Reading "Without Shame and For Pleasure"

[RandomAnthony]

Jacobs, an English professor and a biographer of C.S. Lewis, explains that even in an era of unparalleled reading options — books, Web sites, magazines, blogs, Tumblrs, #Longreads, all of them available on Kindles, Nooks, iPads, laptops, phones, or, whaddyacallit, paper — he sees that many once-avid readers have become diffident. "They wonder if they are reading well," he writes, "with focus and attentiveness, with discretion and discernment."

The solution? "Don't turn reading into the intellectual equivalent of eating organic greens," he urges. Read at whim, without shame and for pleasure.

http://www.wgbh.org/News/Articles/201...

Thoughts?

[Lobstergirl, el principe]

I read both ways - I read roughage, and desserts. In fact, if my reading material were a round plate, a variety of book groups would be represented.

[Helena]

I read mostly for fun and I tend not to waste time on something I'm not enjoying. The only exception to the rule is when I agree to read something for a book club- most people read my choice, so I show them the same courtesy. Most of the time.

I kind of like lists, if it's a list compiled by readers. Sometimes you can find something interesting that you may not have otherwise been exposed to.

[Stina]

Lobstergirl wrote: "I read both ways - I read roughage, and desserts. In fact, if my reading material were a round plate, a variety of book groups would be represented."

I read like this as well. I will read a few "real books" and then I need a palate cleanser and will dive into a paperback romance.

I love the quote "Read at a whim, without shame and for pleasure." I might do something with it and hang it in my office.

[Stacia (the 2010 club)]

I do think there's a lot of people who really don't read for pleasure, yet act like they do.

So many people feel like they have to read what others will approve of, and stick themselves with books that become a chore for them to read, which makes no sense to me.

I don't give a flying eff you see kay what others think of my reading choices as we all know. The day I read to impress others is the day I will choose to stop reading.

Reading is fun! I want it to stay that way.

[Rebecca]

The only time I've read anything because I have to is work or school. So I guess I have done that a great deal, but the fact is that most genre books (what most people consider pleasure reading) bore me. "Serious" books, for lack of a better term, ARE what gives me pleasure, what satisfies.

[Mary]

I know several people who don't read at all and truly don't get that it can actually be quite enjoyable. I pity those people. I also know some "I'm too busy to read [for pleasure]" people, and they also have my deepest sympathy.

[RandomAnthony]

The only thing that throws me a little here is the implication that any challenging reading is without pleasure. I don't think you should slog through material you hate and resent the experience but I don't want only to read light material, either, as that'll get boring.

[~Geektastic~]

RandomAnthony wrote: "The only thing that throws me a little here is the implication that any challenging reading is without pleasure. I don't think you should slog through material you hate and resent the experience b..."

Amen. I prefer challenging reads most of the time, when the effort is worth the reward of new experience. I've been reading a lot of lighter stuff lately, and it's starting to bore me, so it's time to transition to a few of the more "difficult" works on my TBR list.

[Janice]

I read for enjoyment, enlightenment, exposure to other cultures, etc. Sometimes I want to be challenged. Yet other times, I just want to escape.

I'm learning in another group that labelling books as a specific genre is limiting. If people can suspend their distaste for a specific genre, they might be in for a treat.

[Jackie "the Librarian"]

I read whatever I want, literature and genre and young adult and nonfiction, everything.
It has to be intelligible, and keep my attention. If it doesn't, I don't consider it a failing on my point. That can mean that I'm not relating to the characters, or the style isn't to my taste (Dickens comes to mind - too many details), or that it's just not that well-written. Not because the book is too hard for me. I can read anything intended for a lay reader.