To not understand why some people don't read books and don't have any in the house?

[Kasterborous]

I can understand that people don't read books due to not having any time, or not being able to very easily. But how come other people don't? There are so many different books to read. I don't read anything literary or too heavy going, but I love reading. I even go to bed early when DH is on nights to read. I always remember looking round a house when we were looking to buy one, and this house didn't have a single book in it.

I'm not being a judge or having a go at anyone who chooses not to read, just curious. they probably have interesting hobbies and better things to do with their time.

I like books, but don't keep them -
(well except for Wild Swans which I found so moving I sought out a Jung Chang signing...)

I must admit I don't like reading fiction - my imagination is usually much more vivid than the author's so I end up disappointed.... especially by "endings"...

Though I do like the quote I read recently - by I don't know who -

"A house without books is like a garden without flowers... perfectly functional, but somewhat lacking in joy "

To answer why keep books you have already read.....I do re read books. I have been known to finish a book and then re-read it almost immediately. It isnt just the story but the writing that makes a good book. "get rid/exchange for new" , why? Why not keep something that makes you happy? Also, a lot of my books were very expensive, I am not chucking them out because other people might consider them clutter!

My mum never keeps books or re-reads them and then spends hours driving me mental trying to describe a book I must read, that she cant remember the title of or most of the plot :o

I would no sooner chuck out old books than I would old friends.

Forevergreek Do you also feel that way about music? Once you have heard it you know how it goes so you dont need to listen to it again? Re-reading a book is like hearing a song you like on the radio!

I gave all my books away to a charity shop. Only books we have left in the house are children's books. I have a kindle and have read 50 books in the last year. I love reading but I am a kindle convert. I hate all the clutter of loads of actual books.

One of my best friends is an academic and he says he loves my bookshelves as there is no rhyme or reason to them! The Raven next to Isabella Beeton which is next to Dickens which is next to Blyton which is next to Pratchett which is next to Asterix :o

Bogeyface my bookselves are the same. And they are like that because the books actually get read!

The kids love it too, they have a rummage and then come out with a book "Can I read this?". DD1 has just found my Adrian Mole books which I totally forgotten I had!

I don't see music like books. Music is something you listen to again and again as its only short pieces as you often have in the background so takes ages to learn it all.

Whereas with a book with say a love story/ action plot, once you know who killed who/ who married etc then surely the surprise and wanting to read on to fid out what happens next is now lost. I'm the same with films, I would watch a classic again but wot generally watch the same film twice as I know what's happening so the suspense is gone.

And yes my kitchen side is empty :) but butternut squash lives in the fridge. I grew up in a house full of clutter and it's not made me grow used to it, just the reverse. I suppose our house is show homey but that's how we like it. We have books but behind doors, kids have toys but baskets/ cupboards to go in once finished, shoes/ coats in cupboard, microwaves built in off the side, and a boiling water tap so no kettle etc etc.. Funnily our flat is tiny but seems spacious because of this.

Books - fictional books - are not all about "suspense". There's much more to novels than a plot. People re-read for the enjoyment of the writing - for the style, the description, the atmosphere, for passages that really resonate with them.

I can't help thinking that there's some really inverted anti-intellectualism in the criticism that "people with all their books on display have something to prove!" Since when did putting something in a shelf in your house amount to a 'display'? Yeah, I've got a lot of books and I don't have such an embarrassed complex about it that I have to shove them in a cupboard in case someone (in my house) thinks I'm showing off (within my own house)? Bizarre.

documentaries, which someone mentioned upthread, in no way are a substitute for good non-fiction. They are normally determined by what film/voice recording sources are still extant, or what objects can be filmed, rather than a decent overview of the subject and discussion of the debates within it. Oh, there are hundreds of documentaries I'd love to make - if I had the budget and a camera crew - but sadly there wouldn't be interesting visuals and audios to go along with them.

I would actually quite like to be able to hide more books, purely because I find that people "borrow" them when they come over for dinner! But in a small 2-bed flat the stacks it will have to be. When the space ran out, we got kindles as well.

As for why keep - well, often I will buy a book and not be able to get into it, so on the shelf it goes. Then one day, years later it will catch my eye, I'll pick it up and be transported. It's like a present from my old self which has been waiting for me to become the person who would appreciate it .