to not understand people who never read...

[upsylazy]

Books, I mean - not Heat or Closer. I know it's none of my business and I know they're not doing anyone any harm by not reading books but, to a bookworm like me, I find it as baffling as someone saying that they don't like music. I suppose it's people like Victoria Beckham who positively boast that they've never read a book who particularly annoy me. Go easy on me, I've got a headache.

Love the 'I have to read' sentiments! Me too, I just have to read something everyday!

It is hard not to be judgey I think...I am a reader; I have many books on the go. I have my limit out from the library and prefer buying books to anything else. I read widely and it has given me very good general knowledge. It is a joke in the house that "mum knows everything and anything" .

My DH is a reader but gets through fewer books. DS loves to read and we have lovely chats about books. DD is an excellent reader but not keen on fiction unless it is something that really 'catches' her.

I also collect children's literature and have most of the books I adored as a child. Enid Blyton's The Secret Island is a big favourite. I also love the career novels: Pauline is a Hairdresser, Nurse Sue Barton etc.

I do look at a person's bookshelves when I first visit. It tells me a lot about what they are like. And I do find that I get on more with readers than non-readers.

I love TV & Films, arseprint on sofa can attest to that but Ive just got back into reading again. Not particularly high brow stuff just a light fast paced novel. I have to borrow books though, can't buy and re-read a book.

I also dont understand it ,i have loved reading since i was a child.My dh on the other hand ,only ever reads sports pages ,yet he will sit and study a bloody atlas for ages as he thinks its interesting !

Colonol - due to lack of free time, exhaustion and illness so can't concentrate enough. Some days I can't even manage a newspaper.

I have to read too. In my previous job, my manager insisted we asked interview candidates what was the last good book they had read. If they said they didn't like to read...they didn't get the job, regardless of anything else.

Please tell me someone else has read still life with woodpecker?

I never read now. I prefer to sit and just BE. or to MN. why does this bother you ? I've read more thna enough anyway. I used to read a book in one sitting. I read 'War and Peace' in one go. I feel I've read enough good books, to now not have the desire to read anymore.

I have read the Gabby Logan gag book recently

Reading is my addiction, If I don't have a book in the house I have withdrawal symptoms. However my OH has NEVER read a full book. He reckons he has read Lord of the Rings but I don't believe him.

DrFayRay I LOVE 'The Secret Island' - it's my guilty bathtime nothing else to read failsafe! I adore the descriptions of their meals and Nora boiling the eggs etc. :)

I have no problem comprehending why some people like one activity but not another. And I don't have a particularly special imagination or anything.

I think reading is different from any other hobby, because its the one thing almost every parent tries to instil into their children from the start-a love of books. We read to them as babies, cuddle and look at books with toddlers, teach them to read as children, and encourage them to read for fun as soon as they get to school.

I love reading, Currently saving up for a Kindle, can't wait to get one! I have books that are like friends, when I'm feeling down they make me feel better :)

My DD is an avid reader too, and a very good one at that. Shes currently copying my habit of laying in the bath for an hour at a time with a good book. We can quite happily lay together and read, rather than watch a film or doing crafts. Shes actually already asked if she can have a kindle for christmas, need to look into the availability of books for 7 year olds on it first though.

at the holiness of reading!

I post as someone who did a literary degree, who reads every day, indeed who cannot go to sleep without reading even if I come in from a night out at 2am, a little worse for wear I still need to read a page or two. I worked in the industry for many years and know all the ins and outs of a book contract and a publishing deal and have rubbed shoulders with very many top notch Booker prize winning authors, am still frequently asked for opinions on manuscripts by unpublished writers, and I own and sell quite a quantity of books (although I prefer not to have them on display in my sitting room, which seems to be some sort of Mumsnet faux pas).

I still have no problem not judging people who prefer to do other things with their time over reading.

Novels? No thanks. Not remotely interested. I've tried, but I don't see the point tbh.

Non fiction only please.

DS1 is 5.7yo and has already decided the same.

Each to their own.

DH barely reads 3 books a year, of any sort (that includes techie books, too). I think only that many because I read 3 a week (or so).

DH is quite well informed, always tells me the news each day, can tell you all the latest tech development on Twitter. Likes the newspaper. Loves to peruse Guiness World Record books from 1985. Just not a story book person.

I would have thought all that reading about different characters and motives and life-shaping events would have given all you avid readers the imagination to understand why many people just aren't that into reading stories.

bibbity, what is this mumsnet faux pas at having books in the living room? One I must have missed - I have books in every room, there isn't room for them otherwise. Ok, not the laundry, but that's it. Everywhere else has them.

So glad you asked the question, thumbwitch! bibbity, please explain what new faux pas is this?!

There was a thread of someone who was viewing houses to buy and instead of looking at the structure, flooring, room sizes etc she was shocked that some people didn't have books .
Most posters in that thread said that they judge if they see no books in the living room.

oh I see - I read it wrong. The faux pas is to NOT have them on display in the living room - well that's ok then. Thanks, Laquitar!

Not that I really care that much about MN fauxs pas, I hasten to add!

I have books in every room.

Then again I live in a really old house which has a library. The overflow ends up in every room in the house. I love to be surrounded by books, especially when I know I've read them all.

I, too, read 3-4 different books at a time, and often read some books twice. I try and buy all my books second hand (especially the classics) as I like to read the notes inside!

Hats off to bibbity

The snobbery associated with (not) reading books is astounding. I have met a lot of people (mainly women I might add but that might just be coincidence) who reserve a touch of superiority for those who don?t read (or have an ?inferior mind?). It?s almost as bad as art snobbery.
If you want to you might like knowing the fact that as a boy an author was made to wear dresses so that created some alter-ego confusion in his mind which resulted in a soul wrenching novel full of despair and loneliness. And then you can go to your book group and discuss it in earnest.
Or not.
You can either like it or not ? it?s as simple as that. Personally I don?t understand anyone who doesn?t discuss the latest developments in particle physics over dinner.