Well,first of all, welcome back.

I think e-books are useful. Sometimes it is hard to find the main text at a bookstore since there is no demand anymore. However I don't think they will oust the printed ones. Because I believe that after a while we will be tired of someting that we don't have a direct communication; something that we cannnot touch.

Well, I have been absent from here for a bit. I went on an Internet free vacation--which was delightful! But then I came back to 300 emails. I am also working hard to wrap up my next book (are they ever 'wrapped up?" and so I'm in my writing cave. But speaking of Internet-free vacations, what do you think of the future of digital books? Will e-books ever oust the printed beauties on your shelves?

Carol wrote: "I read a fair amount of Kafka when I was younger, and liked the challenge then. Guess I was a dark and moody twenty-year-old! I keep all my books--books are everywhere in my house--and I'm eternall..."

Yeah,it is one of my dreams.I wish it was possible.I want to learn speed reading.

I read a fair amount of Kafka when I was younger, and liked the challenge then. Guess I was a dark and moody twenty-year-old! I keep all my books--books are everywhere in my house--and I'm eternally planning to reread a lot of the classics when life is quieter. (I know--that may be a vanishing point!) Now I need books that can be read in shorter bursts and keep me awake! Imagine what it must have been like to live in an era when you could read almost every book published!!

I really did not like the stories.They sound as if they are written to be written.

Or I am a complete kite.

I unashamedly read mostly fiction at this time~

During my professional career years, I spent much time studying to keep up with latest info on computers and business...so now that I'm retired, I read mostly what I want to read, except of course for those that request reviews. But even then, most of them are books that I thoroughly enjoy reading...

So I probably missed a lot of those books that should have been read to become "well read" Kafka, huh??? Will I fade away not having done so...No! I do want to be entertained, and only occasionally to learn... I feel I've earned that right! LOL Hey, it works for me!

Carol wrote: "Which all brings me back to a somewhat less theoretical question, "Why do we read?" Is it mainly to escape? To learn? To share what our friends are reading? All of those? When I was younger and had..."

Hi Carol,

I love reading and I read a lot.Yet sometimes a book that I begin to read with enthusiasm disappoints me.
For example,I am reading Kafka's stories and will faint.After Metamorphosis, the stories have been a complete disappointment for me.What do you think abou Kafka?

Which all brings me back to a somewhat less theoretical question, "Why do we read?" Is it mainly to escape? To learn? To share what our friends are reading? All of those? When I was younger and had all the time in the world I liked to immerse myself in big heavy books and felt a little guilty reading books that hit a more commercial note. (And the discussion of what is commercial and what is not could fill pages!) But now I really want books to be entertaining. It's best when they do both, but I read a much wider range than I did when I was younger. How about you?

Hi,Glenda!I don't think it is just a fact only with your fiction ;or the fiction itself.I am young and don't have that long experience of life .Yet I see that people are not the same what they were.Innocence is leaving its seat to violence and hypocrisy.And I think ,media and mostly Tv causes this.Or we are getting through back in the proccess of evolution,unfortunately.

I agree that we all have good and bad within us...and even seeing those confront parts of us is something that we all must do. But how do you feel about those villains that are psychopaths or sociopaths...do you ever see yourself having them "win"? The issue of violence is so predominant in the US, yet it seems we crave the excitment and thrills brought about by those who commit the violence. I would be the first to admit that I love exciting fast-paced thrillers. Yet, I hate the fact that so much of it also appears in real life! Is there too much fantasy in our fiction that it becomes a way of life?

Whew...even as I write this, I think why am I asking such a question...Oh well, it's what came to mind so I might as well post it!

Yes, it's an interesting question to me, because I think we read, in part, to help find order in life. Not consciously, of course. We read for fun. But I think another part of our brains likes stories because they help us 'sort' our world. So there is something very satisfying about having our literary villains and heroes be relatively clear-cut. On the other hand, as a writer, I like the challenge of finding the mix of good and bad in every character.

Carol, reading constantly I do not remember particular books, but I have not read many where it was not clearcut. The type of book I think of when you think of a hero/villain is when a man has gone out to seek revenge because of some traumatic experience, such as someone in his family being murdered. Although he is taking an aggressive role and may wind up killing the person who killed his family, one tends to continue to think of him as a hero.

I tend to like the good/bad guy being very clear, preferring the whodunit where you're choosing from multiple villains--perhaps that seems more realistic to me...

Having a sympathetic villain is difficult. Those that are extremely abused as a child are always questionable for me...you tend to want to arrest the parents instead!

When the villain turns out to be someone who is guilty due to selfish reasons, protecting himself, greed, etc., those are the ones I love to hate!

Yes ,I love classics Carol.Because I believe that they have the most precious side in the evolution procces of literature.They are the core.And TV and Movies...They absorbed all the enthusiasm of reading.People think like this:"Imm...If there is the movie of this book then no need to read it".Or..."Ow there is a show on the TV I don't have time to read now."Most of us are eager to live like plants ,unfortunately...

Hi Yagmur,

Things are going well with the new book, but it does tire me! Funny that reading is so relaxing, but writing can be so exhausting! I totally agree with the examples you give. Love the duplicity in all of us. Much more fascinating to explore than our public faces. It's interesting that the examples you give are from the classics. I think our reading habits as a nation (world) have changed over time, particularly with the development of movies and TV. Sometimes I think it makes us less willing to "work" at a novel.

Hello Carol!How is it going with your new book?I hope it does not tire you much.

Imm...I fall into such a feeling when I read Dostoyevski's books.For example ,we generally discuss whether Raskolnikov is a villain or the victim of the society.And Shakespeare's Machbet...At the beginning he was a hero,a "double" hero.Yet we know the end.

Stay cool!

I'm intrigued by the characterizations of villains and heroes in fiction. In real life, of course, few people fall distinctly into one such category. Have you read many books in which two different readers might disagree about who is the villain and who is the hero?