do you ever find yourself feeling like a novice reader?

[JediFonger]

what i mean is that even though you really have read so many books already you feel like there is so much more you haven't read.

i've read books for hs and a lot for my own pleasure but i feel that i've not even touched the amount of 'classics' that i should read and that my list just gets longer and longer... and i'm sometimes reading the lists more than reading those books! i wish i had more time in the world to read books. just like that twilight zone episode where the man breaks his glasses for reading.

[Koa]

Of course. I sometimes think 'I must read that book soon...oh and that other too...and that...and that....' I currently have a pile of books for the summer which I gathered in the past months cos I tend not to read for my pleasure when I have to study, to avoid distraction... And the pile keeps growing...

[emily655321]

Me too. I tried to make a list once but it depressed me. There are so many. At least I'll never get to a point in my life where I've run out of classics and have to start reading modern books. That would make me sad. My book list is my reason for living.

[JediFonger]

ain't there a French phrase for that? rason d'etret or somn to that effect.

[emily655321]

Yes! That's it, sort of. Ma liste des livres, c'est ma raison d'être.

Hey, I should make a poem out of that! :D It can be my first foray into creative writing in French.

[emily655321]

Ma liste des livres, c'est ma raison d'être
Sur les mysteres de l'esprit, ils sont ma fenêtre
Quand je pense a une vie sans livres pour lire
Pour continuer, je n'ai aucun désir


Thank you, thank you. Can you believe that took me 20 minutes? :rolleyes: Now, to submit to poetry.com... :brow: *fingers crossed*
lmao. Yeah right! :lol:

[amuse]

um - ???

<<my list of books is my reason for living
the mysteries of the spirit, um-um-um (phenetre = something mind related?)
without books (lire = money or life?)
to continue [my life] *something* desire>>

it sounds very pretty, em ;)

[crisaor]

Don't we all?
There's never enough time for this (or anything else).

[emily655321]

Okay, fine, translation. (No! You'll all know what a lame poem it is now. :D)


Ma liste des livres, c'est ma raison d'être
Sur les mysteres de l'esprit, ils sont ma fenêtre
Quand je pense a une vie sans livres pour lire
Pour continuer, je n'ai aucun désir
My book list is my reason for being
Onto the mysteries of the mind/spirit,* they are my window
When I think of a life without books to read
To go on, I have no desire

*There's no distinction in French between the two

[baddad]

Life is short. Pleasures, books for instance, are bountiful here. Just enjoy. I don't berate myself for not having the resources, time, to taste ALL things pleasurable. After all is said and done........this would seem an impossibility anyway, as the plethora of wonderful reading material available is much greater a mountain than the time span of a human life. My real concern is stopping the pages of my book from flapping when I am skydiving. Any suggestions........?

[earth]

The first time I read Dostoevsky I felt like a novice again.

[snapplepeaches]

I just graduated with a BA in English, and there are so many classics that I haven't read. Even though I was an English, there were many assigned books that I did not read because I didn't feel like I had time (or wasted time). Anyway, I have like 2000 books in my room (I am serious) out of them, I have probably read thirty. Anyway, I believe that as long as you're still breathing, you still got time to read a lot :) ~Sophia

[JediFonger]

wow!!! how do you know if you have read them or not???!!? =). i have only about 40 books in my room and i can't remember which ones i've read or re-read or have read many times! so read them again! always stuck in an endless loop... but if it's Tolkien's Middle Earth, i don't mind.

[5Parker]

Finally some people who get me. I've got a stack of books I bought and haven't gotten to yet and I'm feeling... well... all those things you said. And while I'm at it, does anyone else hate exclamation points? When I use them I feel like I've cheapened my sentence.

[snapplepeaches]

That's the key. I know how many books that I have read because I've only read a few. If I do read a lot of books or short stories, I will remember them because of how long it took me to read them, too. So, I have a pretty good memory when it comes to books.

~Sophia

[Edzabeen]

When reading threads in this forum I'm always feeling like a novice reader but that's possibly becouse my studies aren't related to literature at all and I'm reading just for my pleasure. I've got many classics at home but haven't found time to read most of them. But when I'm speaking with my friends, classmates (earlier) or fellow students (know) it sometimes semms to me that I'm the only one who has some interest in literature. But I think that it isn't anything new that people aren't reading as much as they used to.

[JediFonger]

edzabeen, i wholeheartedly agree.

reading lit (especially classics) as a whole has been slowly going down the drain in our modern society. at my work, mentions of odyssey or works of shakespeare are met with sneers. they claim that those who read such works are "nerds". *sigh*.

[Pickles]

There are too many books to read in one life time, so cheer up!
( There I cheapened the sentence good and proper .)
You'll never get to the bottem of the pile.
That's just the classics, there's a lot of other stuff.

Do you have a taste for the low brow?
There is pulp fiction too, shlocky magazine fiction from 20's thru 50's.
http://www.vintagelibrary.com/pulp/index.cfm

And that's only in english.
The world is chock full of good stuff to read.

First humans painted on cave walls, and oh boy, then humans decided to add
captions.......

[mono]

I especially agree with you all, but as we all know to be "self-reliant" (Emerson), we do what seems subjectively just; better to be an educated bookworm/nerd than others who apply the childish labels with sneers. Good luck to you all, my fellow geeks! ;)

[Scheherazade]

what i mean is that even though you really have read so many books already you feel like there is so much more you haven't read.

I have been feeling like that since I was a teenager. When I was 6-7, I used to think that if I kept reading, one day, I would be able to read all the books in the whole wide world; however, here I am, nowhere near to achieving that goal... I often say 'so many books to read, such little time' and sometimes feel envious of people who have read the books I haven't but... I would rather be behind the reading schedule on the task of 'reading all the books in the whole wide world' than run out of books to read. That is one prospect I cannot endure! http://www.redhotsweeps.com/forum/images/smilies/hae_47.gif

[baddad]

Oh yeah, Sher, sing it sister!!!

[scruffy_danny]

I find myself feeling like a novice reader when it comes to modern books actually. When my freinds start talking about Chuck Palanuik (Fight Club) and Stephen King I tend to not know what they're talking about. And my mom keeps telling me to read more modern stuff but to be honest I can't put down Austen, Shakespeare and Hardy. They're too good...

[rachel]

If we live in a small world and have read some classics we think we have read many. When our world enlarges we gaze at a sea of titles and feel very small.
Oh to have the time to go up in the attic like Jo of Little Women and lay on a saggy old couch, eat a ton of apples and read book after book.
But my back would be out in no time, I would be reading in the bathroom from all those fibrous apples and I'd probably fall asleep just thinking about the stack of books I had before me.
So I plod along and like the threads here I see this one and feel inspired to read, then come across that one and a whole new world opens up and I follow that trail a while.
Not very disciplined I know but....oh well.

"an inconvenience is only an adventure wrongly considered, and adventure is an inconvenience rightly considered" chesteron

[Jack_Aubrey]

I always forget which book I really wanted to get everytime I go into the book store. I do feel like I can't read enough though, like I'm missing out on the books everyone thinks greatly of.

[MrBojangles]

Same with me. i enter a book store ready to buy any classic, but what always catches my eye is the paper back thrillers and mysterys. Afterwards I always feel bemused that i had picked up this thing. Completely forgeting what i came there to get, i head over to the starbucks like the terrible consumer iam and get tea. [The End](the worst part about it, is I always do this.)


- I think starbucks is to blame for the lack of readers now'adays
- I have no proof or good reason, just my theory(!) like any soon to be econonmist, I have a theory for everything.

[Satine]

Part of what I love about reading is that there is SO much out there, the possibilities are endless, and that one can NEVER run out of things to read. What I find the most frustrating thing about reading is that there is SO much out there, the possibilities are endless and that one can NEVER RUN OUT OF THINGS TO READ. Aargh! LOL. :p

But I know what you all mean. I have read a LOT of classics and continue to read them, but I'm branching out into a little more popular fiction and sci-fi/fantasy as well and THAT'S where I feel a little intimidated. Nice thing about this place is that as the inevitable questions arise, you can just ASK and there seems to be someone, or if you're lucky...MANY people, who can help you out.

What frustrates me is when people who are really well-read and tend to consider themselves 'experts' in a given genre assert their superiority and make us novices feel stupid and silly for asking questions. THAT is annoying. How are we supposed to find the desire to read new things if people make us feel silly? Those 'experts' should show us the ropes and welcome us in, that's what I say. But hey, I'm full of crap most of the time so don't listen to me.

So to answer the question, yes, I DO feel like a novice reader, and I hope I always do. I hope I never feel like I know too much...and if I DO know too much, I hope I can share my knowledge with others in an open and caring way.

CHEERS! :)

[PistisSophia]

Life would be so boring if I thought I was not a novice at almost everything, I consider myself a novice at everything, perhaps except breathing, and who knows, there may be a better way I could do that.

See spot run. Run Jane run.

[JediFonger]

seeing if this is still relevant =P

[grace86]

I always feel like a novice reader. I have my post it notes with lists everywhere of new books to read. I feel so behind sometimes when I hear of someone, or the book club reading something I have not. And yes, I do tend to get a little jealous when somebody has read a book that's on my list.

At one point, the frustration was driving me crazy. But I'm over the frustration now. Now, however, I speed through the first half of a book, then I don't want it to end so I slow down, but then I get anxious to move on to the next one. Never happy I guess!

[ThousandthIsle]

Agghhhh... This reminds me of the most depressing thought I came across in a magazine article once, which listed the best things about being in your 20s:

'You still believe that you'll get through your entire reading list before you die. '

:( Why is everybody wasting time??!

[Orpheus]

If you can name all of the books that you have read, you haven't read very many books.

[Nossa]

I read a lot..I LOVE reading and live on it...and I still have like 20 books now that I wanna finish during the next month..lmao..don't ask!
It's normal to always feel like you still didn't read the amount and number of books you want to read...this is what keeps you going!

[bluevictim]

Now, however, I speed through the first half of a book, then I don't want it to end so I slow down, but then I get anxious to move on to the next one. Never happy I guess!I do that sometimes too!

Like many of the other posters here, the list of books I want to read is far too long to reasonably expect to complete in my lifetime. Well, at least there is something I'll want to do when I'm old and decrepit and unable to do anything else!

[NickAdams]

I felt like a novice when I first read Jung.

It's depressing when you think about the amount of books, and potentially good ones, there are and the time one lacks to read them. But that is before you decide that there are books you would like to read again. The torture!

[bibliophile190]

I always feel like a novice even though my entire life revolves around books. I'm serious. I can not live without books. If I crashed onto a desert island without anything to read, I think I'd die of misery.

[aabbcc]

I feel like a novice when it comes to modern books. I am so unacquaintanted with the current trends in literature and contemporary authors that that tends to be quite... quite shameful, for somebody who intends to specialise literature in university.

From Homer to the end of 19th century, I am "in my field", and even though I do tend to feel as novice, discover new things and end up surprised about how I did not know about those before, it is still the area in which I circle the best. However, at least I have some context, some more or less systematic view of that literature in my mind, I can find what I like easier. In 20th century I am pretty much lost, and I probably do not even have a systemtic view of 20th century literature in my mind, and contemporary - do not get me started on that one... :(

Another thing which makes me feel as novice, regardless of the time period, is non-European literature (included American literature!), which I know close to zero about, and always feel like a novice when attempting to read it and when facing one entirely different writing style, philosophy or mindset than the one I am used to. I cannot remember when was the last time I read some Japanese author (probably Ishiguro two years ago?), or some Israeli author (Kishon from eight grade is probably the only one I have ever read), or some African author. Even if I have heard of some names, those names are just a words for me, words behind there is nothing... Of course, there are quite a few national literatures in Europe which I know zero about (say, Estonian or Romanian), but overall I tend to have at least some experience with most of it.

Also, I feel like a novice in children/teen/fantasy literature, because I just skipped those phases in reading, I know very, very limited amount of such books, as since childhood I never quite liked them nor had enough patience for them, and then again, I always preferred verse; so when my friends were reading typical children's literature, my opium were Pushkin and Shakespeare. Not that much had changed meanwhile ;)

[Elinor Dashwood]

I definately feel like a novice, but I try to read for the pleasure of it rather than to be able to boast to other people what I have or havnt read. I have a reading list of about 700 books on my amazon wish list that hope to all buy at some point over the nect decade or so! LOL! I have a book shelf of about 50 books, 10 iv read the rest I hope to read in the next few months. I only keep books I know i'll want to read again in the future, so the ten Iv kept are very priviledged! Id say most of the books I read are either literary fiction such as Sarah Waters or Kazuo Ishiguro or they are classics such as austen or any of the bronte sisters. That doesnt mean I dont like the odd Dan Brown or Jackie Collins.

I love when i have to pick the next book to read, i think to myself "Where do you wanna escape to next" Each book is like going on a journey to another place! I know its quite sad but I think my life would be less exciting without books whereas some of my friends think my life must be boring because I read a lot.

[Granny5]

Having read so much in my life, I find that in my old age I get to reread some of the best books because I've forgotten I've read them. Then after a few pages it hits me. But I always continue because I learn something new or see something from a fresh angle and it's like reading a new book. Until about 10 years ago, from the time I was 13 or 14, I read an average of two books a week. That's alot of books!

[Psychosis]

No one lives enough to read enough, so I'll always feel that a bookshop is more like a graveyard of my despair than an idyllic place. Those who read a lot soon feel that they're not reading enough... I presume I'm one of those frustrated kind of man. Being a novice reader it's not what hurts me inside, real pain comes from Time itself.

[Brit Junkie]

I just hate how busy we all seem to stay. I'd love it if I could just read what I want when I want, and yet, there's always something that gets in the way of that. I, too, have at least 3,000 books, so much so that there are books in my home, books at my mother's house, books in my classroom, and books in two, yes, TWO storage units (climate-controlled of course). And no, I haven't read them all, unfortunately. Most of them I purchased for my two theses I've written and a research Fulbright scholarship, but still... I think of the thousands of dollars I have invested and think that there's still so many more that I want. I believe that books are as addicting as cocaine or any other narcotic. Hah!

[wtwt5237]

The same thing happens when I am listening to classic music

[JediFonger]

after i finish reading a book, i always give it to my library. i want to keep copies of things that i know i will re-read (like LOTR) but the ones i know i won't be re-reading, i'm going to give away. no use taking up precious space.

[Stieg]

after i finish reading a book, i always give it to my library. i want to keep copies of things that i know i will re-read (like LOTR) but the ones i know i won't be re-reading, i'm going to give away. no use taking up precious space.

Ditto. I think it is a small but very noble act and most of the books I am able to depart with can give to library and it's patrons something special perhaps the mainstream even (which I also donate of course) to affordably bless a fellow reader.

I have three bookshelves and still cramming books.

[Mortis Anarchy]

what i mean is that even though you really have read so many books already you feel like there is so much more you haven't read.

i've read books for hs and a lot for my own pleasure but i feel that i've not even touched the amount of 'classics' that i should read and that my list just gets longer and longer... and i'm sometimes reading the lists more than reading those books! i wish i had more time in the world to read books. just like that twilight zone episode where the man breaks his glasses for reading.

I totally agree! I feel so behind. At the cafe I go to for 'talks' and other stuff...well anyways, people not that much older than me just pull quotes and books out of their heads! I've read a lot...read a lot still, but man. Makes me feel really bad because they talk about books that are classics, but I haven't even touched! Not because I don't want to or don't read classics, its just my reading list is a bazzzilllion miles long!

[grace86]

I started keeping a mini composition book to put my list in, as someone else here does. I have to admit it's a bit depressing to see so many in the list I might never get to. Sometimes I think it might be easier to not have a list, and just pick a book out when I am at the bookstore. Maybe if I stopped glancing at the lists it would be a bit easier on my mind.

The other day I took out all my books from storage and took them out of their boxes and out of their bags. Thought there were a billion of them I owned, turned out there really aren't that many that I own. Even less are the ones I have read. There is a bigger stack of the unread ones I own!!


No one lives enough to read enough, so I'll always feel that a bookshop is more like a graveyard of my despair than an idyllic place. Those who read a lot soon feel that they're not reading enough... I presume I'm one of those frustrated kind of man. Being a novice reader it's not what hurts me inside, real pain comes from Time itself.

That comment made me so sad.

[Mortis Anarchy]

I always forget my list that I carry in my mini-comp. book. I go to bookstores and when I have money I'll buy a book, rarely on my list. Or if I don't have money, I add more books, writers to that list. Its a never ending cycle...

[JediFonger]

check your local public library, you don't really have to buy books. @my public library here in Boston, i can use the online software to keep a list =).