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People Who Have Never Read A Book

amarok2005 said:
-- Maybe off-topic, but that reminds me of how often people ask, "Have you read all these books?" and are astonished when I say no. I recently read an article wherein numerous bibliophiles admitted they get this question all the time.

Don't they realize how depressing that would be? All those books on the shelves -- and nothing fresh and new to read!
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I have shelves and shelves of books - and I have read them all. I buy books I want to read, read them, then put them on the shelf. When I want something new to read, I buy more books.
Well, actually, there are quite a few books in my house that I haven`t read - but they`re my husband`s, so don`t really count. And maybe there are a few that I bought out of interest, but which turned out to be impossible to get through which are only half read.

Some of the most depressing bits of my life were the years when I lacked the language proficiency to read decent novels. There were all these appealing looking books about, but I couldn`t read them. Or if I could, my comprehension was shallow and there wasn`t much enjoyment to be had in it. These days though I can rip through a Japanese novel just as quickly as one in English, and usually prefer Japanese.

For some people, it is apparently very tiring to read or put the effort into thinking about some bit of literature while doing so. I`ll never be able to understand it, but they don`t really seem to be an uncommon group.
 
First off, I am an English teacher and I LOVE books. I did cultural theory at uni and it taught me to have a very eclectic approach to my book-acquisition - I have a wide range of fiction and non-fiction books on every topic under the sun. Books are my bag, baby. However, my husband does NOT read books - he read Watchmen the other month and that's the first thing he's read since he was 15.

BUT... The "point" of great literature is not the story, not the word on the page, not the number of pages in the novel - the "point" is the message. Great writers of literature - actually ALL great writers, fiction and non-fiction, drama or poetry - write because they have something they want to impart to others. The whole point of literary criticism (or cultural theory) is to take the story apart and find the themes, motifs and ideas behind it. And therefore, I would argue that if you can "read" anything and discern a meaning deeper than the mere plot, storyline, or surface meaning then you are a "reader".

A person might read any great author and get nothing from it other than the basic plot - a perfect case in point would be any below-average GCSE student. That's a shame - they've missed a chance to connect with the author's intention and apply it to their own life. On the other hand, a person might watch Eastenders and realise the exquisite irony of Bianca falling in love with the man she rejected many years ago. Even better, they might go on to read an article in Heat which they think about for the rest of the day and then discuss with their best friend. Making links and thinking about implied meanings are what is important.

Personally I could not be without my books and I find great enjoyment in reading, but I would never dismiss a person who had never read Dickens as "not a real person". I would never assume that someone who hadn't heard of Austen didn't know how to think.

I wouldn't consider a woman who hadn't read Judith Butler or Margaret Atwood to be unaware of feminism.

Truth is not only to be found in the 19th century novel: it is all around us in a myriad of cultural artifacts including, but not limited to written fiction.
 
KarlD said:
escargot1 said:
I'm an adult lit tutor. You'd be surprised how many people can't read books.
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Yes I know, but this is different this is willful ignorance it seems to be increasingly popular and it seems to be very popular among the 18-25 age group for some reason. it seems to be just lack of interest for want of a better expression.
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I think willful ignorance has always been stylish in various circles, on a variety of subjects. On the complete flip side of this discussion, I know, and am constantly frustrated by, people who think being incompetent at using computers, the internet, or even mobile phones makes then superior. These people tend to be 30 or over, and delight in their anecdotes of how they don't understand a thing about the dreaded Interwebs - the unspoken conclusion being that they, therefore, must be old-fasioned, classy, and spend their days reading dusty, leather-bound classics.
In the letters page of many newspapers, there will always be a smug letter from a lady about how she was enraged and frustrated by her attempts to use a newly purchased mobile phone, usually without attempting to seek any kind of help.

Having said that, these people get on my wick far less than those who take pride in complete illiteracy.
 
Beltania said:
KarlD said:
escargot1 said:
I'm an adult lit tutor. You'd be surprised how many people can't read books.
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Yes I know, but this is different this is willful ignorance it seems to be increasingly popular and it seems to be very popular among the 18-25 age group for some reason. it seems to be just lack of interest for want of a better expression.
Click to expand...

I think willful ignorance has always been stylish in various circles, on a variety of subjects. On the complete flip side of this discussion, I know, and am constantly frustrated by, people who think being incompetent at using computers, the internet, or even mobile phones makes then superior. These people tend to be 30 or over, and delight in their anecdotes of how they don't understand a thing about the dreaded Interwebs - the unspoken conclusion being that they, therefore, must be old-fasioned, classy, and spend their days reading dusty, leather-bound classics.
In the letters page of many newspapers, there will always be a smug letter from a lady about how she was enraged and frustrated by her attempts to use a newly purchased mobile phone, usually without attempting to seek any kind of help.

Having said that, these people get on my wick far less than those who take pride in complete illiteracy.
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I know exactly what you mean, there was a guy at my old cycling club who was on the commitee so he sort of needed to be contactable, nobody could ever get hold of him because he just would not learn how to use email and he refused to tell anyone his phone number and i don't think he even had a mobile phone.
Grrrrr :evil:
 
I read a book once.
It was green.

:D

Seriously, though, my younger brother doesn't read at all, except the newspaper (well, The Sun, which is almost a newspaper). It's simply not relevant to him - he works, goes out with his mates and plays football. For entertainment and elucidation he watches TV. It's fairly common, depending upon where you're from.

Me, though, I don't have as much time as I used to, but I generally have about 2 or 3 books on the go at once (currently 2 of them are Gordon's latest :) ) and my basement is full of piles of books that won't fit on the shelves. I've also started to read the classics on my iPhone, which is surprisingly readable once you spend 5 minutes getting used to it.

I'd go insane without books and magazines, but I understand that it's not for everyone. We shouldn't use reading, or the lack thereof, just to make ourselves seem superior to those who don't.

Oh alright, we should. But just a little bit.
 
rev_dino said:
I'd go insane without books and magazines, but I understand that it's not for everyone. We shouldn't use reading, or the lack thereof, just to make ourselves seem superior to those who don't.

Oh alright, we should. But just a little bit.
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:lol: yes we're allowed to only on special occasions and when the other person is really definitely a loser for lots of other reasons too.
 
It's not so much books as narrative that is crucial to the human experience. Anyone who hasn't ever had a narrative to consider - one with some slight depth at least - is probably pretty poor at considering their own life and the lives of those around them as well as telling their own story; we view and review our lives in narrative conventions: we are the heroes (or anti-heroes) in our own little dramas.

Which is why, in part, those people who view the world and their own lives through the limited prisms of soap-opera, the Hollywood Movie and fictionalised celebrity reporting are most likely to live - or view themselves as living - desperately shallow lives.

It doesn't have to be a book, but it must be a proper story.

With apologies to Benjamin and his work The Storyteller. Reflections on the Works of Nikolai Leskov

PDF available here:
http://pdflibrary.wordpress.com/2008/02 ... oryteller/
 
I love books,books where an escape from what would have been an otherwise bad childhood,reading elsie the lioness books put me in a different world and culture,i cried at the end of charlotte's web and then there was the bridge of bridge of khazad dum when i was older...


For me books are a form of magic,(and i mean the whole book thing,no kindle for me) and i just cant get into the head of people that dont read,still i have books to help me get into the minds of others... :)
 
I recently found one person who doesn't read books, and it really took me by surprise when I found out. It was fairly recently too, I'd know this person a few years by then, and it really did change my opinion of him.

We were watching TV, and there was some generic comedy show, where one of the characters was reading 'Pride and Prejudice and Zombies'. My house mate piped up some thing about liking this particular show as they do all kinds of little things to make you smile, like making up a fake book. At which point, I pulled the book out of my bag, as at the time it was my bus book. As that book had been really prominent in Waterstones, on Amazon, just about everywhere really, I had to ask why he had never seen it advertised. That's when he dropped the bombshell.

I know it's unfair, (Bad Duck!) he's a smart guy, with a good job, witty conversation and all, but since then I've lost some respect for him. We'd never talked about the books we were reading, but it never occurred to me that he didn't pick a book up from time to time.
 
This may not sound connected (but it is in my mind!). I used to know a bloke who liked music. I remember telling him about a band I was going to see. He asked me why I was going to see them when I had the CD!

I really thought that he missed the point, and I wonder if people who don't read books do the same. 'Why do I need a book when I can watch a film'?
 
Cultjunky, I know what you mean, but to be fair to your friend, it seems he merely was not aware of a particular book's existence. I know there are tons of books whose titles I would not recognise, and I read scores and scores of books every year (and I edit books for a living).

Now, if someone had never heard of (not necessarily read) some of Shakespeare's greatest works (at least, an English-speaking person), I would say there was cause for raised eyebrows.

On a side-topic, one of my sisters doesn't understand why I keep so many books in my home (and when she mentions this, she sneers), and I don't understand why she DOESN'T.

I think all we can say is that for some people, books are important. For others, they are not. To each his own.
 
I could get that he/anyone hadn't heard of the book, after all, it's not likely to have featured in the TLS, (although I have seen a review, possibly in FT) it was the bombshell afterwards. It's like non readers are a different breed.
 
I once worked with someone who admitted that he had not read a book since school. He said that he had tried, but he got fidgety when he tried, and gave up. He didn't think that he was missing anything important by not reading.

I can understand how he felt. He enjoyed watching sport, but I will get fidgety if I have to sit and watch an entire football match.

I could feel sorry for him, because there was a huge library of knowledge out there, that he was never going to explore.

But why should I! While I'm sitting here thinking and worrying, he's content because his football team scored more goals than their opponents! His biggest concerns are how much lager he'll drink and will he get his leg over.

So let him wallow in his ignorance! Let us point fingers at those who don't read, They made the choice to do so, and we can say what we want, safe in the knowledge that they will never get off their behinds and read what we say about them.

HA! And double HA!
 
stuneville said:
Actually, I re-read Fahrenheit 451 a couple of years ago, having (rather ironically) seen the movie adaptation on TV. But as Bradbury says, I interpreted the book not as the death of literature so much as the rise of television and its detrimental effect on the intellect. TV is passive, literature is active, and human nature will tend toward the passive in a lot of cases.
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Ray Bradbury - Fahrenheit 451

Firefighters in the future no longer stop fires, but start them - by burning books. But one has forbidden doubts. Dark futuristic tale starring Michael Pennington.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0 ... nheit_451/

This R4 version is in English accents, which adds to the drama for those of us to the East of the Atlantic.
 
That's fantastic Rynner thank you for sharing!

It's strange as I have come across references to this book and film four times in the past week!
 
The film had the protagonist with a German accent, which only confused things.

Everyone else was English, though. As was only proper. And yet it was directed by a Frenchman.
 
The formative years for habitual reading are from infancy to adolescence and if reading hasn't soaked into your being by then it may never.
Raymond Soltysek from Glasgow University has done interesting research into texting. Far from an illiterate trait he asserts there was never anything like it in the last hundred years and young folk disillusioned with school have, in trying to better state what they feel online and in texts, have actually self enhanced grammar, albeit in cultural slang or jargon. He says Samuel Johnson was no worse.
 
Kellydandodi said:
Far from an illiterate trait he asserts there was never anything like it in the last hundred years and young folk disillusioned with school have, in trying to better state what they feel online and in texts, have actually self enhanced grammar, albeit in cultural slang or jargon.
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I don't understand the claim.

What is 'self enhanced grammar'?
 
Every language has a fixed grammar - we are programmed for that an cannot avoid it. Even slang and regional / race dialects have quite strict grammars that determine what is and isn't correct.

See:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_Am ... ar_English

So I guess that when linguists study texting they will conclude that it has a quite solid grammar. it's just "not a grammar as we know it".

Looking down on other peoples grammar is just a class difference game :)
 
As one of the people above said "reading" is not all about books.
I know artists who make very creative work but are not interested in reading.
And the best example are my yoga and jiu-litsu teachers (2 different persons) who also don't read but have their intelligence, creativity and artistry focused to other fields.

Often the jiu-jitsu teacher says: "you should really look better at what I'm trying to demonstrate". And he's right - I miss 80% of the movements and often don't get the "point" of the exercise. For him it's all very obvious. I'm good at books but I'm really dumb with physical intelligence.

It's very interesting to realize this.
 
jolting this old thread back to life as ive recently been able to strongarm myself back into reading after what must be well over a decade

was an avid reader from age 13 to 33⅓ ... even through what i now consider my quote wild years ... never really owning a tv kept my focus

having a kid, and then an ex, knocked the reading out of me

i think the internet and rise of smartphones/devices kept it gone

i would start books, never finish them, no matter what the material ...

by a (fittingly) coincidental turn of events i read paul austers music of chance over last couple weeks ... saw the movie at the cornerhouse in the early nineties, always stayed with me

hoping i can keep the momentum and focus up, love reading and being a reader ... ive missed it
 
henry said:
jolting this old thread back to life as ive recently been able to strongarm myself back into reading after what must be well over a decade

was an avid reader from age 13 to 33⅓ ... even through what i now consider my quote wild years ... never really owning a tv kept my focus

having a kid, and then an ex, knocked the reading out of me

i think the internet and rise of smartphones/devices kept it gone

i would start books, never finish them, no matter what the material ...

by a (fittingly) coincidental turn of events i read paul austers music of chance over last couple weeks ... saw the movie at the cornerhouse in the early nineties, always stayed with me

hoping i can keep the momentum and focus up, love reading and being a reader ... ive missed it
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I hope you do the keep up the momentum. I still read a fair bit but nowhere near as much as before the internet. The TV & Netflix also eat into my reading time.
 
My Kindle has a lot to answer for. There are loads of books on it and on my phone so I can read anywhere. so much more convenient than carrying a chunk of processed wood pulp!
 
I move too often, processed wood pulp is heavy. Luckily Pride & Prejudice & Zombies has been made into a movie now.
 
The major difference between watching a tv adaption of, say, Anna Karenina, and reading the book is that with the tv the characters and locations a set for you. But with the book you get to create in your mind the whole situation.

Books will always be my choice.

INT21.
 
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