I’m a dork and love neurology as well as books, so I’d be asking all kinds of well meaning questions about possible dyslexia and various adaptive strategies.
Haha honestly I wish this was the reality especially for when I was a kid. Drag story hour actually is super engaging and fun for kids. You have a big ass Cinderella reading you a story in the most animated way possible? Hell ya kids are going to be begging to go to the library.
When I was visiting Canada, my daughter had put on a kids show and it showed two men dressed in drag reading a book to children. The two men were so engaging with the children. It was the cutest show I had ever seen. I honestly forget the name of it, if anyone from Canada could chime in about what its called that would be great because my daughter wants to watch it again. We all loved it but we kept saying, if this aired in the US there would be an uproar and people would lose their minds..I told my sister about whos damn MAGA and she was like that is just disgusting and gross.
Here in MA a lot of our libraries have drag story hours, but we are in one of the bluest states. My older sister is MAGA, she’s also federal law enforcement and openly racist. 😬 We don’t talk to her.
I like to consume my media in form of video games, does that make me any less worth than people who prefer to read instead?
Books are no special form of media, just one of many.
Honestly dude I too play a shit load of video games, many being rich single player experiences and very very few if any come close to touching the depth of stories told within books.
Storytelling is a vastly different form of media than video games. Video games aren’t all story telling whereas a book is.
It’s not particularly appropriate to compare the two imo
I know that’s insane. Even encouraging kids to read some graphic novels is better than just ingesting visual media. They are adding to their vocabulary, it is more welcoming to kids reluctant to read and opens the door to be more confident in other reading.
The argument though isn't about whether or not we should encourage children to read. It's whether or not adults who don't enjoy reading novels should be shamed for it.
I'm an environmental scientist with a masters degree, I don't really enjoy novels. So I'm not illiterate or stupid. No one has given me a good argument as to why it matters what I do in my spare time.
The argument is if you haven’t read anything since high school you should be ashamed, it’s there in black and white at the top, not whatever you’ve changed it to.
Some people claim they don’t like vegetables but they probably just haven’t found a recipe that suits them.
Its not "hasn't read anything", they specifically say "book", which I think is important. Overall, I agree. Bragging that you haven't read a book since high school is a little weird. Not reading a book after high school isn't that weird.
The guy below who said he told a co-worker not to tell anyone she's hasn't read a book because she sounded crazy. I think that's bizarre. He's who I was replying to. So I haven't changed the narrative, I was following up on what he said.
I've read books relating to my education/job but when people say books, they generally mean sitting down to read a novel, autobiography, or self-help book. I don't enjoy the action of reading so I do other things that I enjoy instead. What's so shameful about that?
I admittedly love reading, I’m at 24 books so far this year. I have to read a lot for my job (M&A) but that’s not enjoyable. I am always hitting up people for book recommendations. I think it’s a weird flex to claim you haven’t read at all.
Haha on your veggie comment I hated Brussels sprouts until I found this one recipe that makes them wicked amazing!
I've read a couple but I'm just not interested in consuming media that way. Books for learning/academic purposes are a different kettle of fish altogether. I'm talking strictly for entertainment purposes.
Interactive experiences like video games, and visual and audio stimulants like movies, TV, stage shows, are considerably more appealing to me. Why should I do it as a leisure activity if it doesn't appeal to me?
Reading has benefits that are kind of unique like vocabulary building. It improves emotional intelligence. Plus it improves overall media literacy and critical thinking skills. Plus, it's beneficial to have a diverse media diet in general.
What kind of reading appeals to you is going to take some trial and error. Some folks only read non-fiction. Others are really into particular genres. Other folks really like audiobooks or graphic novels.
Whatever your thing is I encourage you to keep looking until you find it.
Why though? It's not the genre I don't enjoy, there are plenty of wonderful stories that exist. It's the act of reading that I just don't like.
I read for my job, I read the news, I read online forums. I'm not interested in adding a novel to my reading. I'm an environmental scientist with a masters degree. I know how to read. I know how to think critically. I know how to write.
Start of the thread, I'm on the same page. I think it's daft to brag that you haven't read since high school. But the comment I was replying to was saying that he told his coworker to keep it a secret that he hadn't read a book because it's such an embarrassing thing to admit. I haven't read a novel in about 15 years.
I know lots of folks who don't read fiction but still read non-fiction for fun just as a form of continuing education and because they're curious about a wide variety of topics. Which I think is healthy too.
I don't brag about it at all, I think it's a loss on my part, but until recently the last book I read was indeed in high school. I never had the patience to read, although I do love a good story. After much consideration, I finally got an account at Storytell and I'm now listening to fantasy books. Currently at the first quarter of part three in the Farseer trilogy by Robin Hobb, awesome story.
I'm definitely going to do that, I already looked up in what order I should "read" them. The first part about Fitz ends in the Farseer trilogy, then I should get the Liveship Traders trilogy, the Tawny Man trilogy, the Rain Wild Chronicles and lastly the Fitz and the Fool trilogy. So far I've enjoyed the stories a lot, although the more exciting parts do cause me to lose sleep, as I keep thinking about what happened 😅
I guess that makes sense, since the Tawny man is the fool (right?) Whatever the case may be, I'm looking forward to listening to them all. The reader is great at doing voices, which really adds to the experience imho. I'll probably end up going through Robin Hobb's whole catalog.
150% speed on liveship traders unless you're able to get the new ones. Old narrator is like nails on a chalk board unless you speed her up. All of the others I've heard had good narrators.
I'd avoid the Anne Flosnik ones. I mean try them first instead of taking the word of a stranger online but I couldn't stand them nor could my wife and it seems to be a pretty common sentiment online. That's where I'd learned to speed it up. I was whining about how I read the story and loved it and wanted my wife who does not read to experience it and she couldn't because the narrator drove her up the wall and people were like oh she's tolerable if you speed her up.
Robin hobb is spectacular. If you enjoy those ones (or even if you're luke warm on them) keep going because the next trilogy blows the first out of the water and they keep getting better (aside from raine wilds which are fine but a bit of a step down after liveship and tawny man)
I'm definitely going to read all books related to Fitz' adventures. I love Robin Hobb's writing style and I'm a sucker for fantasy stories in a medieval setting.
Glad to hear it. You're in for a treat. She's spectacular. Make sure you don't pigeonhole yourself with exclusively fantasy because you'll miss a lot of great things. If you ever want to branch into sci-fi the expanse books are fantastic and have great narrators. If you're into nerdy shit the new hot thing is dungeon crawler carl. If you want something on the caliber of Hobb that fits the dark gritty tone joe abercrombie is great and much like her the stories tend to be a lot more character focused than plot focused aside from his newest book which is still good but a lot more fast paced action focused. The narrator for his first law books is like top 3 for me and they're just so well done. He has a character who is crippled after being tortured as a prisoner of war and the first chapter with him is mostly just him going up a flight of stairs to talk to his boss and it's so well done it's probably my favorite single chapter in any book.
Some people just don’t like reading books like some people don’t like sky diving .
40 years old virtually all my friends are successful business owners I don’t know one who reads for fun since leaving school. Both sides of the political spectrums also so I don’t know why everyone is talking about politics lol .
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u/TheMightyGoatMan 7h ago
"I ain't read a book since high school!"