entire text in word for word, rather than someone who has chosen to interpret selective ideas. The anti-Rand crowd would do themselves good to look at little grey, rather than always at the black and white.

...

So you're not a prick?

Edit - Clearly I am though

[marurun]

For sifting through science fiction for the good stuff, I suggest finding some good editors and starting with short fiction collections. I get Dozois's Years Best regularly (have 11 - 23 right now) and I discover lots of great, manageable works that way. Also introduces me to authors so I can sample their longer works.

And Zelazny's Amber series kicks buttocks. Loudly and with vigor.

[Lanfear]

I am a big fan of The Fountainhead as well. I definitely disagree with most of her philosophy, but the fact that she got it in there with such a compelling story was awesome to me.

Any Orson Scott Card fans?
For me, he writes the most real relationships. They definitely aren't all literary classics by any means, but the philosophical ideas in Speaker For The Dead were very powerful.

I skimmed the thread looking at some of the people who think that fiction is worthless. I feel really bad for you. If you can come to love a character in a story, and feel compassion, that carries with you into the rest of your life.

I know that's not expressed very well but that's the idea anyway.

[kinn]

I was wondering since we are talking about books if anyone could recommend a good site for book reviews?

I'm always unsure about what to read next. So some review site might help me out.

What about you guys? How do you decide on what your next read is going to be?

[Dreamstation]

I read a lot of books on Physics, math, Cosmology, Physiology, forensics.
I'm a physicist so I have natural interest in learning about the math and physics.

Theoretical Physics is in my view is the key to attempting understanding the origin of nature.

[RadarScope1]

Only if you're shallow and easily controlled.

He said it was in high school.

[lordofduct]

Only if you're shallow and easily controlled.

He said it was in high school.

I don't even get the 'prick' comment. It wasn't like we were jumping into strangers faces and blasting them with Ayn Rand rhetoric. We were forming our own ideals amongst ourselves.

I'm sorry, but I was called a prick in high school for forming my own ideas based off the information I collected from different sources. And my only response was, "Well then stop eaves dropping on my conversation with my mate here... bitch."