Why do you like reading?

[BigDahliaFan]

I'm tucked up in bed with a cup of tea and reading Bring Up The Bodies. I'm lost in a Tudor world of complicated looks and tapestries and sharp politeness.

I should be getting ready for work...

I've found my joy of reading again after a bleak few years of peri menopause when I couldn't concentrate long enough to read.

Why do you read?

I can’t remember a time when I didn’t!

Nowadays I mainly read on public transport but it’s always been a gateway into other worlds, other lives. Some characters become like friends. There are a few books I’ve been going back to again & again for years, most of which I found by accident in charity shops & tabletop sales, & some that carry memories - my mum introduced me to PG Wodehouse, for instance.

OP, are you a fan of Dahlia Travers or Dahlia Lively? Or is it the flower?

It's actually rather a difficult question, I find it hard to define exactly why I read.

I suppose I just love books. I grew up in a house full of books, my Dad used to read to me a lot when I was little and would regularly take me to bookshops, so that's probably why I've always been a reader. We were outdoorsy, but, in the house, I always had my head in a book and that has never really changed.

I think reading just makes me happier than anything else, even now, at 60. I always have a massive TBR pile, and just looking at it gives me a deep feeling of contentment.

I read voraciously as a child. From the age of about 5 (before that we lived in a very remote place) a trip to the library was a weekly event. At school I queued up by the teacher's desk to read a couple of pages of Janet and John every day while at home I was reading chapter books like the Famous Five (50s child).

I read because I loved stories and it was an escape from a fairly mundane world into something more exciting. I loved series like The Borrowers and The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe where I could immerse myself in a fantasy world or like The Little House on the Prairie where I could transport myself to another place and time.

I'm pretty much the same now and reading a few chapters on my Kindle at night helps me leave the concerns of the day before I sleep.

I think it was pure chance in my case. My parents were only semi-literate, having been taken out of school at 13 and 12 because their wages were needed, never read fluently enough for pleasure, and as a result our house had only two books — an old recipe book and a Reader’s Digest book of lists. Somehow I discovered reading, presumably at reading, took myself to the local library aged about five, and it was pure escapism from a not-easy childhood’s . I read very fast and obsessively in a household that saw it as ‘lazy’.

I’m not sure they were entirely wrong. I think if there had been computer games or any other form of escapism, I’d have done that just as easily, but books were all there was.

To escape, my life isn't bad at all, but I love being taken away by a book. I read to learn as well, love good historical factual stuff, but reading is immersive for me. If I'm into a good book it takes a few calls of my name to pull me out. 😁

Pure and simple escapism.

It's also a very quiet pastime, I don't like a lot of noise or flashing lights you get on screens.

I got into reading through my difficult childhood and often the only entertainment that was allowed were books. Or if those were confiscated I jut wrote my own stories.

Nowadays I also read a lit of non fiction, pursuing my interest in Art and History.

You get to dip into a different world for a bit, and it’s silent and relaxing. There are experiences you can only get from books as opposed to tv adaptations for example, often books ca be incredibly detailed you feel so immersed within that world and invested in the characters, all with words and letters on a page. All sorts of subjects can be explored in fiction, you can enter the world of the Tudor court (as you are doing) or go and wield magic in an immersive fantasy world, or delve into a gritty murder case. It’s unlike anything else.

I began as a young child, too. Was allowed to wander the shelves of the library and received my pocket money when mum got her child benefit at the post office, turned round and paid it straight back to them for a paperback Famous Five or C S Lewis.

I had access to some very interesting but very inappropriate reading material from a young age, and my father in particular loved a good debate so I was used to exploring mature themes and ideologies from a young age.

What I love most is when an author puts a new idea in my head, or makes me see something from a new perspective.

Sadly, I never believed that I could make a career out of it, and people like me didn’t go to university so it was always a hobby, but I wish I could have had a career in books or publishing.

Sadly, I never believed that I could make a career out of it, and people like me didn’t go to university so it was always a hobby, but I wish I could have had a career in books or publishing.

It’s never too late, could you write your own novel? It’s more doable than you think.

Escapism and discovery. Understanding things and people more and better than I would otherwise. Experiencing emotions through the lens of someone else. Learning about things. Reading is life!

People like me didn’t go to university either, but I did, and did make a career out of reading and writing. (Not in publishing, which remains difficult to access without substantial funds behind you to allow you to start off in unpaid internships and lowpaid roles.)

It is my escape and the place where i am happiest, deep into a book preferably in a hot bath. I cant remember a time when i didnt read. One of my favourite childhood memories is,before going on holiday, mum would take us to WhSmith so that we could buy a book or two to read on the journey. I always chose Famous Five books and i still remember the excitement of starting a brand new book. Great question by the way, im enjoying reading people's answers.

Ive always been a reader, apart from when I was knee deep with newborns and too tired!

It's relaxing, I love the escape into another world.

DH is a reader too and we love asking each other how are books are going, what we like about them etc.

I find if I go for a few days to a week without reading I just don't feel right, I get a bit anxious and unsettled.

All our DC are readers too we must have done something right!

I think it's a lovely hobby to have, such good fun to enter other worlds in our imaginations, but I believe also that reading is good for the brain - mental exercise to complement physical exercise. One thing I really enjoy is reading for fifteen minutes or so in the gym cafe after I've been on the treadmill.

I love reading and read constantly when I was younger. But since I had children (particularly the second) I can't concentrate long enough to really lose myself in a book. It's depressing. I don't know when I'll get this back.

I experienced this too. Once I'd decided to start reading again it took quite a lot of effort to regain that concentration. I'm talking several months of continually trying. My mind would wander and it felt like I was forcing myself to read words on a page rather than reading a story. I could not remember what had happened in the story the previous day. It was bad but I persevered. Then one day it just suddenly clicked back into place.

Always read from being young, it’s an escape, let’s your mind wander and often educational.

1. Beauty. Many of my favourite writers are superb stylists who write beautifully –P. G. Wodehouse, Anthony Burgess, Anita Brookner, Evelyn Waugh, Philip Larkin, C. S. Lewis, T. S. Eliot and Oscar Wilde (especially his dialogue).

2. Intellectual stimulation/exciting ideas. Aldous Huxley deserves special mention. Also Carl Sagan, Bill Bryson, Harold Bloom, Douglas Adams, Oscar Wilde and Bertrand Russell.

3. Comfort. The Wind in the Willows, Jane Austen, the Narnia books, Sherlock Holmes, Patrick Fermor, P. G. Wodehouse, David Copperfield, Robert Graves, etc, have all comforted and consoled me.

4. Connection. A book is a miracle. Not only does it contain the mind of someone dead for centuries, but it gives you that mind at its very best – at the limits of what it can do. And our relationships with books and authors is very like our relationships with real people. Certain writers always cheer me up, just as certain people always do. When I read Dickens, P. G. Wodehouse, Patrick Fermor, Bertrand Russell, and Robert Graves, I can feel their personality in the words – the goodness and kindness and courage. When I'm alone, I often read out loud. I urge you all to try it. It's the best form of therapy I know. Read your favourite writer out loud and, in a sense, they really are there in the room with you. You feel their presence.

5. Entertainment. I don't need video games when I can lay in a hot bath and listen to Stephen Fry read me Sherlock Holmes or P G Wodehouse. Certain writers are superb storytellers. Thomas Hardy, for example, is actually a poor stylist, but he's such a good storyteller that it doesn't matter. Writers like Jane Austen, the Brontes, George Eliot, etc, survive because before anything they tell a great story. And something in us craves a good story. My mother used to work with troubled kids, and even they would often sit spellbound when she read them an M R James book.

I was a prolific reader all my childhood and from about the age of 11 used to take myself off to the library . I read Lace and Jackie Collins books at around aged 12 - 14 !

I’ve been reading non stop since the age of 7. Used to use the whole family’s library tickets on my weekly library visit and read voraciously and fairly indiscriminately l Did English at University and have been an English teacher for 30 years so spend my working life teaching literature and discussing books with my lovely colleagues.

It's a great question, but damned if I know why I read. It's how I grew up.

I suppose when I read non-fiction I get the intellectual gratification of becoming smarter, and when I read fiction I get the aesthetic gratification of enjoying great writing (if I'm lucky).

Also, in daily life, it keeps me from losing my temper when I'm waiting.

I do wonder how much influence parents have? My mum was a great reader and got anxious if she was every somewhere like a train if she didn't have something to read.

I had a fantastic English teacher who loved books and literature and the magic of books.

My parents not so much, both read, but not voraciously, I had the biggest bookcase in the house in my bedroom! My grandmother and great aunt however were both librarians! My DF still doesn't really get my book thing.

My parents weren’t literate, and I’m a voracious reader. They tried to discourage my reading in childhood — my mother in particular thought it was ‘lazy’.