I want to be an avid reader.

[Aurora Elegance]

A few of you might remember me starting a thread at Internet Infidels about some good literature to read. I started that thread because I wanted to get a good idea of what's out there in the world of good books. But I'm having a bit of a problem.

I genuinely want to be an avid reader because I want to develop an appreciation for good literature. But I unfortunately got attached to cartoons, television, and video games before I got attached to books and that's taken quite a toll on my attention span. My question is how can I "repair" my attention span and become a bookworm?

[SharonDee]

My question is how can I "repair" my attention span and become a bookworm?
When you get this figured out, let me know. I used to be a bookworm and since the advent of the home computer, I have lost the ability to concentrate on reading or indeed, to concentrate on anything else.

When I'm surfing the Internet, I berate myself for not getting my reading done. When I'm reading, I wonder what I'm missing on the Internet.

Gah!

*cough*
So yeah... let me know when you get it figured out. :shy2:

[Petra]

I was a real bookworm when I was a kid. I would get lost in books endlessly and would rarely speak to anyone. In classes, my teachers would have to get whoever was sitting next to me to give me a little shove as I would be so lost in a book that I wouldn't hear anything going on around me.

Now, I'm like you. I have books on my shelf that "I plan to read", but haven't yet. I tend to read shorter articles, or watch documentaries, etc. The articles and doco's are great for non-fiction, although do not go into the depth of a great book (or collection of books) on the subject matter.

Aside from articles and doco's, I read poetry. So much can be said in few words. Poetry gives me an image to focus on and meditate upon, like a great painting does, and holds in it's strophes many truths. Perhaps you could also start with poetry as an apetitiser, then move on to novellas to cleanse and prepare your palette for the epic tomes to follow as main course. Dessert, of course, may be a light comic or perhaps a particularly ripe episode of The Simpsons.

So, a full literary meal to be enjoyed at leisure may look something like this on the menu:

Apetitiser: Nazim Hikmet's The Walnut Tree.

Palette cleanser: Gogol's The Overcoat

Main course: Colleen McCullough's The Thorn Birds

Dessert: The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers and Fat Freddy's Cat, issue #3.


Happy Reading! :read:

[livius drusus]

How about reading some books from movies you've seen and liked? It might help both ease the pressure and give you the pleasure of a new perspective on and old favorite. There are some great books out there that have been made into great movies, from The Princess Bride to All Is Quiet on the Western Front to The Name of the Rose. :popcorn2:

[Godless Wonder]

When I'm surfing the Internet, I berate myself for not getting my reading done. When I'm reading, I wonder what I'm missing on the Internet.

Gah!
Well, there is project gutenberg (http://promo.net/pg/) so you can read books -- wait for it -- on the internet. Granted, they are old books, but still. I've re-read Huckleberry Finn and some Rudyard Kipling stuff, and a bunch of weird Japanese fairy tales, and bits and pieces of Arabian Nights, during various lulls at work.

[Petra]

Well, there is project gutenberg (http://promo.net/pg/) so you can read books -- wait for it -- on the internet.

Thanks!

I used to go to a site that had a great many books that were passed out of copyright due to their age, and it was host to some wonderful books!

I'd lost the link a long time ago, though, and have not since found it. So the Guttenburg Project is a godsend. Cheers! :)

[davidm]

Don't forget Bartleby.com (http://bartleby.com/)

[Godless Dave]

I'm going to be contrarian here, and suggest the possibility that you have trouble paying attention to books because they are not very interesting to you. Instead of restricting yourself to "great" literature, expand your options to include anything you might like reading, whether or not it has the official endorsement of little old ladies with their hair in a bun and pale-faced men wearing black turtlenecks.

[Aurora Elegance]

Well some of those "great literature" have interested me, despite the literateurs' approval. It's just that they're so big that I have to budget my time with them.

[LadyShea]

I suggest working your way up top great literature. Start with some not-too-long fiction in plain language in a genre you find engaging (I hate to say "fluff" but that's the best descriptor)...horror or fantasy or sci-fi or whatever...Harry Potter was a lot of fun. Once you're engaged, you may find you lose yourself in the story and can't wait to read again.

[Clutch Munny]

A few of you might remember me starting a thread at Internet Infidels about some good literature to read. I started that thread because I wanted to get a good idea of what's out there in the world of good books. But I'm having a bit of a problem.

I genuinely want to be an avid reader because I want to develop an appreciation for good literature. But I unfortunately got attached to cartoons, television, and video games before I got attached to books and that's taken quite a toll on my attention span. My question is how can I "repair" my attention span and become a bookworm?

Read shorter books, novellas, short story collections, things like that. Doesn't matter what. Read duster porn (slender works of a cowboys-shootouts-humping theme; the used bookstore is full of the damned things) if you like, or Jeffrey Archer, or Dan Simmons, or Stephen King... just find stuff you like to read and read it. It's that simple.

[Aurora Elegance]

There is some fiction written for gay youth about issues that gay teens go through that caught my eye. I even bought one and heavily enjoyed it. I guess that's a start...

[Adora]

I genuinely want to be an avid reader because I want to develop an appreciation for good literature.
...
My question is how can I "repair" my attention span and become a bookworm?
First step: Stop wanking.

Good literature is what you think it is, not what other people say it is. Anyone can get up here and say Tolstoy or Dostoyevsky or the "classics" range is good, but the fact is, I wouldn't blink an eye tomorrow if every single word written by Dickens was wiped from the face of the planet. The stuff I tend to like from the "classics" ranges is the stuff considered serious pulp back in the days it was published, like Alexandre Dumas' works. That's just my opinion though.

I actually had a discussion with some folks about this a few days ago, and the general consensus was that it's just another form of generalitionism with this "good lit" bullshit, especially in Australia. There are books being written now for younger generations that are like videogames, or are like movies, or are created for a short-attention-span generation. Those that oppose this move can decry it as much as they want, but I think it's brilliant. Yes, I love my books that read like they're on some designer drug and shall always be looked down on as part of the "Bastard Genres" by Baby-Boomer cultural snobs.

The only thing I can say is: Just read. Go into a bookstore, with a budget, go to the shelves of something you're interested in and peruse the covers, read a blurb, a page, then buy and read properly. Repeat until dead. There's no other way to do it. I do buy and read "legit" literature sometimes, but yeah, you wont catch me shelling out 50 dollars for a copy of anything, unless we're possibly talking a hardcover art book. Sales tables are an absolute blessing, and if you can pick out the demographics of certain bookstores, you can just about cover anything and get it cheap somewhere. There's one bookstore I go to and look at the sales tables for more "legit" lit because the suburb it's in is basically full of poor-ass uneducated slobs, whereas other places I can find my bastard genres cheaper because the suburb is full of cultural wankers who don't buy "such rubbish". Heh, their loss!

Don't try and repair your attention span. Find material that will work for that conditioning. Read plot-based material rather than character-based. Buy airport novels. Read the Davinci Code, so you know its rubbish, yet compelling rubbish. That's something lacking in a lot of "serious" writers these days: the ability to hold the attention span of the average reader. Probably the reason fiction sales are shot to hell. You'd be surprised the quality of some "young adults" works out there these days. Anyone who judges you on the fact you have/havent read X classics title is someone who isn't worth the time of day, and I think applying this same kind of prejudice to your own tastes just limits your reading experience.

Disclaimer: Yes. I am one of those contributing-to-the-breakdown-of-society cultural studies postmodernists. Suck it.

[Godless Dave]

Jane Smiley's work is short. "A Thousand Acres" is her best (IMHO); "Moo" is supposed to be good but is a little longer.

[Dingfod]

If you don't read what you want to read, what you like to read, and have a passion for reading you'll never become a bookworm. I don't believe a person can force themselves to be well read, you either are, or you aren't. Trust me, even the most well read person doesn't read everything. There are thousands of books published every year, no way anyone, even a speed reader could read everything. I repeat, read, but read what you like to read, read stuff that fascinates you. It doesn't hurt to ask others though, some of the best books I've read came on the advise of others or in book reviews in the newspaper or magazines.

Now, if you figure out the attention span thing, let me know. I don't read nearly as much as I used to, not even magazines and newspapers. 20 years ago, I read almost everything I could get my hands on, from SciFi to non-fiction scientific, environmental or political subjects to travel, war, and alternative history. I had subscriptions to a dozen magazines, and three or four newspapers at different times. I haven't read an entire book since last year when I read Douglas Adams "So long, and thanks for all the fish." And it's not just the internet, my disinterest came along a bit before that became more interesting as modem speeds increased. I blame MTV. Goddammit! MTV is the root of all things evil. Yeah!

[Aurora Elegance]

I genuinely want to be an avid reader because I want to develop an appreciation for good literature.
...
My question is how can I "repair" my attention span and become a bookworm?
First step: Stop wanking.

Good literature is what you think it is, not what other people say it is. Anyone can get up here and say Tolstoy or Dostoyevsky or the "classics" range is good, but the fact is, I wouldn't blink an eye tomorrow if every single word written by Dickens was wiped from the face of the planet. The stuff I tend to like from the "classics" ranges is the stuff considered serious pulp back in the days it was published, like Alexandre Dumas' works. That's just my opinion though.

I'm too curious to do something like that. Some of the stuff from Dickens and Tolstoy struck my fancy and the only way I can sate that is to read them.

[Adora]

That's fine. I'm not saying don't read the classics, I'm just saying don't read them unless you want to. Don't feel pressurede into it by stupid cultural values about what constitutes good literature and what doesn't.

[Aurora Elegance]

Right...I don't ever feel compelled to watch or read something just because it's popular. I'd be a media whore if I did that. >_>

[Kaonashi]

Read anything you can get your hands on until you find a genre that you really like and then stick to that genre but don't be afraid to branch out every once in a while.

[livius drusus]

Very, very impressive working of the vB code, Kaonashi. Very impressive. :homage: