Can You Read?

[A. E. Lowan]

Okay, I'm throwing this in here instead of Chit Chat because I want more eyes on this. Prince asked me if I'd read something, and not only have I not, I haven't been able to read anything, book, whatever, since the pandemic. I've heard that I'm not the only one, not by a long shot.

Doesn't make me feel better, since that includes books by you guys and friends literally everywhere.

So, fess up! Who is a Reading God and who is a mere mortal and mediocre... rhymer. Like me. Ran out of "M's". ("Illiterator" wasn't a word... but it is, now!)

 

[ThinkerX]

I used to read a lot - as in a book a day or close to it.

However, my eyesight took a turn for the worse last December. New glasses and eyedrops mostly resolved that issue, but me reading fell off, down to about a book a week. And then, sometime in early summer, I simply stopped. Part of it was reading one subpar indie novel after another. Another part was a desire to focus on my writing. But, since July or so, I have read maybe three books, one of them being pmmg's 'Eye of Ebon' and the others for Goodreads.

 

[Queshire]

I've mostly been reading serial web novels. For most of them I can generally count on two to three new chapters a week. Otherwise it's been a lot of audio book though that's more out of necessity. Can't read a traditional book while at work after all.

 

[Finchbearer]

I’ve become more picky, so there’s a few DNF’s lying around. It’s not that they didn’t hold my interest for a few pages but more that they didn’t hold my interest quite enough for whatever reason.

 

[CupofJoe]

I lost my reading chair [it was big and comfy] just as Covid and the lockdowns came in.
Since then I think I've half read a new book and only re-read a couple more.
I've got a new reading chair and a really good cold reading light but its not the same.
For one author I am now 2 and a half books behind.

 

[Prince of Spires]

My reading has been going up and down, as always. I tend to read a bit more when on holiday, and I used to have a 25 minute train commute which got me 50 minutes of "free" reading each day. I've since switched jobs to where I can bike to work. After that I read very little for a while.

Then I picked up The Lies of Locke Lamora, by Scott Lynch, and his writing reminded me why I love fantasy. It's a tale of adventures with great characters in a wonderful and evocative setting. It swept me away to a different world. Since then I've made more time to read. There have been some great books that have been hard to put down and which I finished within a week. Which is fast for me, since I normally read very, very slow. The most surprising ones for me were Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City by K.J. Parker and the Cradle series by Will Wight.

And A. E. Lowan I love Discworld. I've read almost all of them, and I think Pratchett is one of the best authors out there. Very few people manage to hold a mirror to our own society, believes, and predjudices while still being very entertaining and funny about it.

 

[Miles Lacey]

I have done the lion's share of my reading while sitting on the toilet and that has never changed. I do have to use reading glasses for reading certain things like newspapers. At the moment I'm reading a book about the Conquistadors by Hammond Innes. Someone gave me the book to read so I'm reading it.

 

[Ban]

I could have read more, but I'm still picking up and putting down books, so I can't complain. If anything I have read more on average since COVID than I did in the years before.

 

[JBCrowson]

I go through phases of reading lots - by my standard that's several books in a week - and then I'll have a few months when I read nothing. I write more just after a reading phase. Since Covid I have more unfinished books. I find the more I write the less I tolerate stuff that isn't much better than average when reading.

 

[pmmg]

I've said before, and I'll do so here

I am not a reader. I don't enjoy reading, and don't do it by choice. I read mostly as a type of education, and very often it just feels like a chore to me. I read a lot of stuff, but I am generally slow. I am one of those who might get through five pages a day, and starts to get bored at ten. I further find that I am very guarded about how I spend my time and energy, and when I have those tings, I would prefer to create than consume. So...on my own, I might finish a book every three or four months. If I am trying to help someone, or keep my word, I will finish it faster.


I will add, I dont really think readers who are authors and readers who just read are the same. Authors read with more of a looking under the hood type aspect than readers who just want to enjoy it. So...I prefer straight readers, but where to find them? Well...I have found them. They are all over on Goodreads, and they read voraciously....but there is a problem. Contacting them is hard, and against the rules. Most of the groups over there are very controlled, and almost 100% of them have rules like you can promote someones else's book but not your own. So....its like standing on the shore and watching fish swim by, but you are not allowed to use a net or a line. You have to somehow get someone else to do that for you. But still...there are plenty of people who are reading like mad.


Just as an afterthought: I am probably best used for alpha and beta reading (or maybe an editor), cause I'll look and want to help with fixing and making a better story. I am not the one you want rating your story out in public, cause I am too hard to please.

 

[Insolent Lad]

I'm reading way too much. It helps me procrastinate when I should be writing.

 

[Mad Swede]

I read. Constantly, and despite my severe dyslexia. It's a way of escape, it's a form of relaxation. It's also, in an odd way, deeply personal, a sign that I won't give in to my dyslexia. And I still find time to work, be with the family and write. Takes a bit of self-discipline, but then that's true of life as a whole.

 

[skip.knox]

It's striking how much ground that verb covers. Everyone participating in this thread, for example, is reading, so it's obviously not correct to say that we are not reading, broadly defined. I think what's meant is not reading _novels_, but maybe it expands to not reading fiction, or (to choose another direction) not reading in a sustained manner. Call it five pages or fifty However defined, it sounds like the issue is, "I'm reading significantly less than I used to. Why?"

The reasons why are likewise varied. It might be physiological, but might be mental--a loss of concentration for whatever reason. The former is certainly in play for me. I find it physically painful to sit and read for hours at a time. It's also mental, in that I start to lose concentration. Oddly, this doesn't happen when I'm writing. It still happens that hours can pass unnoticed in that activity, while hours spent reading are marked, every one of them.

For the writers here, though, I remind you that we all read our own stuff. Probably many times over. That sort of reading feels different from reading someone else's work. Indeed, reading a novel or even non-fiction for "recreation" feels like a different kind of reading than when I'm doing a beta read or reading for a critique.

In short, if a decline in reading is a concern for you--and I've heard this mentioned multiple times, here and elsewhere--it probably repays to think a bit about what kind of reading is at issue. And which kinds are not.

 

[Orc Knight]

I'm no Reading God, I'm more of a reader to which books are a buffet? I just go through, pick and choose and eat away. Now that summer's over I have more time (less landscaping and other work so less exhausted after all). On a good day I'll eat through at least most of a book. And I'm still plunking slowly through the Horus Heresy novels.

 

[Finchbearer]

I’m currently reading a cereal packet Skip does that count?

 

[skip.knox]

Sure. But that's part of the point. That verb "to read" just isn't precise. I wonder if other languages offer more nuance.

 

[Ban]

Well the nuance is in the context I'd say.

 

[SwiftieDaughterOfAthena13]

Okay, I'm throwing this in here instead of Chit Chat because I want more eyes on this. Prince asked me if I'd read something, and not only have I not, I haven't been able to read anything, book, whatever, since the pandemic. I've heard that I'm not the only one, not by a long shot.

Doesn't make me feel better, since that includes books by you guys and friends literally everywhere.

So, fess up! Who is a Reading God and who is a mere mortal and mediocre... rhymer. Like me. Ran out of "M's". ("Illiterator" wasn't a word... but it is, now!)

I do, in fact, read.

 

[Penpilot]

For me, it's not just reading. It's also TV and movies. I used to go to bed an hour early and read for an hour. Not anymore. The last books I read, I didn't even really read. They were audio books I listened to while running. There have been many attempts, but I just keep loading books into my e-reader and my phone, and I only read a few pages or a chapter.

I had to stop buying physical books because when I die, the news of my death will be about how I was found crushed underneath that fallen pile.

 

[Incanus]

My reading habits have been about the same for decades. The pandemic didn't change it at all. I'm a bit surprised to learn it did change some people's reading habits.

I'm slow, but steady. I read (from a book) most every day. But, I'm the polar opposite of a reader like ThinkerX. It takes me weeks and even months to read one book.

I'm not sure, but reading slowly makes me a picky reader in more than one way. Since it is a large time requirement, I can't read just anything. Also, when reading slowly, mediocre prose doesn't look so good. Probably has something to do with why I love only a small handful of fantasy authors.

Sturgeon's Law tends to keep me from trying out a lot of new things.