View Full Version : An Embarrassing Confession?
brokencross
20-Feb-07, 14:22
I don't know if this can really be classed as a confession, because what I am doing, is admitting to something I have not done.
Well here goes, I confess that I cannot remember the last time I actually read a book, fiction or non-fiction. (I am not talking weeks or months, but years.)
I read items and blurb on the internet, I read news on ceefax/teletext, I read the odd article in a newspaper or a magazine, I read the Guiness book of records a bit at a time. (mainly on the loo)
BUT I must admit, I have not read a book from cover to cover for absolutely years and years.
It is not as if I don't have the time; maybe it is laziness.....is anyone else guilty of this "crime" against literature?
I must admit, I have not read a book from cover to cover for absolutely years and years.
It is not as if I don't have the time; maybe it is laziness.....is anyone else guilty of this "crime" against literature?
brokencross, I've got the opposite problem...I'm addicted to books!
I've always been like this...always got at least one "on the go" and if by any chance I find myself without one (like on a train journey) I really panic!:eek: Or if I realise I've got a book, but I've left my glasses at home!
Maybe you just need to get back into the habit of reading books again...if you want to that is, it's not compulsory! :lol:
I am like Angela - usually have at least one book on the go, cannot imagine not having at least one to hand.
Awful if I have a really good book and go to bed - can hardly bear to put it down to go to sleep, often then waken during night, read a bit more until my eyes cannot stay open any more. Admit many times fall asleep book in hand and glasses on.
I must confess I am a compulsive reader - housework, food, husband, anything (but friends) can be ignored if I am into a good book.
Lavenderblue2
20-Feb-07, 15:51
I'm the same Pat and Angela, I couldn't imagine not having a book to read. I gather books around me in readiness, the panic would really set in if I thought I was going to be without a book!
Get reading Brokencross, you are depriving yourself of so much.
LB
Valerie Campbell
20-Feb-07, 16:25
I can't imagine life without books. Maybe you just haven't found the right genre for yourself. If you've watched a drama or tv programme you've enjoyed, see if there is a book for it. It's a good way of getting back into reading.
Cedric Farthsbottom III
20-Feb-07, 16:34
Same as yersel brokencross.Hadnae read a book in years,suddenly came across a book by a new writer J.K Rowling.....it was called Harry Potter.Got hooked on it and all its sequels.Got me into the book reading habit.Read more books in the past seven years than in ma past 35.The final Harry Potter book is oot this year...cannae wait.Cheers to JK for all the good reads anyway.:D
I am 64 years old and enjoy all types of fiction Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, Phillip Pullmans Dark Materials and many others but the book that does it for me is Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks, so get reading Brokencross
you are missing so much pleasure and education.
Cinders392
20-Feb-07, 21:12
housework, food, husband, anything (but friends) can be ignored if I am into a good book.[/QUOTE]
Same with me but I havent been to the library in a couple of weeks as reading a biology textbook. SOme get sick of reading books after a while, which happens with me from time to time. I think I read too much thrillers and horror. They all seem to blend into each other. Books are definately something to be lost in!
housework, food, husband, anything (but friends) can be ignored if I am into a good book.Same with me but I havent been to the library in a couple of weeks as reading a biology textbook. SOme get sick of reading books after a while, which happens with me from time to time. I think I read too much thrillers and horror. They all seem to blend into each other. Books are definately something to be lost in!
For the 55 years since I learned to read (I'm 59), I have read an average of a book every two days..............reading in the bath for hours, propped on the taps doing the dishes, on my knee nursing the bairns etc etc!
In the year since moving up here, with real strenuous physical stuff to do outside, I've been lucky to get through a book a week!
So I guess how much you read depends on how exhausted you are!:D
dont read as much as i used to or as much as i would like to, due to never finding enough time or when i do have time a can never seem to get peace to read:(
so its a few chapters at bedtime, which can take a while to get through a book but a guess thats better than nothing:)
I am with the rest of you guys,life without a book would be just unthinkable...
Mind you I am a bit narrow minded at times...give me anything to do with the napolonic wars at sea and I am lost to all humanity...
A mere mention of Patrick Obrion and I am off in a world of my own.
Sad ,but I think I will stick with it..
Metalattakk
21-Feb-07, 02:39
I'm in a bit of a quandary - I don't know which book to read next!
Just finished Jonathan Wilson's excellently informative "Behind The Curtain -Travels In Eastern European Football" and am presented with the following choices:
Tom Reynolds' "Blood, Sweat And Tea" - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Blood-Sweat-Tea-Adventures-Inner-city/dp/1905548230/sr=1-1/qid=1172021099/ref=sr_1_1/026-3696766-9288440?ie=UTF8&s=books
Bill Bryson's "The Life And Times Of The Thunderbolt Kid" - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Life-Times-Thunderbolt-Kid/dp/0385608268/sr=1-1/qid=1172021273/ref=sr_1_1/026-3696766-9288440?ie=UTF8&s=books
C.J. Sansom's "Winter In Madrid" - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Winter-Madrid-C-J-Sansom/dp/0330411985/sr=1-1/qid=1172021310/ref=sr_1_1/026-3696766-9288440?ie=UTF8&s=books
Jeremy Clarkson's "And Another Thing: The World According to Clarkson: v. 2." - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Another-Thing-World-According-Clarkson/dp/0718149858/sr=1-3/qid=1172021342/ref=sr_1_3/026-3696766-9288440?ie=UTF8&s=books
Leaning towards the Bryson, but The Wife wants me to choose Reynolds' "blook" (a book based on his brilliant "Random Acts Of Reality" 'blog http://randomreality.blogware.com/ - a real-life account of working on the streets of London as part of a Rapid Response Unit) so that she can then read it herself, as I got it from her for Christmas and she won't read it before I do. :D
Any advice appreciated!
Maybe you just haven't found the right genre for yourself. If you've watched a drama or tv programme you've enjoyed, see if there is a book for it. It's a good way of getting back into reading.
This sounds a good suggestion, to get you started.
Or, just consider what sort of TV programmes you like watching and choose a book that's similar in theme - anything really, it doesn't have to be fictional - history, gardening, travel, wildlife, all sorts of topics.
I've always liked fiction best, but recently I've been tending more towards biography and history...a sign of getting older I think :roll:
always have at least one book on the go. seen me with 3 at one time one in the bog one in my bedroom and one downstairs. just finished reading the da vinci code and before that a book on conspiracy theories.
feel weird when there is no book sitting near me.
Same as yersel brokencross.Hadnae read a book in years,suddenly came across a book by a new writer J.K Rowling.....it was called Harry Potter.Got hooked on it and all its sequels.Got me into the book reading habit.Read more books in the past seven years than in ma past 35.The final Harry Potter book is oot this year...cannae wait.Cheers to JK for all the good reads anyway.:D
I was the same, it was Harry Potter that really got me back into books! I think it's so easy to be put off reading if you are trying to wade through heavy-going dirge (like Stephen King - toooooo descriptive!). That's where HP was brilliant - a complete no-brainer to read in the sense that you can devour it in a few days - really fast-moving with twisty-turny plots! I love them! Book 4 was my all-time favourite!
I'm now into comedy books! And I love Bill Bryson. Anyone else read his "Notes from a small island"? He even ventures up to Thurso where he gets the train to Inverness at "Oh my God o'clock" thinking he'd be totally alone, only to discover a hundred biddies with their morning rolls waiting to go to Inverness! Hee hee
I think it's so easy to be put off reading if you are trying to wade through heavy-going dirge (like Stephen King - toooooo descriptive!). .. And I love Bill Bryson. Anyone else read his "Notes from a small island"? He even ventures up to Thurso where he gets the train to Inverness at "Oh my God o'clock" thinking he'd be totally alone, only to discover a hundred biddies with their morning rolls waiting to go to Inverness! Hee hee
I used to feel I always had to finish a book...but well, life's just too short for that.
You might need to persevere to get into a book sometimes, but when you've read the same 20 pages over and over again, and you still couldn't care less what happens...time to give up I think. :roll:
I love Bill Bryson too -well, I mean I love his books :lol:
Doug Country
21-Feb-07, 18:08
I don't know if this can really be classed as a confession, because what I am doing, is admitting to something I have not done.
Well here goes, I confess that I cannot remember the last time I actually read a book, fiction or non-fiction. (I am not talking weeks or months, but years.)
I read items and blurb on the internet, I read news on ceefax/teletext, I read the odd article in a newspaper or a magazine, I read the Guiness book of records a bit at a time. (mainly on the loo)
BUT I must admit, I have not read a book from cover to cover for absolutely years and years.
It is not as if I don't have the time; maybe it is laziness.....is anyone else guilty of this "crime" against literature?
Its a crime that I wasted part of my life reading your post.
dirdyweeker
21-Feb-07, 18:19
I too enjoy reading and maybe this is getting away from the original post but .....what does everyone do with their once read books!
All suggestions welcome..........
.....what does everyone do with their once read books!
All suggestions welcome..........
I'd suggest keeping them ("books do furnish a room"!), giving them to friends you think might enjoy them, donating them to a charity shop of your choice, having a look at this website www.bookcrossing.com (http://www.bookcrossing.com) - or taking a selection along to brokencross! :D
Bought a 1000 page Stephen King hard back in perfect condition for one pound fifty at a charity shop two weeks ago and not finished yet.
Even the Org has difficulty in providing such entertainment value at the same hourly rate!
I find reading very hard work. Even if a post on the .org is more than a couple of sentences long I loose my concentration and struggle. Books ore out I am afraid.
brokencross
22-Feb-07, 12:19
fao Doug Country please do not waste any more time reading this post.
To everyone else, thanks for responding. It would appear I am in a distinct minority being a non-reader so I intend to rectify this.
My problem is definitely a lack of concentration and a short attention span. My wife and daughters can sit and continue to read while a converstaion is going on, or while the TV is on, or if someone walks in the room..not me, I lift my head to see what is going on. I am going to hide away in the dining room with no distractions or interruptions.
When I did read, I enjoyed autobiographies so I would be extremely grateful if someone could suggest a nice light hearted one to start me off.
For years I devoured books and at my peak reading time I could read two hardbacks in one day! This was during the school holidays and when I had all the time in the world (where did these days go?).
Then much later in life I found that due to several factors, I, like brokencross and stratman, lost the ability to concentrate and so the inability to read a book. The local papers were difficult enough!
I have clawed my way back and now enjoy reading again. Concentration is still a problem in that I have about four books on the go just now. When I am reading a fictional book I can keep with it to the end but anything else is as the mood takes me.
Good luck to those who have lost the art of reading. I hope you find your way back soon.
I devour books too and my mum once caught me reading int he shower!!!!! at my peak i can do two a day as well, sometimes more if they are liughtweight ie: patricia cornwell, ian rankin... I like them but they can be read in two hours.
A couple of years ago i was on holiday at my parents and in two weeks i read 24 books!!!! If i am unhappy or miserable i can lose myself in a book and forget my worries, if i dont understand something i can read about it and start to understand it, if I havent been somewhere i can read a book and get a feel for it.... books have been so much a part of my life that i couldnt imagine being without them.
I devour books too and my mum once caught me reading int he shower!!!!! at my peak i can do two a day as well, sometimes more if they are liughtweight ie: patricia cornwell, ian rankin... I like them but they can be read in two hours.
A couple of years ago i was on holiday at my parents and in two weeks i read 24 books!!!! If i am unhappy or miserable i can lose myself in a book and forget my worries, if i dont understand something i can read about it and start to understand it, if I havent been somewhere i can read a book and get a feel for it.... books have been so much a part of my life that i couldnt imagine being without them.
Have to agree with you - for two weeks holiday I take a dozen books with me, and it's never enough, I have to rely on swopping....
I never feel bored with a good book and hopefully it's something that I'll still be able to enjoy when I'm old and grey :lol:
Does anyone else tend to carry a book around with themselves all the time, sometimes put it down on that shelve in the corner out of the way in the kitchen and then go into a panic when they cannot find it......?
I have always loved reading and tend to go through 4/5 books a month. I cannot go into a charity shop, because I always leave with a half a dozen books in hand. Considering that I have been here for 3 years and now need two 6 foot shelves.......does anyone have any for sale?
For a very good and exotic read try some spanish writers: Isabelle Allende (The house of Spirits, Sepia Portrait, Paula, etc, etc) or Gabriel Garcia Marques (Love in time of cholera, a hundred years of solitude). I've also recently started reading some chinese authors: Wild sawns:Three daughters of china,
Jules Watson writes historical novels located at least partially in Caithness and the Islands, so I enjoyed reading her "White Mare" and "Dawn stag" alot.
My most recent discovery is Monica Ali (English speaking author) with Brick lane and Alentejo Blue (my favorite).
dirdyweeker
22-Feb-07, 20:19
having a look at this website www.bookcrossing.com (http://www.bookcrossing.com) - or taking a selection along to brokencross! :D
this is a new site to me and I have now registered. Have more than enough books and if I keep them to decorate a room there would be no room for any new ones.
What is 'brokencross'?
When I did read, I enjoyed autobiographies so I would be extremely grateful if someone could suggest a nice light hearted one to start me off.
I dont read many autobiographies but one that I did was Dickie Birds the retired test umpire. I would highly recomend it.
My own reading comes in spasms and at the moment I am dipping a lot. I didnt read a book until my early 30s but got the bug after discovering John Stienbeck.
What is 'brokencross'?
If you go back to the start of the thread you'll see brokencross sent the first post :D
I'd suggest keeping them ("books do furnish a room"!), giving them to friends you think might enjoy them, donating them to a charity shop of your choice, having a look at this website www.bookcrossing.com (http://www.bookcrossing.com) - or taking a selection along to brokencross! :D
Or.......if you can bear to part with your books ( I find it hard), try www.readitswapit.co.uk It is free+postage ;)
2 covers pages in the middle must be a book therefore MUST be read!! subject not important fact or fiction don't ever run out there's a library with an endless supply and they will get any book you want for you. my books I keep and share with friends and read again and again. Even if it's not my kind of book it usually interesting. especially like murder and conspiricy and spies and biography and autobiography and craft and gardening and ................
well just everything regards robyn
dunderheed
23-Feb-07, 12:29
i usually have 3 books on the go at any given time too, at the moment i've just finished "redemption song" the biography of the clash lead singer joe strummer, also just finished "top boys" by cass penant (nowhere near as good as his rolling with the 6.57 crew) and "murder capital" (again) by reg mckay.
i shall next be starting "humble pie " the gordon ramsay book. anyone got any other suggestions?
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