Poll: BOOKS!!!

[Tips_of_Fingers]

Being an English University student, I have to read an obscene amount of books, short stories, extracts of books, articles and web journals. I find it hard during high volumes of uni reading to get time to read for my own pleasure.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoy most of the set texts given to me, but sometimes I just want to read what I want to read.

Which is why, during summer and Christmas I go on a massive binge, reading as much of my own stuff as possible.

The Railway Children,

I bought that for my girlfriend's birthday because she considers it "the best thing ever!" She loves the book and the film so I recently took her to see the stage show in London. It was actually really fucking good. And as ever, she cried at the "Daddy my Daddy!" part.

 

[TheKruzdawg]

You read them?

BTW, by "books" I mean at least 100 pages without pictures...
Just wondering how many Escapists read...

Other Topic: What are some good books?

So by your definition, "Anthem" by Ayn Rand doesn't count as a book? It's only 93 pages, so is it a short story? That's quite a long short story.

If it's good than sure, it can count as a book...

I'm playing devil's advocate here, but how do you define "good"? That's a pretty subjective emotion and I'm pretty sure a lot of people don't think anything Ayn Rand has written is "good", while others adore her works.

 

[crudus]

BTW, by "books" I mean at least 100 pages without pictures...

The books I read are 500+ pages and pictures are on every third page. They are chess books. Do they count?

I don't see why not...

You read those???

Yes, chess is a hobby of mine. Those books really help me get a lot better.

 

[El Poncho]

Every night before I got to bed I read a book.

edit: I like all the Discworld books by Terry Pratchett, read 37/38 of them

 

[hurfdurp]

I always have a book on the go, even if I don't have a lot of time to strictly invest in it. I'm currently reading Sons and Lovers by D. H. Lawrence. I love how he describes relationships between males and females, in all of his books.

 

[Koroviev]

Once I pick up a book, you have to fight me to put it back down because I like to finish it in one sitting. Which is making reading LotR so freaking painful.

I can't for the life of me finish a book in a single sitting. I can never sit still for extended periods of time, much less keep my mind from wandering in a million different directions.

I have the same problem. I don't read books because I can't focus. I can't even read a damn magazine article ( regardless of whether it's interesting or not ).

I have a slightly easier time when it comes to articles. I mean, I make myself sit through a full chapter in a book, so making it through an article is about the same in terms of concentration demands. Also, I tend to have an easier time with non-fiction material in general. Next on my list: Young Stalin.

 

[Koroviev]

I like books and reading the only problem is that I am dyslexic so reading is slightly more difficult than for everyone else so it is not relaxing and requires some effort.

I'm very sorry to hear that. Do you ever use audiobooks?

 

[Koroviev]

Every night before I got to bed I read a book.

edit: I like all the Discworld books by Terry Pratchett, read 37/38 of them

An entire book?

 

[Koroviev]

I always have a book on the go, even if I don't have a lot of time to strictly invest in it. I'm currently reading Sons and Lovers by D. H. Lawrence. I love how he describes relationships between males and females, in all of his books.

I'm the same way. My mom doesn't understand it. But like I always tell her, you never know when you're going to get stuck somewhere with nothing to do.

 

[Koroviev]

I travel a lot by train and I always take a book with me. I love reading.

You might find this interesting. It's a sketch that was featured in the New York Times a day or two ago. It depicts people of various ages reading and quotes their opinions with regard to their respective reading material.

Link: http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/12/19/books/review/19-literary-underground.html

 

[Koroviev]

Holy shit. I am the only one who has never really read a book all the way through. O.O

But, come to think of it, I remember one book I forced myself into reading back in the 3rd/4th grade or something. Some 100 pages or so in bigger-than-small letters. I think my mark depended on it, and internet wasn't yet much available in our country. But that was such a long time ago. Almost feel like I swore to never read again, haha.

Well, that's an unfortunately dubious distinction. What have you tried to read?

 

[Koroviev]

You read them?

BTW, by "books" I mean at least 100 pages without pictures...
Just wondering how many Escapists read...

Other Topic: What are some good books?

So by your definition, "Anthem" by Ayn Rand doesn't count as a book? It's only 93 pages, so is it a short story? That's quite a long short story.

I think Anthem is a novella.

 

[El Poncho]

Every night before I got to bed I read a book.

edit: I like all the Discworld books by Terry Pratchett, read 37/38 of them

An entire book?

A few chapters If I didn't get tired to the point I couldn't read anymore I probably would stay up all night reading one.

 

[Koroviev]

Every night before I got to bed I read a book.

edit: I like all the Discworld books by Terry Pratchett, read 37/38 of them

An entire book?

A few chapters If I didn't get tired to the point I couldn't read anymore I probably would stay up all night reading one.

Oh, I see. Good for you.

 

[zombiejoe]

Haroun and the sea of stories is also good. Made by that guy who got a lot of controversy for the Satanic Verses.

I think you're the first person I've "met" who has heard of that book. I loved it. BTW the author you're looking for is Salmon Rushdie. He wrote Haroun and the Sea of Stories after the, I believe it was Ayatollah Khomeini, called for his death for being critical of Iran (I think that was what it was for). So he figured "I'm gonna die so wtf, I'll just write this". He had wanted to write Haroun and the Sea of Stories for awhile but knew if he did it would pretty much be his death sentence because the whole thing is basically mocking Iran.

If I'm correct, the true reason he wrote Haroun is because he had to be protected (because everyone was after his head) and because of this, he couldn't see his son. He missed his son, and decided to write the book just for him, not knowing what was going to happen in it. But as he started to write and send chapter and chapter to his kid, he started to make it more of a "mocking Iran and the rest of the world" thing.

 

[TheKruzdawg]

You read them?

BTW, by "books" I mean at least 100 pages without pictures...
Just wondering how many Escapists read...

Other Topic: What are some good books?

So by your definition, "Anthem" by Ayn Rand doesn't count as a book? It's only 93 pages, so is it a short story? That's quite a long short story.

I think Anthem is a novella.

I've heard it called that before but I don't know what exactly qualifies it for that name.

 

[Koroviev]

You read them?

BTW, by "books" I mean at least 100 pages without pictures...
Just wondering how many Escapists read...

Other Topic: What are some good books?

So by your definition, "Anthem" by Ayn Rand doesn't count as a book? It's only 93 pages, so is it a short story? That's quite a long short story.

I think Anthem is a novella.

I've heard it called that before but I don't know what exactly qualifies it for that name.

A book's classification as a novella depends on the word count.

 

[ThatLankyBastard]

You read them?

BTW, by "books" I mean at least 100 pages without pictures...
Just wondering how many Escapists read...

Other Topic: What are some good books?

So by your definition, "Anthem" by Ayn Rand doesn't count as a book? It's only 93 pages, so is it a short story? That's quite a long short story.

If it's good than sure, it can count as a book...

I'm playing devil's advocate here, but how do you define "good"? That's a pretty subjective emotion and I'm pretty sure a lot of people don't think anything Ayn Rand has written is "good", while others adore her works.

If you thought the book was good... then it's good...
If you thought the book was bad... then it's not good...

What other people think are their opinions, and I'm here to look for people with good book suggestions. Besides, I'm pretty sure there's never been a book made that EVERYBODY loved...