What drives you to read?

[BadassBookworm]

Hello everyone. I'm new to the site (my first post :D ) and I hope I'm not making a total fool of myself by posting a question/topic that has been discussed to death, but I'm curious as to why others has chosen reading as a passion.

I only spent half of a semester in a university and have an associates degree in Hotel/restaurant management of all things. I'm an only child and my parents have never been to college. With that kind of background, many find it hard to believe (including my parents) that literature is my main hobby. I love it because it allows me to explore worlds and ideas that can only be found in a well written books. I also love it because it is a solitary activity, which fits by style. No, I'm not asocial, but growing up an only child definitely gives you a drive to be by yourself more often than others.

So...what drives you?

[applepie]

I can't say what drives me. I love learning, and books are a good place to get it from. I also like the way a really good book can take me away from reality. I think it may be genetic;) My entire family, my whole extended family, are pretty avid readers. We would always discuss a new book or author we had found while we were at family gatherings. My mom always encouraged us to read as well by doing the summer reading programs from the library with us and always reading bed time stories. I think this may have been the biggest reason my sister and I both love to read. I'm doing the same with my own children and hoping that they will learn an appreciation for books as well:)

[Granny5]

To learn was the reason I started reading. My mother was mostly self educated and really pushed us to learn to read. I learned to read fairly early, age 4. My Mom and my brothers and I all read the newspaper together every evening. My mother and grandmother read all the time and we were encouraged to read. I don't remember there ever being a restriction on what I could read. From Zane Grey to romance magazines, to Astrology books, as long as I was reading. My Mom once told me that not reading was the same as not being able to read and that it was my moral duty to read as much as I could.
She wasn't big on preaching except about reading. I've read just about anything I have been able to get my hands on during my life.

[JediFonger]

education shouldn't dictate what you can or can't read. that's the beauty of being taught reading and writing in the first place. in ancient times and in many parts of the modern world TODAY, people weren't taught how to read nor write, thus they were limited to passing stories down through the oral traditions+generally become a lower class enforced by the society of people who can read/write.

by having overcome that barrier, you can be in the same imaginative places authors create with everyone else no matter what diversity you are. i think that's true empowerment. you can read as much or as little as you want of your own accord. the power to do that is tremendous because it can take you out of poverty... or some people choose to go into poverty due to influences from literature, etc. =).

[BadassBookworm]

I completely agree with you Jedi. My intention wasn't to make it seem like I was a "black sheep" or out of my league because I read. On the contrary, I was always encouraged to read by my family and am looked up to by many who are close to me because I actually read things they've only heard about. (We've all known people who quote 1984 without actually reading it :)) In my experience, if one isn't introduced to that kind of activity growing up, they shy away whether it is because they are afraid they won't be able to fully grasp the ideas or are intimidated by them because no one taught them to understand. Thats how I was for a long time until I set a goal for myself to read The Red Badge of Courage and it really opened my eyes as to what's out there besides the current Bestsellers List.

[ThousandthIsle]

I enjoy reading for many reasons, but lately it's become more personal. I feel like an outsider among most of my peers, and have been turning over and over what is or isn't important to me in life. The books I have been reading feature characters who are preoccupied with similar things as I am. I've been searching out other *tortured souls*. Both fiction and non-fiction — following toiled artists, musicians, or simply conflicted protagonists. It's hugely encouraging and even validating just to be able to relate to some of these characters, some of these people. Even if the endings aren't often happy.

[Lioness_Heart]

I've loved reading as long as I can remember; even when I was little, I'd love reading road signs as we drove to school and I always wondered what life would be like without being able to read. My love of it probably comes from my mum: she loves reading and taught me when I was really young, and basically just encouraged me to enjoy reading and to respect books.

Now, I love reading for loads of reasons. It's partly to learn new things, as I'm starting to read more factual books, partly as escapism and just being able to be so completely immersed in another world, and partly because through readinglots of different types of books, you really learn so much more about what it is to be human, and as a result, I believe, you have a far deeper understanding and awareness of the world around you.

Plus reading broadens your mind so much, which is why we're all such interesting people ;)

[Niamh]

the need to escape from my reality.

[Demian]

Hey--it's easier than robbing banks and less treacherous, too.

[tudwell]

I just enjoy literature. I'm not sure why. But that's mostly why I read it. That and becoming a better writer.

[Lote-Tree]

As a teenager it always the sex in a book and then I started enjoying the writing :D So thanks to all those books that had nice beautiful ladies on the cover and had the word sex and obsessions love on it...you have made a reader out of me :D

[F.Emerald]

To escape,
to enjoy and appreciate,
and to learn.

[mcvv09]

What drives me to read is that the pursuit of knowledge and truth is my first priority. It is very similar to Plato's "Meno." We have a natural desire to find out that of which we do not know. Nothing else is more noble.

[syiah]

Well, initally I started reading insane amounts to build my vocabulary in English...(It's not my first language. :blush: ) I thought it would be a good idea seeing as how it helped me acquire an excellent command of my native language. :D
Then came a period when I was obsessed with philosophical texts, history tomes, and the like. "Reading to know." :D
Subsequently, my family life went screwy and I fell to books to try to keep myself sane. Immersing myself in literature helped me bear the burden of an unstable life. o.o The library became my "lair," so to speak - even more so when my father's neglection to pay bills culminated in an eviction.
I still resort to this to help me get through my life...:blush:

[NickAdams]

Excitement. The potential for amazement. To learn. To grow. To improve my writing. For a lot of the same reasons that I watch movies.


As a teenager it always the sex in a book and then I started enjoying the writing :D So thanks to all those books that had nice beautiful ladies on the cover and had the word sex and obsessions love on it...you have made a reader out of me :D

Someone left an adult book of short stories in my cousins room, when I was a teenager, and hormones drove me to read as many as I could find.:blush:

[Bakiryu]

My father used to be a teacher and collect old books. I read most of them and then. Then at school, since I was mostly an outcast-child I moved onto the library.



Someone left an adult book of short stories in my cousins room, when I was a teenager, and hormones drove me to read as many as I could find.:blush:

This happened to me when I was little too :lol: My mum collected those little romance novels. They got me hooked. Then I moved into those curse Anita Blake novels. Can't stop reading them now. What's worse it that my mum still buys the little books.....:blush:

[NickAdams]

My father used to be a teacher and collect old books. I read most of them and then. Then at school, since I was mostly an outcast-child I moved onto the library.



This happened to me when I was little too :lol: My mum collected those little romance novels. They got me hooked. Then I moved into those curse Anita Blake novels. Can't stop reading them now. What's worse it that my mum still buys the little books.....:blush:

I would go to the library instead of school. This is why I have a GED.:(

If they were only romance novels I would name them.:blush: :lol:

[PrinceMyshkin]

So...what drives you?

My car, a somewhat dented 1999 Mazda Protege...

[BadassBookworm]

My car, a somewhat dented 1999 Mazda Protege...

In Soviet Russia, car drives you.

[PrinceMyshkin]

In Soviet Russia, car drives you.

Soviet Russia is gone, tovarishch, nichevo! Let us shed tear for brave Soviet Russia and raise our glasses to future of glorious motherland!

[Bakiryu]

I use would go to the library instead of school. This is why I have a GED.:(

If they were only romance novels I would name them.:blush: :lol:

Yea :lol: I used to skip school a lot and hang out with the librarians.

The only thing I'm naming here is Anita Blake, :blush: :D

[chasestalling]

to shamelessly plagiarize. i kid of course. indeed i read to avoid repeating that which has already been expressed.

[stella]

I also love it because it is a solitary activity, which fits by style. No, I'm not asocial, but growing up an only child definitely gives you a drive to be by yourself more often than others.

So...what drives you?

i am not an only child but i grew up with brothers only & they had something like an exclusive club....so i guess i started reading out of extreme boredom & then i couldnt stop ;)

[kandaurov]

Pretty much what has been said here. To escape, to understand my world and others, to increase my chances of drawing an interesting parallel between the book I'm reading and the book I must analyze for a paper, and to entice me into new experiences.

I like books because they make me sit still.

[Niamh]

Someone left an adult book of short stories in my cousins room, when I was a teenager, and hormones drove me to read as many as I could find.:blush:

Oh no! that reminds me of a curiously odd situation i once found myself in!
I was babysitting for this new family that had moved in a few doors down. They had a young son, who was about two or three. I was skimming over there books one night, was starting to read their copy of Paddy Clarke HaHaHa by Roddy Doyle when i spotted a book that would have been at their kids eye level. I got curious and flixed through it....
But i'll be damned if i name it!:p :blush:

[Nossa]

I read out of curiosity. I wanna know what this or that author has to say. It's really thrilling for me, to buy a new book, not knowing what the story is about or anything, and then wait for the story line to unfold. Not to mention the fact that reading becomes an addiction after a while..so even if you wanan stop, you just can't..lol

[aabbcc]

I did not "discover" reading at some point in my life, as many of my friends did; rather, I grew up in such a family that it was understandable, never put into question, and assumed that people read. So, it started by me picking their values as a child.

On the first photographs of me with a book, or in the library, I was what one would call a "baby" rather than a "small child" - such early it was, that I cannot possibly remember, when my family started to put me into contact with books, as they viewed literacy, as well as encouraging reading habits in children, to be of extreme and utmost importance. All of our family were readers, I learnt to read two scripts and languages pretty much simultaneously (though, upon asking my mother once which was first, she said she believed I prefered to play with Cyrillic books as a child :D) before even going to school; in the evenings or on family gatherings I was recited poetry to, read books to, and books were in our house typical gift for pretty much any occassion you could think of. So, I literally grew up with books, and as I was getting older, my interests were changing so were my reading choices.

I pretty much "skipped" children's literature, which I somewhat regret nowadays, for it seems to me that for as much as I can remember I was reading "serious" literature. (Even when I was read to before bed as a child, my mother prefered to read to me the heart-breaking folk ballads, Odyssey or Evgeny Onegin rather than something more suitable for my age.) My interest in literature thus grew simply stronger over the years.
I went through "phases", of course - from Baudelaire-ish phases typical for early teens, to Dostoevsky-ish phases I progressed onto a bit later, to Romanticism-ish phase which never seems to leave me, etc - but it these 17 years of my life never occurred a non-reading phase. It was just assumed, and I grew to think of it to be unthinkable not to read.

So, I am driven by interest combined with upbringing which gave me the fundaments for reading and provided atmosphere which sparkled an interest in it.

[NickAdams]

Oh no! that reminds me of a curiously odd situation i once found myself in!
I was babysitting for this new family that had moved in a few doors down. They had a young son, who was about two or three. I was skimming over there books one night, was starting to read their copy of Paddy Clarke HaHaHa by Roddy Doyle when i spotted a book that would have been at their kids eye level. I got curious and flixed through it....
But i'll be damned if i name it!:p :blush:

Only fliked?;)

[Niamh]

Only fliked?;)

emm.........would you believe me if i said yes?:p

[arabian dream]

At first I imitation my mum she has to read magazine or religious book before bed time, then I discover Dr. Mustafa Mahmoud hi is well-known writer in Arabian world I have readed his masterpiace (Einstein’s and relativity), after this book I’ve learned thinking about the truth if it is variable or constant. Then I’ve read mixture book in three filed ((literature, art, since) and in the end I create my philosophy in human life train the mind by reading and train the body by sport the conclusion of these practice is balance in human life.

[motherhubbard]

My love of reading started when I was eighteen. I figured I would never have the opportunity to go to college. I decided that if I couldn’t get an education, I could at least be well read and so I dove in and read everything I could get my hands on.

[Scheherazade]

The title of this thread makes me think as if reading is a bad habit... Sounds like 'what drives you to drinking?' or 'what drives you to violence?'

;)

[BadassBookworm]

The title of this thread makes me think as if reading is a bad habit... Sounds like 'what drives you to drinking?' or 'what drives you to violence?'

;)

Or a really good habit. Like "what drives you to give?" or "what drives you to become a better person?" or "what drives you to love?" :D

[Nightshade]

hummm... Would it be too dodgy if I say the feeling of reading? I dont if it just a wierd me thing or what exactly but the burning feeling at the back of my eyes when I read too much , the smell of books ( although then again I enjoy reading online too). Just the way words are strung together how shapes
that really dont mean anything all ome together to make this amazing thing. Ive been known to read cereal boxes when there is nothing else to read.


Actually looking at my answer scher Id say yes reading can be a bad habit. :eek:.

When I was little I knew someone who was always telling me that reading would drive me mad, thatsback where she came from their was a girl who was as consumed by book as me who by the time she was 30 could no longer differenciate between reality and fiction became paranoid and agrophobic.
Sometimes I wonder if she wasnt right afterall.

But I read fiction for the journey, which is why Iread the ending first so Idont get distracted thinking about what will happen and just enjoy seeing how the differant people get there.

[Gadget Girl]

When I was little I knew someone who was always telling me that reading would drive me mad, thatsback where she came from their was a girl who was as consumed by book as me who by the time she was 30 could no longer differenciate between reality and fiction became paranoid and agrophobic. Sometimes I wonder if she wasnt right afterall.

That's what my sister told me before. There was a time that I read too much and all I could think about is make believe things and the characters from the books that I have read. I still have my mind in the real world, but I can't help thinking about the stories, the scenes, the lines, the characters in the books, etc. I think it is true that reading will drive you mad or something.

But actually, I can be in my own little world of make believe at the same time focusing on the reality. Well, that's the joy of reading; you could be at somewhere else, some place that could get you away from this cruel world that you're living in... something like that. Reading can take away my anger or any emotions that I have in myself. That's why I love reading so much. I could be in a place where there is peace.

[higley]

Reading is a source of inspiration as well as escapism. Not only does it let me sneak away for a brief interlude, but gives me new ideas and manners of thinking to apply in everyday life.

Not to mention I love a rollicking good story. ;) The thing is though, as much as I love books I'm really picky. If I don't think I'll like it I won't pick it up. So I suppose I'm a little contradictory.