How to inculcate habit of reading ?

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chiron said:
I've never understood why people think reading a book is better than watching tv or playing a game on the computer.
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There is no question of either being better, it's just that you get more instant gratification from games and movies than you do with books so most tend not to read.
But if you're willing to pay the price of admission and invest the initial effort to get into a good book, I believe it is as enjoyable as the best of games out there and easily better than most movies.

PS: I don't read much anymore either. Mostly graphic novels since they're easy to get into and just as good as the best that conventional literature has to offer.
 
Well actually, I end up reading anything that I find...... :P

If I don't like it..... I start searching for sumthing else.....!!!

So, Ultimately, I get to read a lot & even know which things to read for the second time!!!
 
nehaladsul said:
Well actually, I end up reading anything that I find...... :P

If I don't like it..... I start searching for sumthing else.....!!!

So, Ultimately, I get to read a lot & even know which things to read for the second time!!!
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Same case here.. :ohyeah:
 
Still remember one of my favorite activities at school, hounding our three floor library. Reading randomly selected encyclopedias...!

:)
 
Playing games: game designer's/game developer's imagination
Movies: director's/screen play writer's imagination

Books: Author's story, but entirely your imagination :)
Everybody has a director in them and he awakens when you are reading a book.
 
^^ But the other way of looking at it is the vision of the storyteller is more fully realized in a game or movie form.

Regardless, my point is simply that imo a movie like Howl's Moving Castle would blow a kid's mind just as much or even more than a book like Alice in Wonderland. If you have to force yourself to "inclulcate" the habit of reading then you aren't going to enjoy it as much.
 
I had not picked up a single book for more than two-three years.... wanted to start again and did, by starting to read what everyone was reading, some popular titles. But just did not feel the same excitement as before.

Then decided to dig up my old cabinet, it had books by Charles Dickens and Conan Doyle which i used to swear by.

Man, i so enjoyed Black Beauty and Oliver Twist again, not to mention my dear Watson.

The point is, unravelling and savouring a book requires patience. And we might not be passionate enough all the time to sustain that patience. All you have to do is kindle that passion again, your all time favrourite titles might just do the job for you :)
 
I think you are right.Patience is the key to persevered reading. @ ALL thank you for your valuable feedback.@ None. Nope i dont think we can read everything that there is. Nor it seems one can make that impression.



Whatever it is,you have to agree that there is no hobby like reading.How many times have i wished, i were a bookworm.Sadly not the case here .Far from it.

These years looking at my old books i experience the feeling of betrayal.TV ,Internet ,gaming have really taken me miles away from books. Looking at any literature have me nostalgic. But I am simply not able to fall back on books.Its an effort eveytime . May be i ought to give it some time ,a bit of determination.
 
You summed up my feelings above... The internet is eating away the time i used to dedicate for reading.

I do try to read a good book every other time though. Its an addiction !
 
To start a new hobby is not very easy. One needs to give it a fair amount of time.
Like music, one needs to identify his fav. genre.

Harry Potter, 007, Dan Brown are great to start...but I think LOTR is the best.
These stay in your mind for long time. You feel you did something good, spent your time well, after finishing such books.
Stay away from Chetan Bhagat. I've read his books. everytime I regret.
 
Posting after a looooooong time in TE :D

Interesting thread, because its something I regret too. I used to read a lot too, then 7 odd years back, the computer came and the books went away. I read LOTR somewhere in the middle and began reading again for a while, but then haven't been able to read books regularly. I think the Internet has made me impatient in a way, and if I get to move somewhere, I'll want to make sure I don't get very easy access to Internet, because 90% of the time, I'm not exactly doing anything useful on it.
 
Frankly speaking, i've yet to come across a movie that complements the book it was made from.Now maybe that was because i read the books first.However, when i gave my friends my Harry Potter books, they were glued to them, despite having watched the movie first and said that they enjoyed the books more. This is because when you read a book your imagination takes a major part in complementing the reading , thus making it an alltogether richer experience.But sadly, not many are in the habit of reading.Though good literature might matter to some, i personally have never been bored while reading a book and i generally read it cover to cover.My parents are responsible for me being a voracious reader, as even as a kid we used to have magazine subscriptions of Reader's Digest, Champak And Chandamama among others.

Later on i finished reading all the books in the children section of my local library.

Though these days internet and other activities do eat away time, i still make it a point to read one book each month.

Currently reading - The second book of the Millenium trilogy by Steig Larsson.

Also what i think hampers us to read books is getting all these reviews before we start reading them.As in most of the people read books that are only bestsellers or is famous.I have never had a problem in picking up a book and reading it, whether i know the name of the author or not.

I personally have enjoyed reading all three of Chetan Bhagat books. It's just like music, what maybe music to you maybe noise to others.
 
So true, i used to read like crazy till a few years back. A book every three four day. But then internet happened and coupled with my job, it simply leaves me no time to read something. Got a few Pamuk books about a 7-8 months ago. Yet to take them out of their plastic cover :(

Anyways enough of rant. @OP, reading demands some attention and patience. Unlike movies, books are difficult beast to tackle. the best way to deal with them is to simply keep reading... initial 70 to 80 pages are always tough in most books, specially in serious fiction. But once you get past that, are familiar with writer's style and has grasped the plot lines, you are good to go. When I was in college I tried reading God of Small Things on several occasions but each time could not go past the first 30 pages. It seemed so boring. Then one fine day, I simply persisted. After 70-odd pages I was racing through the book. Same thing always happens to me whenever I try to read Salman Rushdie.

Of course, books like those in Harry Potter series and LOTR are different. They are enjoyable from the word go :)
 
freshseasons1 said:
I think you are right.Patience is the key to persevered reading. @ ALL thank you for your valuable feedback.@ None. Nope i dont think we can read everything that there is. Nor it seems one can make that impression.

Whatever it is,you have to agree that there is no hobby like reading.How many times have i wished, i were a bookworm.Sadly not the case here .Far from it.

These years looking at my old books i experience the feeling of betrayal.TV ,Internet ,gaming have really taken me miles away from books. Looking at any literature have me nostalgic. But I am simply not able to fall back on books.Its an effort eveytime . May be i ought to give it some time ,a bit of determination.
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This is something Im worried too...My reluctance to read may turn fatal in career so agressive as IT. I need to update myself through weblogs and online articles. That part is fine but as I update with the latest, I have to bresh up basics and consistently track the changes for better awareness... References are always that book in the shelf or very least a pdf. In short, a lot of reading and recollecting.

On the topic, if OP travels a lot(like me-it takes 1.5 hours to and fro in my company cab) he can dedicate that time for reading. If not a book, an e-reader seems to be a nice choice.

As everybody says,if one's imagination takes front seat while reading a book and thats not the case with movies or animes, and this makes reading experience far better, why can't screenplay writer's/director's imagination be better than ourselves in terms of details and depth. Given a chance, I would happily leave all the imagination to be done by Miyazaki and watch it as an animation. If authenticity of an imagination is what we are worried about, then I don't really care about mine and I hold with chiron on his opinion...
 
^ Since you are with Agatha Christie, you might want to read And Then There Were None if you haven't already. It might be a deja vu if you have seen related films, but this book was written long before any of the films were made.
 
agantuk said:
^ Since you are with Agatha Christie, you might want to read And Then There Were None if you haven't already. It might be a deja vu if you have seen related films, but this book was written long before any of the films were made.
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I am madly searching for that book only.i have heard that it was a massive hit! i am also yet to read the other three holmes novels especially a study in scaret which started it all!
 
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