How has your reading changed?

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How has your reading changed?

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1xenchu
Editado: Jan 18, 2007, 12:14 am

Has your reading changed much over time? Personally I have always been an eclectic reader but I do read a lot of science fiction and fantasy.

I don't read a lot of 'literature', especially modern literature and I read very few books on the Times Bestseller List. My loss I suppose but I can't say I ever liked that sort of thing much. Better history, Buddhism, Taoism, martial arts, qigong, non-fiction and mysteries among others rather than, say, Thomas Wolfe (besides The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test anyway).

How about the rest of you? Have you managed to change your plebian (if they were) reading habits for something finer?

2SamSattler
Jan 14, 2007, 8:07 pm

My reading has changed over time, but not to a large degree, really. I went through a period of reading quite a bit of horror fiction (Stephen King,Dean Koontz,etc. but haven't read much of that stuff in the last few years. I do dip into one of King's new novels every so often but I haven't really enjoyed one of them in a long, long time.

I do find myself reading more non-fiction than I did when I was younger and I enjoy books about books and book collectors, something I never much considered until a few years ago. I'm from the south (well, Texas, anyway) and I spend a lot of time reading Civil War history...more focused on biographies of that period in later years than before.

One thing I have noticed in recent years is that I have the urge to read more titles every year. Because of the internet I've spotted more and more books that I want to read and they are stacking up either on my bookshelves or on lists that I keep for future reference. But I consider that a good thing; knowing that I will never run out of books to read is a great feeling.

3carminowe
Jan 17, 2007, 8:23 pm

For about forty years I went through reading phases that each lasted for one to two years.

The first phase I remember was biographies in the Famous Young American series -- the ones fifty years ago were illustrated with silhouettes that fascinated me. My favorites of those were individual books about Abraham Lincoln and his mother, Nancy Hanks Lincoln, and his wife, Mary Todd Lincoln. I gave a book report in the third grade on Rachel Donelson Jackson and burst into tears when I had to relate that she died before her husband made it to the White House. I think I read all of the series available at the time in my school's library and in the city library.

I went through a mysteries phase -- well, actually, I never grew out of that one! It's been my constant, getting me through difficult times as well as good.

Around the fourth or fifth grade, I discovered true adventure books, things like Kon-Tiki and The Man Who Never Was and Richard E. Byrd's Alone. Walter Lord's A Night to Remember began a long fascination with the Titanic and other shipwrecks, and other kinds of disasters, too.

I know Reader's Digest Condensed Books are now looked down on, but I can think of many, many books that I was turned on to first in their condensed form: Seven Days in May; Herman Wouk's Marjorie Morningstar and The Caine Mutiny; a personal favorite, Richard Powell's Pioneer, Go Home; and even To Kill a Mockingbird. I sought out the uncut versions of all of those and read them to pieces.

Well, I won't go into every phase I've gone through; but after about forty years of reading, I noticed that I was renewing my interest in certain phases that I thought I had left behind. Now that I feel no urgent need to be "well read," I've even discovered that some books I thought were royal pains when I first tried them are actually very good!

4kageeh
Jan 19, 2007, 7:05 pm

I can't get enough non-fiction. I have long been enthralled with true crime about psychopathic serial killers but now there are so many things I want to learn about. And I take an especially fine guilty pleasure in reading about the fallen rich.

5Storeetllr
Jan 20, 2007, 4:40 pm

I'm cataloging my library on LT and am interested to again see old books I read 20 to 30 (and sometimes 40) years ago and pretty much forgot about, like old friends I was close with in grammar school that I happened to run into 40 years later ~ I remember loving them, but don't quite remember why and don't really have much in common with them anymore.

Anyway, from the content of my library, I had quite a love affair with sci-fi, mystery, fantasy, horror, and romance, plus a lot of literary (surprisingly) and pop fiction, non-fiction, and historical fiction. I still read many of those genres, but the old authors and series have been replaced by others, and my tastes have grown to encompass women's literature (as opposed to chick lit, which I don't care much for) and classics.

6andyray
Editado: Jul 22, 2007, 10:31 am

it's easier to list those authors and maybe genres that have stayed solid in my reading lists over the past 50-55 years:

Edgar Rice Burroughs, and not just the Tarzan books, either.

Zane Gray, especially "Riders of the Purple Sage" and the Lassiter series.

Believe it or not, I still like to zip through a Tom Swift and ... occasionally.

Some of the classics I HAD TO LEARN for my several literary degrees still give me pleasure, especially those I was introuced to in 1966-72 and 1986-1989 for my "modern American lit" course. I can name Saul Bellow's "Henderson the Rain King" and John Kennedy Toole's "A Confederacy of Dunces." But Bellow's aggressive, bombastic voice caused a different reaction in me this time around (28 years old veersus 63 years old), and I didn't enjoy it as much. Maybe that shows I've lost much of my egocentric aggressive edges.

I have no intention of reading anything I do not enjoy now, whereas I always incorporated "disciplinary readings" before, such as Jean-Paul Satre's "Being and Nothingness" or the Greek plays. Ditto, shakespeare, although Hamlet stills turns me on.

7TheresaWilliams
Ago 2, 2007, 5:29 pm

Since my 40's, much more poetry. I've always preferred "literary" fiction and don't read much of what's called "contemporary" fiction (unless it's literary).

8MarianV
Ago 3, 2007, 9:23 am

When I was a young adult, I devoured science fiction. Those were the days of Ray Bradbury, Isaac Asimov, Robert Heinlein, Arthur Clarke & many others whose names are not as well known.
It wasn't until after i had a family that I returned to popular fiction Peyton Place, Dr. Zhivago, Advise & consent ect. Now my criteria is that a book has to be well written. I try to alternate between fiction & non-fiction, but if I can't "get into it" in the first 10 or 20 pages, I toss it. I am old & my eyes are old & I'm not about to waste my time & eyesight reading what I don't enjoy.

9Naren559
Editado: Nov 8, 2007, 8:16 pm

50 or so years ago, when I was in my "fiction stage", I would start reading everything by one specific author, e.g. Somerset Maughm, Hervey Allen, et al. This lasted through my Navy enlistment (circa early 50s). After that, via college, etc., nothing but academic stuff. That has sort of continued with an occasional novel here and there. Otherwisew biographies, and poetry (e.g. Emily Dickinson)

10Mr.Durick
Nov 8, 2007, 10:20 pm

>9 Naren559: I read Anthony Adverse young enough that I was amazed I got through such a long book. I liked it.

We got through one of the semesters of freshman English in college early, and the professor asked if there were any authors we would like to read. I said, "Hervey Allen." The professor said, "Oh, please." To this day I don't know whether Hervey Allen has written anything else nor whether it is, if it exists, any good. Furthermore, I have not seen the movie. Now I sense a gap in my experience.

Naren, do you remember Allen and his works? And can you say a few words about them?

Robert

11MarianV
Nov 9, 2007, 11:03 am

Anthony Adverse by Hervey Allen was the #1 best seller in the US in 1933 & 1934. Historical fiction, a story of a young man from humble beginnings who battles Napoleon, then has adventures in the New World battling Natives & various bad guys. some 800 pages of action well written enough to hold the attention of most readers. Hervey Allen's mistake was in being too popular.
I didn't read AA, but I did read Forest & the Fort an adventure about the settling of Pennsylvania, part of a series called City in the Dawn which was Philadelphia. Allen completed 3 books & part of a 4th in his projected 6 book series before his death in 1949. I read him in hi school, obtaining the book from the "teachers section" which was off-limits to students but I worked in the library as a page & could read whatever I wanted.
Robert, it sounds like your professor had the attitude that anything popular could not be good -- what did the Masses know? ect. A view all too prevalent in the 40's & 50's. The upheavals of the 60's did much to place it in the waste-bin of history, but it still lingers.
My opinion is that if Hervey Allen published his novels after 1970, some, at least, would be part of the canon & your professor might be out of a job.

12maggie1944
Nov 9, 2007, 11:19 am

I am not sure I can really remember all the ways in which my reading has changed but I do know that I have never read many mysteries, except for Sherlock Holmes, and still do not. I read all the spy books instead. Now I don't really read them either although I have been curiouse about LeCarre's newer book. I went thru stages: the spirituality stage, the recovery from addictions and codependency stage; and wicca and witchcraft; and then, "new age" stuff (I really don't know how to classify it). In addition to stages (which I am now not in) I also have "areas" such as gardening, cooking, writing, book collecting, reference, biographies and autobiographies, history. All these areas are still active and I am not only reading in those areas but still buying books. Right now, my fiction reading seems to be stimulated by the discussions on Green Dragon and I am reading a fair amount of fantasy (a stage I thought I had left behind, but nope!)

I just love to read and talk about reading, too.

13geneg
Nov 9, 2007, 11:46 am

I distinctly remember the first book I read had three or four words to the line printed over or under a large picture. Now the books I read have very few pictures, many have none, but lots of words on each line.

14Naren559
Nov 12, 2007, 4:57 pm

rdurick Hervey Allen: Amazon:http://amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw/102-8740459-7606528?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=Hervey+Allen&x=13&y=13 Hervey Allen is no more trashy than Leon Uris, After I read Trinity, I read several of his books - Trashy.

15Mr.Durick
Nov 12, 2007, 9:06 pm

Naren,

Thank you. I had looked him up on BN.com, but he was almost entirely out of print. I was especially surprised to see Anthony Adverse unavailable.

Robert

16TheresaWilliams
Nov 15, 2007, 3:06 am

#14: "After I read Trinity, I read several of his books - Trashy."

I just LOVE the honesty of that!

17Naren559
Nov 17, 2007, 1:17 pm

Some novels, upon finishing them, I had all sorts of guilt feelings about having spent (wasted) time on them, (e.g. one by Anais Nin).

18maggie1944
Nov 17, 2007, 5:59 pm

I am just now willing to admit I can not sit still and read for long periods of time any more. First, I get stiff so I need to move around frequently. Second, I do not get as "captivated" as I did when younger. Third, I don't have as much to escape from so the reading must be much more escape to....

But I still love it. And now I love LibraryThing, too.

19Naren559
Editado: Nov 19, 2007, 1:20 pm

Maggie,
Those of us who are arthritic switch positions quite often while sitting reading. It still beats the hell out of TV.

20maggie1944
Nov 19, 2007, 3:09 pm

Naren559 - totally agree. I can hardly find anything on TV I am willing to watch. I drink coffee to the Today show but the minute the coffee is done, so is watching TV. Later I might pick up a little CNN or local news and that is almost it. I do like the sappy Exteme Home Makeover - it reminds me of "Queen for a Day" - do you'all remember Queen for a Day? and I might watch 10 minutes of Dancing with the Stars. But boy do I get bored.

Reading - yes, switching positions helps and so does reading in a nice warm tub of water (unless I drop the book). And, best of all, getting off LT helps (heheheheheehehe).

21GarySeverance
Nov 19, 2007, 5:10 pm

This is a great question with interesting messages.
My reading has changed significantly as I have reached 60. I have read fiction all my life with a passion originally stimulated by The Sun Also Rises by Hemingway. But as I approached 60, I began to buy and re-read novels that I liked when I was younger. But this time, the books became vitally important to me. The center of my small collection is The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann. I read this novel after re-reading Remembrance of Things Past by Proust focusing on the theme of solitude. (I like this title translation better). I became immersed in Mann's novel and experienced a real change in my understanding of life and death decisions. This lead to reading Against the Day by Pynchon, then Atlas Shrugged by Rand, then The Name of the Rose by Eco. These and other books (see my library) caused a new illumination of my solitude and started an intermittent life review. Who could have predicted that sea change? What's next? One Hundred Years of Solitude by Marquez.
Gary

22geneg
Nov 20, 2007, 11:12 am

Now, here's Mrs. Johnson! Remember, she's playing for a new washing machine! After her husband fell into a hay bailer and lost both arms and both legs, and her twelve year old son, while trying to help his father lost both hands, her daughter was run over by the wild hay bailer and left a quadriplegic when she tried to stop the machine. Without any income the bank is threatening to foreclose on her house, the hospital bills have left her bankrupt, and her old handcrank washing machine, her only source of income, gave out three months ago and she has lost all her savings. So let's hear it for Mrs. Johnson! Let's see if we can peg the applause-meter!

Yes, I remember the sappiest hour on TV, ever, bar none. Yes, Queen for a Day was only a half hour, but where I lived it was followed by Heartline, thirty minutes of unabashed begging for money, as I recall. NPR/PBS could learn a thing or two about begging from Heartline.

As for my taste in reading, I've gone from mostly historical fiction and sci fi to fiction written during historical times and various sorts of non-fiction, mostly current events and history.

23maggie1944
Nov 20, 2007, 5:30 pm

yes, your recollection of Queen for a Day is spot on!

24Esta1923
Nov 22, 2007, 7:56 pm

"Ellen" seems to be in direct line. . . Tho she hosts celebrities, audience members go home with loot, and generally someone in audience competes for big prize (and gets a significant prize win or lose). Ellen herself is so charming I tune in/ go silent for commercials. This is the only TV I watch, and I may give it up soon. . . .

25xenchu
Maio 16, 2008, 2:13 am

The only shows I watch with any consistency are 'The Big Bang Theory' and 'Two and a Half Men' because I think they are funny shows about social misfits. Everything else is soap opera to some degree or other.