Will you tell me what it's like to be a non-reader?

[HangryPants]

I am in a Facebook group for a university course and there have been quite a few freshers discussing how they are non-readers and asking for advice on studying without reading too much.

This fascinates me, I absolutely love reading for learning and pleasure. I cannot contemplate "not being a reader". I understand not wanting to read fiction or not wanting to read academic texts... but not wanting to read anything??

So, I would love to hear from anyone about their reading, but particularly non-readers.

That's weird. I was going to say that people don't think I read very much as I rarely read fiction. I read lots of non-fiction, newspapers, opinion pieces, government reports, think tank publications etc. That's much more interesting to me. I don't see how you can pass a degree without a large amount of reading.

I think there’s probably a big difference between ‘not reading’ and ‘not reading fiction’ DH has I think read 2 novels in the time I’ve known him but always reads the news and researches things that interest him on the internet (trains and planes mainly) He’s got an MSc so I assume he read for that!
Funnily, DS prefers ‘non fiction’ to stories for his bedtime story (1000 vehicles, why do plants grow? etc)

It probably depends on the subject you study as well. I’m doing some statistics units atm and I’ve mainly learnt from practising the exercises on the class handouts over and over again. You tube tutorials/online lectures are also really useful as they are like step by step guides to some of the software (but so boring!)

And of course, everyone learns differently. I always hand write notes, other people record lectures to hear them back etc.

Twenty years working in publishing has diminished my ability to enjoy a book - it's difficult to switch off proofread-mode and just absorb the words!

I don't see how you can pass a degree without a large amount of reading.

I know, embarking on a degree that you don’t want to read on or around is also baffling.