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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

to not read Books?

205 replies

VinegarTits · 29/06/2009 10:23

what the title says

I would rather watch telly

OP posts:
stillstanding · 29/06/2009 16:02

Point taken, VT.

VinegarTits · 29/06/2009 16:04

correct blackeye, i said i dont read books(as a form of entertaining myself) i like to watch telly, im not saying i dont ever read, if i am interested in a subject then i will read sources of information on the internet

I dont immerse myself into a book (tbh i was talking fiction) i like to come home from my job (computer analyst) and chill in front of the TV

I am not, in any way, slating people who read books

OP posts:
mrsruffallo · 29/06/2009 16:07

Well, what do you think? Is the general consensus that you are BU?
Did you think you were?

BlackEyedDogstar · 29/06/2009 16:07

it's rubbish to go on about 'richer experience' . I haven't read a proper book in ages and ages and I might never again but I have lots of 'rich experiences' from bits of culture that aren't books. [snort]

also there is more on telly than eastblardyenders!

BarrelOfMonkeys · 29/06/2009 16:08

Oh dear, you won't like this study Unhappy people watch TV, happy people read

VinegarTits · 29/06/2009 16:10

oh well that must be true then, no wonder i am such a misery

OP posts:
RealityIsMyOnlyDelusion · 29/06/2009 16:11

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

GetOrfMoiLand · 29/06/2009 16:11

I think people's minds operate in different ways.

I love books and have always got 2 or 3 on the go upended in various parts of the house. Read a lot. Books are also the one thing I won't throw away, so they are on shelves all over the place and stored in boxes in the garage. Love novels, biography, history, loads of stuff.

DP loathes reading, is reading a book about astronauts at the mo which he has had on the go for years, I think he reads a paragraph at a time. He really does not see the pleasure in it that I do and finds it hard to concentrate.

I sometimes can't follow the plot of a film or TV programme. If I have ever watched, say, CSI or something, I drive DP batty by saying 'who's that, what does that mean, what's she doing, what the bloody hell are they talking about now?'. I come across as a complete thicko but often can't get the gist of it.

So, my brain works better reading, DP's brain works better with films and TV. Doesn't make me better than him or vice versa. I think it's just the way we're plumbed in.

BarrelOfMonkeys · 29/06/2009 16:11

BlackEyed I didn't say 'richest', I said 'can give you a richer'... Not saying books are the only culture, that would be madness I say, madness!

pagwatch · 29/06/2009 16:12

VT - you said

"i dont enjoy reading, so someone implies i may have some form of reading disability like dyslexia, to me that is offensive, why can't i just not enjoy reading, why does not reading, suggest theres is something wrong with me?"

I am tempted to start with the point that people wiyth dyslexia don't have "something wrong" with them but that seems too obvious to actually have to write down.
It is not insulting to ask someone if they have dyslexia - to suggest that it is insulting means that it is a shameful or embaressing condition - which it isn't.

If I say I don't like listening to music and someone asks if I have sensitive hearing then I am only going to be affronted and annoyed if I am spoiling for a fight.
Other wise I just say 'no - I just don't really enjoy it'

But then that is so dull that even I probably wouldn't actually start a thread about it.And I start REALLY dull threads

VinegarTits · 29/06/2009 16:14

Getofmoiland i think me and you dh are very much the same, not everyone enjoys reading, i am glad someone can see that

Reality, you said what i was thinking

OP posts:
VinegarTits · 29/06/2009 16:16

There is nothing wrong with being dyslexic, there is also nothing wrong (in my eyes) with not enjoying reading, the latter should not suggest the former though

OP posts:
stillstanding · 29/06/2009 16:16

VT, I read a great deal but when I come home from work I do like to chill in front of the TV. I find TV very relaxing (and lazy!) entertainment but quite often when I go to sleep my mind is buzzing with what I watched and not in a good way ... I can't imagine it is very good for me.

If I think about my reading time it is mostly on my commute to and from work (40mins each way) and just before I go to sleep. I really do find it very rewarding and my life is a lot richer for it. I learnt more about, say, women in Afghanistan "Many a splendid sun" than I ever did from reading articles on the subject. For me reading is definitely my richest sources of information on culture/history as I don't have much access to, say, Afghanistan or people who have travelled there.

When DS was born I didn't read at all and it was very depressing. It was only once I went back to work (and had that long, lovely commuting-reading time!) that I could get back into it.

GetOrfMoiLand · 29/06/2009 16:18

Reality - good point. Tv = bad and books = good. So, if I am sat there reading Jackie Collins that presumably makes me seem more intellectual than DP watching some obscure documentary about quantum physics and string theories.

VT - there is no way I could say that DP is unintelligent, there are more ways of gaining information than reading books. It is very silly for people to judge in such a black and white way.

mrsruffallo · 29/06/2009 16:18

What's snobby about liking books? Or defending your right to like them?
VT started an AIBU thread which of course provokes debate.
Why ask and then get annoyed when people disagree with you?

bellavita · 29/06/2009 16:19

I love books, have lots of them - chicklit and cookery books.

It certainly does not bother me if someone else does not like them. Each to their own.

stillstanding · 29/06/2009 16:19

A Thousand Splendid Suns

VinegarTits · 29/06/2009 16:19

I have to go home now (1 hr commute, i drive so cant read and drive) dont have time to MN in the evenings, but its been interesting, thanks for your views

OP posts:
stillstanding · 29/06/2009 16:20

Audio books for the trip home?!

VinegarTits · 29/06/2009 16:23

I havent got annoyed at all mrsR, unlike you who needed to throw in sly digs to show your annoyance

i think i have been well behave on this thread, its been very insightful for me to know what you think of me not enjoying books

and where did i say i find all books boring, i said i find reading boring

OP posts:
JoPie · 29/06/2009 16:23

"I LOVE the snobbery that suggest books:good, tv:bad."

Ummm, where do you read that? There are bad books and bad tv, good books and good TV. Personally I think a good book is better than good tv, because its more about your imagination, its less passive and stays with you longer, and because its portable and instantly accesible, but thats just my personal experience and opinion of it.

I'm still waiting to hear why the OP bothered with this thread. Is it some kind of anti-intellectualist rant? The insistent "theres nothing wrong with it, why are you attacking my choices" are pretty out of place in AIBU.

VinegarTits · 29/06/2009 16:24

good idea stillstanding, can you recommend a good audio book? (genuine question)

really must dash now

OP posts:
pagwatch · 29/06/2009 16:25

agreed VT

But someone saying in passing they do not read would not prompt that response.

However someone starting a thread where they seem to want to discuss the fact that they don't read seems to me the point at which people have been asked to think about it and may ask questions accordingly.

And someone puzzled/querying why they don't enjoy reading may not realise that they find it more difficult than others. It is obviously not the case for you but could be.

Baisey · 29/06/2009 16:32

YANBU.
I dont understand it though! I personally cannot live without books. I will literally read anything, even the Daily Mail if im desperate!
But it is your choice to not read, just like it is my choice to not play video games.

loopylou6 · 29/06/2009 16:50

YAB VERY U, books are my escape to a different world, i love them

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