(no subject)

[fajrdrako]

From Nov. 8:

Would you say that you read about the same amount now as when you were younger? More? Less?
Why?

I read much less. Before I learned to read, I desperately wanted to know how - I thought being able to read must be the most wonderful thing on earth. And I was right. From the time I mastered Dick and Jane I was on my way to being a book addict.

Now, when I was a kid, I was sick a lot. Really a lot. I hesitate to even say how often I missed school; it would sound impossible to believe.

So because I wasn't well enough to do anything else a lot of the time, I would lie in bed and read.

There was a period in my teens where I did my best to read four books per day. Sometimes this would include Reader's Digest Condensed Books, just to cheat a little. I found some good authors that way. I read almost all the books my parents owned, and scoured the shelves of the Hampton Court branch of the Ottawa Public Library for anything that looked interesting. And sometimes the Main Branch too, just to keep up the habit.

But it wasn't all gothic romances and thrillers and historical novels and mysteries that I was reading. I was reading classics - for some reason, back then, I had a voracious taste for the Victorian novel. Maybe just because I could. Maybe because I'd fallen in love with Jane Eyre at the age of 12 (and with Mr. Rochester too) and was hoping to find something else as good. I had a passion for Dickens, and luckily, my mother had the complete works, and his biography (in two volumes) as well. I read and I read and I read. No SF or fantasy, though - not until I discovered Tolkien at 15, and John Wyndham at 18. I loved Dostoyevsky, especially Rodyon Romanovich Raskalnikov, for whom I had a rather morbid fascination. And Zola. Another fascination was with early 19th century Romantic poets: I started with Browning, branched into Shelley, Byron and Keats; never did like Blake in the least. I read multiple biographies of all of them, until they felt as familar as people I knew.

Meanwhile I was reading and collecting and loving comic books as well. Fantastic Four, X-Men, Adventure Comics - which later morphed into Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes - Spider-Man, Daredevil and (oh, how I loved this one!) Sgt. Fury and His Howlin' Commandos, The War Comic for People Who Hate War Comics. Stan Lee outdid himself with that one. I loved Nick Fury almost as much as Lymond, Aragorn, and Mr. Rochester.

At some point in my late teens my health improved. I started attending school every day. I had less time to read. When in University, I did a lot of reading, but a lot of it was assigned - which isn't the same as reading for pleasure, even though most of it was pleasurable. As an undergraduate, I was studying both Italian and French, and trying to learn Latin through a correspondence course - so I did a lot of reading in foreign languages, which slowed me down.

Once I started to work, it was hopeless: no more afternoons spent reading. Precious little time in the evenings. I struggled to keep up. I read on buses, in line-ups at the bank, anywhere and everywhere I could. Still do.

Once I became active in fandom, I spent a lot more time socializing and much less time reading. I became busy. Really, really busy. I branched out into reading SF and fantasy.

At some point I discovered slash, and then started watching more television, which cuts into reading time. I usually only follow one or two shows per year - last year, amazingly, I watched three or four - good heavens no, it was five! Veronica Mars, Heroes, Torchwood, Doctor Who and Battlestar Galactica. Wow. That was quite a year.

So I'm down to something like a book per week now. It only a fraction of my former reading obsession. Doesn't even compare.

Comments

[nuptse.livejournal.com]

I read books constantly when I was younger. I read a lot of books when I was a teenager. I read so-so many books in my 20s. Now most of the print I read is related to work - trade magazines and such, but those are some of the same magazines I read as a kid (Western Horseman, ag magazines) so I dunno if they're really work or pleasure.

But online, I read quite a bit - of all types. News, info, wiki, fics, meta, pretty much whatever crosses my path. So I dunno if I read more as far as word count, or less because its only an occasional book now and then. I certainly don't read fiction books any more, all my books are either reference or true adventure (climbing books).

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

That's a good point, about reading online. I was thinking that I don't read magazines as much as I used to, and I don't, mostly because magazines are so expensive - I don't know if it's that they cost much more than they once did, or if it's that my resources are less. Either way, I can't afford them.

But I do read a lot online - the kinds of things I used to read in magazines: short stories, news, essays, advice, recipes, science, anything that catches my attention. I probably spend more time reading that sort of thing now than I did as a teen.

Are there any climbing books you would recommend?

[nuptse.livejournal.com]

OMG yes, there are so many climbing books that just knock my socks off!
First and foremost is John Krakauer's "Into Thin Air" (http://www.amazon.com/Into-Thin-Air-Personal-Disaster/dp/0385494785/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/002-0576232-1404864?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1194617988&sr=8-1). First-hand account of the deadly 1996 season on Everest. JK is a writer by trade and climber by nature, and those two go together like peanut butter and chocolate. And to have had this man on that mountain on that year to be in the middle of all the chaos couldn't have been a coincidence. This was one I was absolutely unable to put down - and not think about afterward. It's also a perfect introduction to the climbing world for anyone just getting into it because he covers the hows and whys of everything without slowing the story. I remember at one point I'd been reading all day, and it was well into the night when the ex said "put the book down and go to sleep." I told him "not until we get these people down to high camp!" I sent copies to my mom and sister and they're now both climbing fen, just from this book.
There are 3 or 4 books out by other survivors of that year, but the one I'd rec first is Anatoli Boukreev's "The Climb". He became my hero after reading JK's book, and reading 'Toli's book cemented that.

Second is "Touching The Void" by Joe Simpson. (http://www.amazon.com/Touching-Void-Story-Miraculous-Survival/dp/0060730552/ref=pd_bbs_5/002-0576232-1404864?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1194617988&sr=8-5) Probably one of the best (ie: O_O) climbing epics EVAR. Simply unbelievable story and heroism. And what's best is that it all really happened. I still have to remind myself that while reading it every time.

Third is somewhat obscure, but it sparked my love for K2 over Everest back before Everest was such a whore for attention. "K2: Triumph and Tragedy" by Jim Curran. (http://www.amazon.com/K2-Triumph-Tragedy-Jim-Curran/dp/0395485908/ref=pd_sim_b_img_2/002-0576232-1404864) This is JC's account of the 1986 season on K2 where both the summit log and body count were high. What makes this story important to me is that it's romantic in a way many climbing epics are not. It made me fall in love with the mountain and the unique expedition style used in the Karakoram region. This is how climbing used to be before it sold out - romantic, heroic, and ultimately a little bit blind to its own dangers.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

My father was fascinated by K2, also.

Thanks for the recommendations. Now I know what to read - they all sound fascinating.

[auriaephiala.livejournal.com]

Joe Simpson's other books (the one on Everest, and his autobiography, This Game of Ghosts) are very good, too.

He makes an activity which I would never want to actually do myself enthralling. I was reading his books at the same time as I was reading a book about a journalist being stuck in Sarajevo during the Serbian bombings there in the 90s: similar in an odd way.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Some experiences are better when vicarious. And some are just interesting in their own right. We can't experience everything, so it's great to get the accounts of those who have done something, or been somewhere, that isn't likely to ever be our own experience.

[wijsgeer.livejournal.com]

I read and I read and I read, I used to flee from depression in books. So (!!) lots of reading. But I also read when I was happy, I just read a lot. I like company but I need time by myself to recuperate. I used to have a book with me *allways* so I could read when I needed to wait somewhere, on public transport, in a que in the shop.

Since my last big depression something burned away. I have severe problems reading and especially finishing a book. Even the much anticipated series of Bujold left me stranded. It is immensely frustrating that it somehow doesn't recover.

I can read for my studies, but still it costs more and I cannot do it a long time at a stretch.

Newspapers, magazines, also still very hard. I have problem to stick to 1 article, I tend to browse and have too much information twirl around in my mind.

I can read email and websites, but I do skip LJ entries if they are too long or too abstract.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

When I was depressed, I pretty much lost the ability to read. "Reading for pleasure" was something I couldn't do, because nothing was pleasurable. My attention span was set at practically nothing. It felt very strange.

The ability to read, and to concentrate, came back slowly, but it came back. THank goodness. I think it's still not at the place it was once, but it's getting there.

How far did you get on the Bujold books? I suspect they aren't good ones to read when depressed, being both too light and too deep.

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

I generally feel that life's too short to read fiction, unless I'm a) dissecting it for a purpose, whether to analyse it or to use it as fodder for fic, or b) it is my own fic. My greatest loves are non-fiction and poetry. I'd much rather devour a history book than a novel.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Well, I love history books too, but I have an unquenchable passion for fiction, and tend to choose to read fiction first - unless there's a reason to be reading the history, which might include research on a topic, or might include compelling curiosity, or the discovery of a new book published about one of my favourite topics. (Like yours about Conrad!)

But it's fiction that fuels me, and always has.

[duncanmac.livejournal.com]

I too read a lot less now ... I simply seem to have less time available (though the long hours commuting and at work may have a bearing). I too tend to read when I am depressed, though I feel less patient now with books than I once was. I tend to read much more non-fiction that fiction these days -- but I have not given up fiction. I rather doubt I ever will.

I have also added some scribbles about what keeps me busy these days (http://duncanmac.livejournal.com/14277.html). More about that ... when I have some spare time ...

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I have so much less time available it's painful - and I have more things to fill it up with. But at least the books are there, to be picked up any time I feel like it.

I read more fiction than non-fiction, and would maybe like more of a balance. But I can't do without fiction, it seems. I can do without non-fiction, if I must - but if I go too long without it, I get antsy.