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By Ray:
"Knowing the folks on the list, something similar to this has probably already been asked. Still, it's what I came up with after letting it simmer for the week so, here goes: My wife sits and reads all the time, and I used to as well. I've wondered why I don't anymore, and I think it's that since High School G/T classes, I haven't been forced to. I miss it. My question is, which books would you miss in my situation? More accurately, which 5 books have made the biggest impression on who you are, and why?"
I've heard other people who had been avid readers say that they didn't read anymore, my mother included. I have wondered what i would do if I didn't read - it is such a fundamental part of my life that I cannot imagine being without it. I think I'd go mad - seriously. It is a *need*. I look at my paternal grandmother, who became blind in later life and try to imagine it, but I can't. I remember reading to my maternal grandfather, whose vision had deteriorated, and seeing how he missed books.
I've never been forced to read. I cannot remember not being able to - one of the worst things about starting school was that there were people there trying to teach reading, and I'd been doing it so long that school was an utter bore. As were the books they gave me - I hid them rather than have anything to do with them! When I moved on in years, the start of a new year was a new pile of books to read, and they would always be finished in the first month of the new school year. In high school, I was deeply disappointed if the novels we had for English lit were books I'd already read.
Two paragraphs of background - I shall have to finish this later!
Edited to add: Two days later, getting back to this. Well, I still don't know what 5 books made the biggest impression on me. But here's a sample, anyway:
1. Ayn Rand - The Fountainhead - despite disagreeing with much of her philosophy, I keep going back to re-read this. I did ejooy the movie, too!
2. The Shipping News, by E. Annie Proulx - another love/hate thing. To see Newfoundland brought into the mainstream was good, and I could ifdentify many of her characters, but so much of the book was ridden with cliche, that it made me quite angry, and this came out every time I discussed the book with anyone.
3. Iain Banks - what book? Probably The Player of Games, although I re-read The Crow Road most recently, and Espedair Street was first. One of very few who tempts me (and occasionally succeeds!) to buy hardcover. I await each book, and feel deeply disappointed when they don't live up to expectation. The sci-fi brought me back to reading that genre, which I had essentially abandoned since university.
4. The old encyclopedia that Pop bought for my mother, which was a window onto so many subjects when I was a kid. Things I read or saw there still colour my view of things now.
5. What I'd miss? I'd miss new books. I'd miss the joy of finding that something picked up completely on spec was going to become a regular part of my reading life. I'd miss trashy vampire stories (essentials for flying), erotica, real books about real subjects, lovely thick novels that challenge the way I think. I'd miss the pleasure of telling someone "You must read this!" and meeting people because one of you comments on the book under the other's arm. I'd miss the little feeling of loss when you come to the end of a really good book.
"Knowing the folks on the list, something similar to this has probably already been asked. Still, it's what I came up with after letting it simmer for the week so, here goes: My wife sits and reads all the time, and I used to as well. I've wondered why I don't anymore, and I think it's that since High School G/T classes, I haven't been forced to. I miss it. My question is, which books would you miss in my situation? More accurately, which 5 books have made the biggest impression on who you are, and why?"
I've heard other people who had been avid readers say that they didn't read anymore, my mother included. I have wondered what i would do if I didn't read - it is such a fundamental part of my life that I cannot imagine being without it. I think I'd go mad - seriously. It is a *need*. I look at my paternal grandmother, who became blind in later life and try to imagine it, but I can't. I remember reading to my maternal grandfather, whose vision had deteriorated, and seeing how he missed books.
I've never been forced to read. I cannot remember not being able to - one of the worst things about starting school was that there were people there trying to teach reading, and I'd been doing it so long that school was an utter bore. As were the books they gave me - I hid them rather than have anything to do with them! When I moved on in years, the start of a new year was a new pile of books to read, and they would always be finished in the first month of the new school year. In high school, I was deeply disappointed if the novels we had for English lit were books I'd already read.
Two paragraphs of background - I shall have to finish this later!
Edited to add: Two days later, getting back to this. Well, I still don't know what 5 books made the biggest impression on me. But here's a sample, anyway:
1. Ayn Rand - The Fountainhead - despite disagreeing with much of her philosophy, I keep going back to re-read this. I did ejooy the movie, too!
2. The Shipping News, by E. Annie Proulx - another love/hate thing. To see Newfoundland brought into the mainstream was good, and I could ifdentify many of her characters, but so much of the book was ridden with cliche, that it made me quite angry, and this came out every time I discussed the book with anyone.
3. Iain Banks - what book? Probably The Player of Games, although I re-read The Crow Road most recently, and Espedair Street was first. One of very few who tempts me (and occasionally succeeds!) to buy hardcover. I await each book, and feel deeply disappointed when they don't live up to expectation. The sci-fi brought me back to reading that genre, which I had essentially abandoned since university.
4. The old encyclopedia that Pop bought for my mother, which was a window onto so many subjects when I was a kid. Things I read or saw there still colour my view of things now.
5. What I'd miss? I'd miss new books. I'd miss the joy of finding that something picked up completely on spec was going to become a regular part of my reading life. I'd miss trashy vampire stories (essentials for flying), erotica, real books about real subjects, lovely thick novels that challenge the way I think. I'd miss the pleasure of telling someone "You must read this!" and meeting people because one of you comments on the book under the other's arm. I'd miss the little feeling of loss when you come to the end of a really good book.