Do you enjoy reading, or is it more like a chore?

[Lynea]

I have a question for all you readers out there:

In your adult life, have you actually ENJOYED reading? I've been sort of weirded out by my own shift from being an 'obligated' reader, to getting seriously into authors and their stories. I can't really pinpoint how or why it's happened. A recent YouTuber I watched says that adults have a way of leaving the act of reading behind for various factors including early childhood difficulties, studying for college, or just growing out of it. So, I wanted to get a general opinion for how others might feel about reading, either fiction or non-fiction. Feel free to respond to these questions in your own words or just click the poll.

How did YOU view reading as a child?

How do you experience reading as an adult? Do you feel obligated, or do you enjoy picking up books?

 

[pmmg]

I did not like reading as a child and still dont enjoy it today. I dont expect I ever will. I find I would rather be on the creative side of the scale and not on the observing side. (I am a slow reader, and that may have a lot to do with it. I find my brain just moves faster than I can read, and it feels like a chore to be trying to keep it flowing when my brain is kind of waiting for my eyes to catch up, if that makes sense....).

In school, I was assigned many things to read and read almost none of them. The few things I did read were related to hobbies, and included some tales like LOTR, and the Belgaraid.

In the college, I also never read stuff assigned to me.

In professional life, I read more huge thick computer related books than any should. Cover to cover...bleh....

Later in life, I decided to improve my reading game, and went back and read all those things assigned to me that I never read, and added to the list. I also read a lot of fantasy to get a feel and be in the conversation. I find, I dont like fantasy all that much, and have liked many classics I thought I never would. To me, reading fantasy feels like homework.

I read many people here and on other forums, mostly to try to be helpful, stay connected, and bring energy to where I am spending mine.

I read constantly, enjoy is another matter.

I am not a reader. I am a writer.

 

[BearBear]

I didn't enjoy mainstream novels or non-fiction. It was a chore for educational purposes. I finally enjoyed reading as an adult with fan-fictions and unpublishable indie works.

I liked them because literally anything could happen and I felt like fully vetted works save a few, seem abridged, like too many loose ends, and held back, not edgy enough or not deep enough, watered down, dumbed down.. I like *really* out there stuff and that's what I write. I see the depths of it in certain manga though.

Literary published works I really enjoyed were:

The Martian (Andy Wier)
The Hobbit

If I could call them 5 star, LOTR FOTR trilligy was 4, then Harry Potter was 3-4 star, twilight was 3, City of Bones etc series were 2-3.

I tried many many others, contemporary and classic and couldn't get through them. Books like Game of Thrones which I found to be confused and frustrating, written with a poor cadence, and just too disjointed. Maybe my short term memory is too crap for that.

 

[Lynea]

I did not like reading as a child and still dont enjoy it today. I dont expect I ever will. I find I would rather be on the creative side of the scale and not on the observing side. (I am a slow reader, and that may have a lot to do with it. I find my brain just moves faster than I can read, and it feels like a chore to be trying to keep it flowing when my brain is kind of waiting for my eyes to catch up, if that makes sense....).

In school, I was assigned many things to read and read almost none of them. The few things I did read were related to hobbies, and included some tales like LOTR, and the Belgaraid.

In the college, I also never read stuff assigned to me.

In professional life, I read more huge thick computer related books than any should. Cover to cover...bleh....

Later in life, I decided to improve my reading game, and went back and read all those things assigned to me that I never read, and added to the list. I also read a lot of fantasy to get a feel and be in the conversation. I find, I dont like fantasy all that much, and have liked many classics I thought I never would. To me, reading fantasy feels like homework.

I read many people here and on other forums, mostly to try to be helpful, stay connected, and bring energy to where I am spending mine.

I read constantly, enjoy is another matter.

I am not a reader. I am a writer.

Thank you for your honest response. I can relate to a lot of this. High school is when I lost my love for reading, because it was all about homework. College made it worse. Your experience is very spot on for what I expected, though, so thank you.

 

[Lynea]

I didn't enjoy mainstream novels or non-fiction. It was a chore for educational purposes. I finally enjoyed reading as an adult with fan-fictions and unpublishable indie works.

I liked them because literally anything could happen and I felt like fully vetted works save a few, seem abridged, like too many loose ends, and held back, not edgy enough or not deep enough, watered down, dumbed down.. I like *really* out there stuff and that's what I write. I see the depths of it in certain manga though.

Literary published works I really enjoyed were:

The Martian (Andy Wier)
The Hobbit

If I could call them 5 star, LOTR FOTR trilligy was 4, then Harry Potter was 3-4 star, twilight was 3, City of Bones etc series were 2-3.

I tried many many others, contemporary and classic and couldn't get through them. Books like Game of Thrones which I found to be confused and frustrating, written with a poor cadence, and just too disjointed. Maybe my short term memory is too crap for that.

I think it's cool you rank Twilight higher than Mortal Instruments. The people I run with typically think very low of sparkly vampires. Do you prefer manga when it comes to your personal reading life? BearBear

 

[pmmg]

As a kid, I spent most of my school thinking this sucks and could not wait for the day to end. Summer break was something I looked forward too all year. One year, just before I was to enter high school, they gave me a required reading list over the summer. I thought that was complete and utter BS. It was break time, not homework time. Needless to say, I failed on these three assignments. I read some of the books, enough to do a report, but I hated them. They were To Kill a Mockingbird, Lord of the Flies and the Hobbit.

As an adult, I read all of these for real (Well, not the hobbit, I feel I am officially done with Tolkien), and enjoyed them even though I could not at my age in school.


My daughter and her friends used to pile on hate for Twilight, and say things like, they are not vampires they are elves or some such... I never took that attitude. I finished Twilight to know what I was talking about (something those who hated on it did not do). and thought it was okay. Not really for me though. I am usually counter to everyone else so... was to be expected. Daughter sill hates on twilight, I just keep waiting for her to grow up. I did think it was funny, cause all the haters kept feeding it energy, and keeping it alive. Mrs. Meyers made a lot of money on their hate.

 

[Insolent Lad]

I read 'too much' as a youngster, probably as an escape. Pure nerd kid in his room avoiding the world and socializing. I still don't socialize much and I still read a lot (but I also turned into a surfer and fitness expert of sorts, so a lot less nerdy ). I love the fact that I have an extra layer of enjoyment from reading these days: the appreciation of the author's skills and style (or lack thereof). And of course, the joy of finding things I can steal!

 

[Finchbearer]

Always loved reading as a child and as an adult both. I was always on the more creative side of the spectrum at school, better at art, English (and randomly sports) but not so naturally good at maths and sciences. I think this was in part due to the stuffy maths and science teachers I had but that’s by the by. I think I’d do better at maths and science now as an adult. I have fond memories of my English and art teachers and school who encouraged my creativity. Then I went to art school at sixteen to study art and design going on to complete a degree in graphic design. During my degree I didn’t read for pleasure when I was studying.

Now in my thirties I’ve got into my groove with reading now, more than ever before and I know exactly what I enjoy. I read around twenty books per year, which might not sound like a lot to some people, or maybe it is a lot - either way I love books, and couldn’t live without them. If I could ave a library in my house then I would!

Everyone is different, and has different hobbies and interests, and I suppose reading is my jam. It does also heavily influence my writing and style of prose, so I find it helpful in that respect too.

If something feels unenjoyable and forced then I won’t do it - like cardio. I don’t. Do. Cardio.

 

[BearBear]

I think it's cool you rank Twilight higher than Mortal Instruments. The people I run with typically think very low of sparkly vampires. Do you prefer manga when it comes to your personal reading life? BearBear

I wouldn't say I read manga or prefer it, only that I have and it had a depth and completeness. In my own works I have a hard time cutting anything because I know it will leave loose ends. It's like having a loop of too much wire and just cutting out the middle without splicing it. Or like cutting the middle out of a blanket that's too long.

The Mortal Instruments series were highly recommended to me and I did get through them. I think they suffered from exactly what I'm talking about, like I'm missing text to tie up loose ends. I guess you could say it's a pet peeve of mine. I know the editors are doing that and it's for good reason but to me it's like chopping up music to make it shorter without regard for lyrics or rythm. I don't know why it doesn't bother others. I have hyperphantasia and so the story is as if I'm in it in many ways but I feel like I have to guess at certain things that happen yet I know the characters understand, so it breaks immersion.

My current personal reading life is non-existent and I prefer to write my own stories, most of them just in my mind and not anywhere else. Or loosely documented and unedited. I feel fulfilled doing that and there's zero dissapointment since I can surprise myself and that's as fun as a good book I guess.

I suppose it's hard to explain other than to say my imagination is enough to scratch the itch of adventure and reading is a slower version of that. Though again, I did savor a few mainstream books.

TMI continues...

I have tried different genres and romance isn't interesting to me, I don't like what horror does to the characters and the endless cliche, and the adventure, sci-fi, fantasy is as I described. If you read my books you'd probably think they're overwhelmingly drawn outbin detail, too dense, too long, too ameture, unrefined, but I like them that way.

The twilight series was simple, there's less loose ends when it's less complex. They were definitely fast food as compared to The Martian or The Hobbit. I mean there's next to nothing to think about and I don't need to try to figure anything out.

The canon of the Immortal Instruments was beyond me even after reading a half-dozen of them. They're just missing a clear picture and it got boring to me.

 

[Demesnedenoir]

I would stay up til 4 am reading by flashlight, so the parents didn't know I was awake. Perhaps some of the joy has faded without the sense of rebellion. Now, I really enjoy only a select few books, but I keep searching for the diamonds in the fields of dog doo. I don't find that much that can keep my attention these days, and find most fiction to be a sedative instead of keeping me awake like it used to.

My version of 4 am by flashlight now is writing. Although I did that too in my earlier years. Part of it was the maturation of reading tastes enhanced by studying English Lit and becoming a literary snob, heh heh.

 

[Mad Swede]

I'm severely dyslexic but when I was young dyslexia wasn't fully understood or recognised so I was regarded as being stupid for not being able to read and write properly. I was also very stubborn so I read as much and as fast as I could to prove to myself that I wasn't stupid. Yes, I did read by torchlight in bed - and so did my children. I learnt to love books and especially that sense of freedom and escape that I got when reading. I still love reading, even though it's hard work for me.

 

[BearBear]

Let me add some fair disclosure because I forgot to mention that I always had access to video games and some of those were very time consuming and irresistible. I also had a lot of other hobbies, I had a lot of pets, a lot of chores, and my friends and I went to the beach a lot because they had access to a private alcove. My house was also overlooking a huge park and I was there hours a day with my dogs or biking around. AND I watched a ton of TV and videos.

 

[skip.knox]

"Enjoy" is a subjective term. When I was young, much of the enjoyment came from a sense of discovery, exploration, and surprise. In part this was because I was able to read very good authors because that's what tended to filter down to the local library. The "classics", if you will. I don't remember any school-assigned reading that was memorable, except that I'm still surprised that I read and enjoyed A Tale of Two Cities when I was in eighth grade. In high school I was in full rebel mode, so all my memorable reading (and there was a lot of it) was outside the classroom.

Besides being of high quality, I was also encountering whole genres for the first time. So it was all fresh. There's simply no way for a SF story to feel fresh to me now, at age 71. I still enjoy reading, but the experience has a different flavor. For example, I very much enjoyed The Books of Babel, but mainly because they were so joyfully inventive. I delighted in The Expanse, not only for the grand ideas, but also for admirable accomplishment as a piece of writing. It's exceedingly rare to have a multi-volume work that had so little excess fat. And I enjoyed In Calabria because it was such a fine, delicate piece.

Another sort of enjoyment, though, came from reading history. I fell in love with Marc Bloch's writing. I delighted in the sheer narrative skill in Donald Kagan's work on the Peloponnesian War, or Sir Steven Runciman's three volumes on the Crusades. I doubt I'd have been able to appreciate any of that at age twenty or fifteen.

All that having been said, I also lose concentration more easily. This isn't just mental, it's physical. My body cannot remain in a single position for hours. I certainly can't lie on the floor or bed reading like I once could do. My eyes get tired, too. It's hard to have the same experience of getting lost in a world that comes from reading for four hours straight when your body starts to hurt after thirty minutes.

So, it's not the same old as young. Very little is!

 

[Ned Marcus]

I loved reading when I was a child and I love reading now. I still read for 2-3 hours a day—more sometimes. I still love to lose myself in new worlds. Now I enjoy a lot of nonfiction, too. All books are not equal, of course, and sometimes I push myself to read, too. Sometimes this is like jump starting a car; I read several chapters, and then the enjoyment comes.

I was a little surprised by this thread—that some people read but don't enjoy. I understand this for work or school, of course, but not really for other reading.

 

[Ned Marcus]

I did not like reading as a child and still dont enjoy it today. I dont expect I ever will.

Your post was interesting. I'd not really thought about this perspective. I understand how school can put people off reading, and I hardly include compulsory school reading as reading. But I'm curious. Why do you read (apart from work stuff) if you don't enjoy it? This is an honest question. Just trying to understand. Do you get any enjoyment from reading?

 

[pmmg]

Thanks for asking.

Mostly to learn stuff. Also to be helpful and keep up.

I want to enter this art form, and I want to be in the conversation. So, when people talk about Jordan, or Sanderson, or Pratchet, I can relate and follow along. And know if I agree or disagree. So, I am just becoming more well rounded.

But, my brain is an editors brain. You give me bad writing, and I will be mentally fixing it as I read. I have the skill, and I enjoy creating. At the moment, I hope that is useful to you all here, and to myself. Time will tell. Many people who post work here don't stick around long enough to get the benefit, so.... Maybe I scare them off

If I am on my own, with no projects or something I wish to accomplish, I like the movies...but they all suck so much, I dont know if that will continue.


....I say often. I am hard to please. If I read your stuff, there is a good chance I wont enjoy it. But sometimes I do, and I am interested to be useful, so will be fair.

 

[Orc Knight]

I did vote for as I child I didn't much like reading. But by the time fourth to sixth grade came around, I found Laura Ingles Wilder and got really into it. And continue to this day and quite enjoy it. Finding time has became the bigger issue.

 

[Ned Marcus]

Thanks for asking.

Mostly to learn stuff. Also to be helpful and keep up.

I want to enter this art form, and I want to be in the conversation. So, when people talk about Jordan, or Sanderson, or Pratchet, I can relate and follow along. And know if I agree or disagree. So, I am just becoming more well rounded.

But, my brain is an editors brain. You give me bad writing, and I will be mentally fixing it as I read. I have the skill, and I enjoy creating. At the moment, I hope that is useful to you all here, and to myself. Time will tell. Many people who post work here don't stick around long enough to get the benefit, so.... Maybe I scare them off

If I am on my own, with no projects or something I wish to accomplish, I like the movies...but they all suck so much, I dont know if that will continue.


....I say often. I am hard to please. If I read your stuff, there is a good chance I wont enjoy it. But sometimes I do, and I am interested to be useful, so will be fair.

I agree about the movies. I think they're always trying to play it safe.

 

[IsaiahF]

Hmm, good question - one that’s been on my mind going into the New Year, as I’ve set myself the resolution of reading at least one chapter of a fiction book that I’m not already reading before bed. Otherwise, if I’m only reading books (usually fantasy) before bed, I end up only getting through like maybe 10 a year - so it’s a way of increasing my scope in order to join in on the conversation as pmmg mentioned above, and just generally be more in the know.

It was actually a bit of a revelation lately to me, realising the importance of tracking the trends of the market, in this case the fantasy market. I’d never even thought of doing so before - I’m something of a curmudgeon in terms of prioritising the purity of the artist’s vision over the practicalities of making money, so it’s not about chasing the market, but I just realised the benefits of at least being aware of it. Also helps me to take my role as a writer more seriously - and plugs me into the ‘real world’, rather than just it being in my head. If nothing else, drawing on comparative titles will help me convince an agent and ultimately publisher that my work is sellable.

As a child and teenager I absolutely loved reading fantasy. Recently over the last few years I haven’t read as much because I fear the thread of inspiration I have with whatever project I'm working on getting damaged or distorted, either through influence or just the pain of feeling inferior. Kind of a weirdly specific concern, but does anyone share that? Anyway, I'm working on that, and as I said, I’m now trying to push through that and increase my reading scope, so that I’m more familiar with everything out there!

 

[pmmg]

Well, I sometimes feel unworthy, but just as often I feel hope, cause if the thing I am reading can be successful...than so can I. A book I am reading has been a best seller and recently made a list of 100 best fantasy books, and I am like...how? Its okay, but its not top 100 great. Ah well, more power to them.

What I dislike is seeing stuff that is close to my own and feeling like I was too slow, but...that is what it is.

The story I began many years ago already missed its window, I feel, and I dont like the current trends I see in entertainment. I am hoping mine will fit in with others who also dont like it, but....never know. I rarely go with the crowd, so I feel I will be on the less travelled road regardless. I just hope its a road that others want to be on as well.

As for movies, I personally think they cannot survive. I go to a lot of empty theatres, and the production companies seem to have contempt for movie goers, and the creative types seem to have other mediums. Its a model that cannot work. I think they will shrink to near extinction soon.