reading as a hobby

[Yorin]

Re: reading as a hobby

I also couldn't finish 50 Shades of Grey. It was AWFUL. I think it only did so well because it was released by a mainstream publisher in a niche that is very under-served.

I finished it, but I seriously wish I hadn't. Its such a horrible mary sue, unrealistic plot that if I hadn't torrented it, I probably would've finally considered burning a book.



However, if anyone hasn't read them, I would seriously suggest The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher

[DanieMarie]

Re: reading as a hobby

Stephen King, Dan Brown, Ray Bradbury, Michael Crichton....lots of older sci-fi stuff. James Patterson for funsies. Native American stuff, and horseracing stuff. A friend from back home just mailed me "The Edinburgh Dead" by Brian Rugley, which she loved. I'll start it soon.

I remember reading Grapes of Wrath in high school. Also Catcher in the Rye, which always bugged me, because the teacher kept talking about how disturbed Holden was, but I thought he was OK. Must be me. Ya think? LOL

I didn't think Holden was that disturbed either. I think your teacher was wrong. The whole point isn't that he's disturbed, it's that he's going through something a lot of teenagers go through: the disillusionment with the establishment of his parents and the need to rebel against it.

[Corvus]

Re: reading as a hobby

I mostly read biology non-fiction, some history of natural history (there isn't a lot), also a decent amount of religion, history of the American Civil War, etc for non-fiction. I also like fantasy, urban fantasy romance, paranormal romance, historical mysteries (with or without romance), and steampunk novels. REally though, I'll read anything once. Except Twilight, et al. Its on my list of "books that were so :wtf: I couldn't finish them"....the list right now sits about 8 books long and includes War and Peace, The Gulag Archipelago, Game of Thrones (I often dislike shit that other people like), 50 Shades of Grey (and I'm even into that shit), The Catcher in the Rye, The Grapes of Wrath, Twilight, and Hunt for the Red October (good movie though). Occasionally a book lands on the list, and it just takes me a couple tries....like Les Miserables--it took me about 12 tries to finish the damn thing, and The Great Gatsby (it took 4 years to finish, and I'm a 100-120 page an hour reader normally, and I will never, ever read it again).

We had to read the Great Gatsby and Catcher in the Rye for school. I finished neither. Gatsby just did not interest me because I hated every member of the cast. Sure it was beautifully written and I'd probably read it again if I had to. I only passed the tests because I listened very carefully to the in classroom conversations.
Catcher in the Rye I liked even less. I had no sympathy at all for Holden where he was clearly supposed to be a sympathetic character. My teacher raved about how people who don't read much love it and all I could think is that Holden should really stop thinking of himself and be thankful for all the shit he has. I personally just don't like Holden and since the entire story is Holden's stream of consciousness I couldn't do it. Listening to the discussions didn't help me as much this time around because none of it makes any sense out of the book. It's rare that I won't finish a book. Besides those two The Mortal Instruments series is probably the only other notable book (well it's a series I guess, I dragged through the first one but I just couldn't do the second) that I couldn't finish. It was just soooooooo boring. I felt like they took dozens of pages to advance the plot at all, and it's not the best writing. It's one of the first books to make my question what "young adult" literature really means.

I'm an avid reader and I love it. The funny thing is I used to hate reading and now I'll read 100+ books a year. My aunt bought me the first Harry Potter book when I was 12 or so and insisted that I read it and if I read it I would love it because she was sick of watching me sit and play my gameboy. I adamantly refused because I felt it was too big of a book. The irony being when I finally gave in I read it in the first day. Then that was how that summer went, I read one harry potter book every 1-3 days. However then people started complaining that all I'd done was swap video games for books ^^;
Anyway when school started I read every book in the middle school library (It was not a big library). I was insatiable and I've carried that into my high school years. My reading really picked up sophmore year. That's when I started reading a novel or two a day, more during weekends. They were usually only 200-300 pages but the longer ones might take two or three days. Since my teacher was encouraging us to keep a book log for extra credit I wrote them all down and it was 80 something books. I'm almost totally sure I passed english purely on extra credit. Junior year I'd read most of the things in the school library but luckily the school districts have a book exchange program so I could get some from other schools. However I'm sorely disappointed in the school system in that most of the books in our library are not age appropriate for high schools. They're almost all 8th grade reading level or lower. It was painfully difficult to get anything good so I asked my teachers who supplied me with a steady stream of literature.

As for my taste in books, they're mostly fantasy. I read a lot of dystopian or post apoclyptic novels, they're probably tied with vampires for being my favorite genre. My original copies of Harry Potter were all paperback so they've mostly been read into pulp. Order of the Phoenix is in especially bad condition. Last year we found a crate of my brother's books in the basement. Since they were both coated in dust and he flunked out of home schooling they became mine. A nice new set of Harry Potter books, all hard cover, included. Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles, Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale and Max Brooks' World War Z are among my current favorites. John Green writes a lot of good young adult stuff. While mostly realistic fiction I've thoroughly enjoyed everything I've read from him.

When I was in middle school everyone was reading twilight so I tried it and (I hate myself for this) I enjoyed it. Twilight itself was mostly really boring and slow, new moon I've always thought was terrible, the last two books there was a noticeable improvement in writing style and they were my favorites. I attribute it to everyone around me raving about how good it was and that it's decent escapist literature. You don't have to think about it too much to understand it, it's told from first person and the main character is the object of everyone's attention which isn't bad for a 14 or so year old who really hates his life. When I got high school I started to think "wow this is actually really crappy". I then hollowed out my twilight books and now I keep things in them.

There's a trend for school libraries to have consistently underage literature on their shelves. Us students mistake this as age appropriate and think that we should be reading stuff like this. Junior year I picked up a book and I came to find out it was reading appropriate for kids around 11 years old (how I didn't notice that while reading it I'll never know). I would like to think that's another reason I ended up liking Twilight. Because I didn't know any better. None of my teachers bothered to tell me that it was badly written, bad concept, displayed sexist characteristics and weak female role models until junior year, which was after I'd figured it out myself. These days with my highschool years coming to a close, I find good literature is easier to find. I still read what's popular or at least try it (I'll read anything once) but I've found a set of good authors whom I like. I'm probably being too critical. A book can be good without over the top writing as long as the concepts expressed or plot is excellent. Inkheart my Corneallia Funke is a young adult-child novel and is written like it is and I would reread it over and over (The squeal on the other hand absolutely horribly, third book was about as good as the first)

[Hawkfeathers]

Re: reading as a hobby

When I was a child, I used to read the Little House On The Prairie books. I now live within an hour of where Laura Ingalls Wilder lived in her older years and wrote them. They do tours of the house - it was so cool to be there!!!
Also used to love the Bobbsey Twins books as a kid. And then a bit later, when they came out, all the Star Trek paperbacks.

[Chris the Bold]

Re: reading as a hobby

Reading is glorious! LOVE song of ice and fire (game of thrones), anything by Stephen King (The Stand may be the single greatest novel of the 20th century), 1984, Cloud Atlas (though the movie held my attention a bit better lol), and then anything else I can get my hands on

[Jinx]

Re: reading as a hobby

Reading is glorious! LOVE song of ice and fire (game of thrones), anything by Stephen King (The Stand may be the single greatest novel of the 20th century), 1984, Cloud Atlas (though the movie held my attention a bit better lol), and then anything else I can get my hands on

I watched Cloud Atlas and was really interested in it but I wasn't sure how it would be reading it. I'm a very avid reader, and work part time at a book store, so I'm always eyeballing the copy we have but I feel like it must be all over the place. Did you have a hard time getting though the book at all?

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I LOVE to read! It's my all time favorite hobby and at this point I own so many books I could probably open my own library. I will read just about anything I can get my hands on and find enjoyment in almost any literature. I will admit that if the story doesn't grab me within the first few pages I just can't bring myself to finish it. So far that's only happened three times in my life and once was the same book....Huckleberry Finn!!! I know sooo many people love that book and it's considered a classic but I had to read it twice for school and just could not bring myself to finish it. Maybe now I could go back as an adult and get a different view on it but I found it so bland when I was a freshman in high school.

My all time favorite book series is Harry Potter. I don't care how old I get, I will always love those books. I'm trying to talk my boss into letting me buy his British editions just so I can read them and pick out the slight differences. I'm such a nerd like that. Of course now I'm reading The Cuckoo's Calling and I am thoroughly enjoying it.

[Chris the Bold]

Re: reading as a hobby

[QUOTE=Jinx;113720]I watched Cloud Atlas and was really interested in it but I wasn't sure how it would be reading it. I'm a very avid reader, and work part time at a book store, so I'm always eyeballing the copy we have but I feel like it must be all over the place. Did you have a hard time getting though the book at all?

YES lol, the book isn't nearly as fast paced as the movie (if that's any indication), although the stories are actually in order in the book. It takes much longer to get to the important parts which are basically what the movie is with a few differences, but not many considering the length and depth of the book. I felt the message conveyed was a deeper in the book simply because it goes into much more detail with all the characters and their stories. Definitely worth a read in my opinion if you love to read and enjoyed the movie.

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um.... sorry to double post, but why didn't my reply to the quote show up in a little box? really new to forums lol

[Jinx]

Re: reading as a hobby

[QUOTE=Chris the Bold;113746]

I watched Cloud Atlas and was really interested in it but I wasn't sure how it would be reading it. I'm a very avid reader, and work part time at a book store, so I'm always eyeballing the copy we have but I feel like it must be all over the place. Did you have a hard time getting though the book at all?

YES lol, the book isn't nearly as fast paced as the movie (if that's any indication), although the stories are actually in order in the book. It takes much longer to get to the important parts which are basically what the movie is with a few differences, but not many considering the length and depth of the book. I felt the message conveyed was a deeper in the book simply because it goes into much more detail with all the characters and their stories. Definitely worth a read in my opinion if you love to read and enjoyed the movie.

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um.... sorry to double post, but why didn't my reply to the quote show up in a little box? really new to forums lol

I will definitely have to check it out then. I really liked the message of the story but I felt in the movie everything happened all at once and it finally hit me. Plus like you said I didn't feel like I got to know the characters very well, at the end of it I still felt like I was missing a lot of information.

I'm sorry to say I have no idea why that happened...I've very new to them myself so I haven't learned all the tricks yet haha.

[Auseklis]

Re: reading as a hobby

Reading as a hobby? I wish! It is a compulsive obsession for me hehe. I adore reading more than just about anything else I can think of right now (apart from breathing).

[Melanija]

Re: reading as a hobby

Without a love of reading I do not think I would be the type of pagan I am today. I would be more narrow on my path.

[FantasyWitch]

Re: reading as a hobby

I adore reading! I don't always have enough time to sit down and indulge in the pleasure of a physical book, so I often listen to audio books instead!

I'm currently listening to "Guardians of the West" by David Eddings, and I've just finished re-reading "Coraline" x

[anubisa]

Re: reading as a hobby

I read as a hobby as well. I read a lot of War World II books now.

[Willow]

Re: reading as a hobby

I read as a hobby too; and I'm reaping all the awesome eye-candy perks of working in a bookstore... ^^

[iflewoverthecuckoosnest]

Re: reading as a hobby

<3 reading! This is part of my collection; the leatherbounds I've collected and enjoyed through the years, and my lovely gothic novels :3
Books1.jpgBooks2.jpg

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I read as a hobby too; and I'm reaping all the awesome eye-candy perks of working in a bookstore... ^^

You work in a bookstore?! I'm jealous.

[Willow]

Re: reading as a hobby

Just started a month ago. ^^ BEST JOB EVER!! I go into work now stressed out and I come home relaxed haha

On the plus side here, give me a few months to get situated and the info I pick may come in handy for random obscure questions. :P Maybe...