I’m a reading freak, and I’m proud of it. At least that’s the way I feel after a couple of discussions the last few days. Granted this was probably clear after I read 36 Discworld novels in 45 days.1 But another interesting contrast came up today.
I was talking about reading with a friend at work. He mentioned yesterday that he’d started on A Short History Of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson (great book by the way). So of course today I asked whether he’d made any progress. He had, some twenty pages to be precise.
That’s more than most people read, especially on a busy work day. But I still couldn’t resist replying (truthfully) that I read twenty chapters this morning in order to finish the book I was reading. Sure I was up early and needed to relax, but it was another reminder I go through books rather faster than most people, and to be honest, that’s the way I like it.
Of course the fact that I prefer reading to at least 90% of what’s on TV these days definitely doesn’t hurt the amount of reading I do. But I’ll leave the whole “TV is crap” rant for another time.
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1 Blogged here
July 18th, 2008 at 15:34
I envy you so much! Seriously. While I was in school, I used to read about 5 books a week or more, depending on how much there was to do for school. By the time I started 4th grade I ventured into the adult section of my local library and by 7th grade I had read the entire stock.
As soon as I entered college that changed. Since my courses required very (!) much reading and that is by no means stuff you can just skip through, my reading “outside of the profession”, so to speak, became virtually non-existent. Only thanks to my very best friend I sometimes had literature that did not deal with theories about society, psychology or communication.
The last time I really had the chance to read was the second week of March this year. My computer broke down and was in repair. Since I couldn’t watch any DVDs (I am not a TV watcher, either) or work or do stuff for college, I took the chance (for the first time in about 6 years) to sit down and really READ. As it happens, I went through almost all of my JMS Babylon 5 script books
For now, I am really looking forward to the end of next week, because by then I will have finished two more final exams and then I will start working. Meaning: I will have the evenings and weekends off! And that in return means: bookstore, here I come! (ok, and it doesn’t hurt that it’s my birthday next week, so I hope my parents will give me the one book I really want
).
July 18th, 2008 at 22:01
It’s not always easy for me to find the time to read either. A lot of my recent blogging activity is pretty much paid for by a drop in reading time. Having said that I have the advantage that I don’t need much sleep, and usually can’t really sleep too well without reading something first. So I tend to at least read a good 30 minutes or so late at night if nothing else.
I try to find time for more than that 30 minutes or so a day, and recently most of the trade offs I’ve made have been largely in favour of reading (I’m pretty sure I’m not even averaging an hour of TV a day right now, and probably not much more than that for DVDs or other recorded content). But like you I have had times where there was just too much reading for University and other stuff to get a lot of it done. That can happen even to the best of Reading Freaks. The difference between us and mundanes is that, given the chance, our hands will automatically seek out a book.
July 18th, 2008 at 22:35
You have NO idea how much you just made me smile by including me in the “us” and not in the “mundane” category!
(I guess Agent#6 would just roll his eyes now)
In the past months I have been mostly watching TV shows (on DVD) and selected movies (on DVD) to give my mind and my eyes the chance to relax. After about 14 hours sitting in front of the screen I couldn’t see anything clearly anymore at night, let alone read. Another aggravation is my cat: the moment I start reading (=sitting/lying still) she either a) wants to play or b) lays down across my book until I start reading out loud to her.
But, like I said, the next week will be the beginning of a new chapter and the two books, which I will buy Thursday afternoon to treat myself for two (hopefully) passed exams, are already set.
Do you read books in your own language or in other languages? I have found that I rather read books in their original language (as long as that is English or Russian) than translations. I once had the chance to compare two books, original and translation side by side, and I was shocked how many of the subtle notions were lost in the German version or had been translated completely wrong.
July 18th, 2008 at 22:42
Anyone who’s managed to exhaust an entire library at some point deserves to be included in the “us” there.
I read English more than anything else these days. If something was originally written in English I won’t read it in translation. If something is neither in Dutch nor in English originally I’ll generally go for the English translation (they tend to be better than the Dutch ones in my experience).
And yes, having read some books both in English and in Dutch translations I definitely know what you mean about the subtleties being lost.
July 22nd, 2008 at 19:33
Just to share my excitement: I’ve been able (finally got my hands on some cash) to order three books today and I know that two other books will be “present”ed to me shortly … Can’t wait!
July 22nd, 2008 at 20:20
I always get excited when I know I’ve got new books coming in too. I may not have time to read them (for all my reading I’ve still got a prodigious pile of books sitting around waiting to be read) but I do get excited about getting them.