Why do you read?

Do you really read for no more than entertainment? Why not just watch TV and films? They are less demanding. It always surprises me that so many people say "I just read for fun and enjoyment". Surely literature offers you more than that? Isn't about connecting? I read because I feel less alone. It humanises me and lessens my misanthropy. My books also provide me with a storehouse of guidance and wisdom. Three thousand years of the finest minds of each generation struggling to make sense of existence and pouring out their profoundest thoughts on death, grief, fear, pain, loneliness etc. No more than entertaining?!

Reading is not just an entertainment for me. Books (maybe not all) are, in my view, a bearer of knowledge, wisdom, ... and can thus "connect" people with the same interests, or, (in the opposite way) help people to find more information about topics they do not know much about.

Because there's nothing on TV. No, seriously, I have always read a lot since I was very young. I suffer from ADHD & I am bipolar, this affliction gave me poor psycho-motor skills but also gave me an incredibly high reading age as a child. I could read before I went to school. By the time I had left school I had probably read more books than most people do in a lifetime. I remember lending books to my schoolteachers when I was about 11 or 12. This happened with my lecturers as well when I went to university. Plus I have no friends so reading is all I've got. (just kidding) :banana::banana::banana:

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Originally Posted by WICKES

Do you really read for no more than entertainment? Why not just watch TV and films? They are less demanding. It always surprises me that so many people say "I just read for fun and enjoyment". Surely literature offers you more than that? Isn't about connecting? I read because I feel less alone. It humanises me and lessens my misanthropy. My books also provide me with a storehouse of guidance and wisdom. Three thousand years of the finest minds of each generation struggling to make sense of existence and pouring out their profoundest thoughts on death, grief, fear, pain, loneliness etc. No more than entertaining?!

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For me reading is most of all a form of escapism. Entertainment, yes. A chance to forget this miserable world for a while.

Why I'll rather choose books than TV and films - well, first of all there's more to choose from when you read books instead of watching tv. Then books can be carried everywhere, but TV cannot.

Surely reading gives one new ideas and broadens one outlook on the world, but to me that's mostly just an added bonus.

I agree with Annamariah, it's exactly the same for me.

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Originally Posted by WICKES

Do you really read for no more than entertainment? Why not just watch TV and films? They are less demanding. It always surprises me that so many people say "I just read for fun and enjoyment". Surely literature offers you more than that? Isn't about connecting? I read because I feel less alone. It humanises me and lessens my misanthropy. My books also provide me with a storehouse of guidance and wisdom. Three thousand years of the finest minds of each generation struggling to make sense of existence and pouring out their profoundest thoughts on death, grief, fear, pain, loneliness etc. No more than entertaining?!

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I read to be both entertained and informed, I think that without books and music my life would have been vastly diminished. I can never understand how anybody can go through life without reading a book, although I know some people do. To some extent reading is a habit that is entirely beneficial in that it helps a person to think logically and improves one's vocabulary. Television has the opposite effect if one considers the number of semi-literate celebrities that are currently to be seen on TV; which is why I have stopped watching it. I stopped going to the cinema years ago on account of the formulaic storylines and poor acting/direction etc. So,yes,it's reading for me.

My main motive for reading is entertainment - and I usually find much more enjoyment in reading than watching TV, mainly because it also provides knowledge/insight. I don't agree with Brian Bear that TV has a negative impact on logical thinking and vocabulary - only certain shows (well, the majority of shows) - but still, many TV shows encourage logic, imagination, etc.

I enjoy the addition of personal imagination which reading allows for - scenes are described, but it falls to the reader to 'picture' characters/landscapes, whereas TV and films "show" exactly what the characters/etc look like (eliminating the ability to 'bring it to life' yourself)...

I'm trying to find something that I seem to have forgotten.

Some TV is excellent, for instance the South Bank Show overview of the life and work of Carol Ann Duffy that was shown yesterday. The batman film wasn't too bad either. Given that I hadn't indulged action fantasies for a while it was quite invigorating.

I read/watch in search of refined sensual pleasure, that is, I seek "truly" pleasurable things. Much of what appears on TV and pretends to be entertaining isn't entertaining to me. If TV had nothing but Shakespeare, Aescyhlus, Ibsen,... Carol Ann Duffy then I'd watch it all the time...

I read to be informed when I need to eat... investment planning, how to cook an omelette, and such like...

I read cos reading makes me feel. My everyday life is relatively uneventful and I'm content with it most of the time, but it doesn't provoke any profound emotions in me, so I borrow some from writers. I empathise with characters, go through what they go through (if a book is well-written) and in the end usually experience a sort of catharsis which feels different with every book. I also read to learn about writing, about the different ways of expressing ideas, so I can maybe some day write something myself.

I prefer reading to television, because if I am reading, I can use my imagination as to appearance of characters, settings, accents and so forth, and I far prefer that to some Producer telling me what to think. Furthermore, I can't watch telly on the train, and a book lasts just a bit longer. It doesn't use any power (good old carbon footprints), I don't need a plug-hole, I don't have to worry if my battery will give out, it doesn't make noise that can bother others, I can put it down when I want to. I can switch between books - and if that ain't entertainment, would somebody please tell me what is? Oh, and I don't get interrupted by commercials.

I read so that I have something something to do in the bathroom besides, um, going to the bathroom.

What about 'the healing power' of the great mythic themes running through literature? Stories connect us to each other, to nature. They make sense of the world. There is something in us that craves a story. It seems to be innate. For many thousands of years the storyteller occupied an important place in the tribe/ community. I would love to see literature liberated from the page once again. There should be more public readings by authors. If I was a professor teaching Beowulf, for example, I'd have it recited outside around a log fire on a cold winter night.

nice idea WICKES I'd be one of those sittin' around this fire and listening :)
about the main question: to read is to think with an other humans head, so whenever I'm sick of my own head (and world) I grab a book and try another one (somehow theatres do the same and some films too but you can't carry a theatrestage with actors or a screen with you so books are the best way to carry worlds around, besids somehow films and plays on stage are different .. because we see all the same so its the same for everyone whereas a book creats a new world for each reader but I don't want to go into detail about this...no time now.. ) thx for this tread really !!:D

I am not much of a reader, since I try not to read books I do not like I often give up after beginning a book, because it gets boring, but well I am an odd one I liked Ulysses and read it up to the end , but can't finish 1984 (all my friends did it vice versa), talking about TV - it spoils my mood a lot - hate News, hate soap-operas, hate American-happy-end -action-god-please-turn-the-TV-off-films ( no offence), hate shows with nothing accept show off, hate people talk about magic and all that paranormal stuff, hate the amount of ads ( I wonder , is there any good one - most is written by freaking dope fiends), I watch only two things -and they are only once a week, well sometimes I watch news ( culture channel has some good) and if they have good films that day or just watch TV after a brain work out and want to do something brainless
Well most of the time I listen to music