Do you like to read?

[ThurinEthir]

Lord...of...the...Rings?

 

Typical response from me. :)

 

I read more than the average person that I know, so I guess I would say I like to read. However, I used to love to read, now I would prefer playing video games but I still constantly read.

 

Other than everything written by Tolkien, Ender's Game is probably one of my favorites. The other three in the series aren't as great, but still good, I suppose.

 

 

 

I'm prolly one of the biggest LOTR fans in this board. Only other person I can recall is GSW

 

Never paid attention to my posts? :cry: (I kid, I kid... ;) )

 

I'd say we're the two biggest LotR fans out of the frequent posters in OT. (If you search "Lord of the Rings" in OT, you'll find that 90% of the posts are either my posts or people quoting me. :lol: )

 

 

 

Books you read for school tend to suck. Except for the ones I'm reading this year. Because my teacher is awesome. Or at least they seem to suck when you read them, because you have to analyze it so much (Though this year, we're simply reading, which is great). That's why I, like pryomancer, hated To Kill a Mockingbird when we read it, yet I think it's pretty good now.

[Joes_So_Cool]

Good point RayOxide, I think this forum really has opened my vocabulary and made me better at reading, well not just this forum, but the internet in general.

[Lateralus]

I can't exaggerate how much I love reading and books generally, my only regret is that I don't spend more time doing it.

 

 

 

Because I like this kind of thing, I've kept a list of what i've read this year, personal favourites are in bold.

 

 

 

[hide=]1. My Booky Wook - Russell Brand

 

2. Enhancing Evolution: The Ethical Case For Making Better People - John Harris

 

3. The Fabric Of The Cosmos - Brian Greene

 

4. Finding Moonshine: A Mathematician's Journey Through Symmetry - Marcus du Sautoy

 

5. The Audacity Of Hope - Barrack Obama

 

6. The Importance of Being Earnest - Oscar Wilde

 

7. Chaos: A Very Short Introduction - Leonard Smith

 

8. The Golden Age Of Mathematics - Keith Devlin

 

9. The Economic Naturalist: Why Economics Explains Almost Everything - Robert H Frank

 

10. Northern Lights - Phillip Pullman

 

11. Relativity: The Special And The General Theory - Albert Einstein

 

12. The Subtle Knife - Phillip Pullman

 

13. The Amber Spyglass - Phillip Pullman

 

14. Origins: Fourteen Billion Years of Cosmic Evolution - Neil degrasse Tyson & Donald Goldsmith

 

15. The Black Hole War: My Battle With Stephen Hawking to Make the World Safe for Quantum Mechanics - Leonard Susskind

 

16: Breaking The Spell - Daniel C Dennett

 

17. The Age Of Turbulence - Alan Greenspan

 

18. The Portable Atheist - Christopher Hitchens

 

19. Casino Royale - Ian Fleming

 

20. Live and Let Die - Ian Fleming

 

21. The Comprehensible Cosmos - Victor J. Stenger

 

22. Moonraker - Ian Fleming[/hide]

 

 

 

I'm currently reading The Oxford Book of Modern Science Writing by Richard Dawkins, Hidden Unity In Nature's Laws by John C. Taylor and The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde.

 

 

 

I would recommend going a bit further into the past if you haven't already. You can appreciate how much raw talent is in every sentence people like Dostoevsky write. That said, Hitchens is probably my favourite writer (and person, ha). Have you read 'Letters to a Young Contrarian' and 'Love, Poverty and War'? Young Contrarian is especially good.

[RayOxide]

Good point RayOxide, I think this forum really has opened my vocabulary and made me better at reading, well not just this forum, but the internet in general.

 

 

 

Agreed.

 

The amount of stuff this forum has taught me over the past year is just ..a huge list of crap!

 

Nah just joking bout the crap bit.

 

:|

 

 

 

I used to do the chatspeak gross stuff before I came here. :P

[Giordano]

While I don't read much, I would like to read if I can find the right book. Problem is it's kinda hard to figure out the stories of several books with a plain cover and the awards its gotten on the back. So my only real problem is finding them, if I could do that, I'll read a lot more than I am now.

 

 

 

On the other hand, I do like reading history books. :^o

[M_u_s_ii_X]

I hate reading.

 

 

 

Movies ftw. :twss:

[assassin_696]

I would recommend going a bit further into the past if you haven't already. You can appreciate how much raw talent is in every sentence people like Dostoevsky write. That said, Hitchens is probably my favourite writer (and person, ha). Have you read 'Letters to a Young Contrarian' and 'Love, Poverty and War'? Young Contrarian is especially good.

 

 

 

I know, my modern popular science reading was in part a bizarre attempt to make myself more attractive to Cambridge and other universities on my personal statement, and partly because there seemed to be so many interesting things out there that I had to know about.

 

 

 

I'm trying to wean myself back onto literature but books seem to accumulate on my shelves faster than I can read them, so I've still got a lot of science ones to 'get through'. I've bought The Brothers Karamazov though and will probably start reading it over Christmas, I also dip into Shakespeare and poetry every now and again. I find the talent of Shakespeare really astounding when I read his stuff.

 

 

 

Haven't read Young Contrarian, it's on my Amazon wishlist I've just never got round to getting it. It looks good though, although I'm not entirely sure what it's about. Primarily advice to someone on how to be an individual thinker isn't it?

[Zierro]

If it's not on the internet then NOOOOO.

[Omar]

I read a lot, both in French and English. I used to read a lot of medieval/fantasy stuff like Eragon, but it's getting tiring. I'm starting to look into more interesting or less puerile things, like To Kill a Mockingbird for example. If you haven't already, you should read it. The first 10ish chapters have pretty much nothing happening in them, but you'll burn through the other 20.

[Maulmachine]

Assassin, have you read Catch-22 yet?

[pureprayer]

no

[Nom]

I read a lot, both in French and English. I used to read a lot of medieval/fantasy stuff like Eragon, but it's getting tiring. I'm starting to look into more interesting or less puerile things, like To Kill a Mockingbird for example. If you haven't already, you should read it. The first 10ish chapters have pretty much nothing happening in them, but you'll burn through the other 20.

 

 

 

You're reading the wrong kind of fantasy if you're reading Eragon.

 

 

 

I've been really getting into Shakespeare lately. I really didn't like him before we started reading Macbeth this year, because the previous two plays we read in school were The Merchant of Venice and Julius Caesar, not his best. Though I think I would appreciate them more now, as I was a freshman and sophomore respectively when I read them. Anyway, for my copy of Macbeth I got a huge book with nine of his best comedies and tragedies, so it should be some good reading.

 

 

 

Also really liked The Picture of Dorian Gray. It was just so interesting.

[pryomancer]

Macbeth is his best play in my opinion, really fantastic.

 

 

 

 

 

People who say movies are better than books are people who clearly haven't actually tried to read a book.

 

There's something so amazing about creating the scenes and characters in your mind, as opposed to staring blankly at a screen.

 

 

 

That said, I do like to see an interpretation of a book into a film, especially epics like The Lord of the Rings.

[Hawks]

Lord of the Rings

 

Harry Potter

 

Eragon/Inhertitance (At least Eragon/Eldest, Brisingr SUCKED)

 

Protector of the Small Quartet- Tamora Pierce (ANY BOOK BY HER IS AWESOME :thumbsup: try Beka Cooper, Trickster's Choice)

 

Chronicles of Narnia

 

Ender's Game and the books that follow (Once again, anything by Orson Scott Card is good :thumbsup: )

 

Artemis Fowl series

 

Alex Rider series

 

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep

 

I am Legend

 

The Golden Compass

 

A Wizard of Earthsea (and the books that follow)

 

The Dark is Rising (and books that follow)

 

Graceling

 

Darren Shan series

 

The Last of the High Kings

 

The War of the Worlds (if you can get through it)

 

The Time Machine (my favorite HG Wells book)

 

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (and Adams' other books)

 

The Outsiders (if you weren't forced to read it in school)

 

Beowulf

 

I also love any sort of myth/epic stories like Beowulf, we're going to read the Oddessy (sp) later this year in English.

[Star_Fox]

i've read a lot of banned books like To Kill a Mockingbird, and Fahrenheit 451. both were brilliant and somewhat inspired me even though i loathe reading.

[No_99_Melee]

I suggest Flower for Algernon...

 

 

 

and no its not a chick book like the title would suggest.

[Lateralus]

Haven't read Young Contrarian, it's on my Amazon wishlist I've just never got round to getting it. It looks good though, although I'm not entirely sure what it's about. Primarily advice to someone on how to be an individual thinker isn't it?

 

 

 

It's a series of letters from Hitchens to a fictional student - "Dear X", that sort of thing - about how to adopt various contrary positions and the importance of dissent. There's lots of references to people who Hitchens admires so you can branch out onto a variety of writers and philosophers after you've read it.

[champion]

i've read a lot of banned books like To Kill a Mockingbird, and Fahrenheit 451. both were brilliant and somewhat inspired me even though i loathe reading.

 

I had to read those two books in the 7th grade. To be honest, I wish we didn't. No one really understood the points of the books as well as we would now.

[Omar]

I read a lot, both in French and English. I used to read a lot of medieval/fantasy stuff like Eragon, but it's getting tiring. I'm starting to look into more interesting or less puerile things, like To Kill a Mockingbird for example. If you haven't already, you should read it. The first 10ish chapters have pretty much nothing happening in them, but you'll burn through the other 20.

 

 

 

You're reading the wrong kind of fantasy if you're reading Eragon.

 

 

 

 

That's all the fantasy I find at the local library though.

[Dizzle229]

Lord of the Rings

 

Harry Potter

 

Eragon/Inhertitance (At least Eragon/Eldest, Brisingr SUCKED)

 

Protector of the Small Quartet- Tamora Pierce (ANY BOOK BY HER IS AWESOME :thumbsup: try Beka Cooper, Trickster's Choice)

 

Chronicles of Narnia

 

Ender's Game and the books that follow (Once again, anything by Orson Scott Card is good :thumbsup: )

 

Artemis Fowl series

 

Alex Rider series

 

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep

 

I am Legend

 

The Golden Compass

 

A Wizard of Earthsea (and the books that follow)

 

The Dark is Rising (and books that follow)

 

Graceling

 

Darren Shan series

 

The Last of the High Kings

 

The War of the Worlds (if you can get through it)

 

The Time Machine (my favorite HG Wells book)

 

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (and Adams' other books)

 

The Outsiders (if you weren't forced to read it in school)

 

Beowulf

 

I also love any sort of myth/epic stories like Beowulf, we're going to read the Oddessy (sp) later this year in English.

 

 

 

 

 

How is I Am Legend? I hear it's not like the newer movie at all but still good.

[Star_Fox]

i've read a lot of banned books like To Kill a Mockingbird, and Fahrenheit 451. both were brilliant and somewhat inspired me even though i loathe reading.

 

I had to read those two books in the 7th grade. To be honest, I wish we didn't. No one really understood the points of the books as well as we would now.

 

 

 

 

 

maybe because i read those in highschool? :?

[Omar]

Yeah, I think TKAM isn't really suited for below 9th grade.

[baalboy5]

When im bored I read the history text book, its always cool to know how stuff went back in the 1800~ to 1900~

 

Im now more open to how some social movements/organizations, help change the entire populations perpective and way of life.

 

 

 

Really, I would've never guessed

[Omar]

When im bored I read the history text book, its always cool to know how stuff went back in the 1800~ to 1900~

 

 

I do that too when the chapter I'm studying for isn't interesting enough.

[Nom]

I read a lot, both in French and English. I used to read a lot of medieval/fantasy stuff like Eragon, but it's getting tiring. I'm starting to look into more interesting or less puerile things, like To Kill a Mockingbird for example. If you haven't already, you should read it. The first 10ish chapters have pretty much nothing happening in them, but you'll burn through the other 20.

 

 

 

You're reading the wrong kind of fantasy if you're reading Eragon.

 

 

 

 

That's all the fantasy I find at the local library though.

 

 

 

Your library kinda sucks then. I say look harder :P

 

 

 

Or go to a used book store, you can get paperbacks in places like that for < 3 bucks. I got a hardcover of Winter's Heart by Robert Jordan for $4. And there's a good series to keep you occupied for a while, The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan. After you've read A Song of Ice and Fire of course.

 

 

 

I just finished reading the Time Paradox, latest in the Artemis Fowl series . . . bit juvenile for me now but I have to finish what I started.

 

 

 

[hide=Mini-rant about critics of the book]It was not a bad book at all, in fact I really liked it. People say it was terrible . . . maybe because the general audience (age-level) the books are aimed isn't yet able to look at the book in perspective and see what it role it actually plays in the overarching series. Quite a critical one, in fact. Artemis can't keep conscience at bay forever, people.[/hide]