Why do you read?

[Anonymous]

And why do you read what you read?

...is it for your own self pleasure?
...is it to get away?
...is it to have things to talk about?
...is it to fill time?
...is it to learn about people?
...is it to relate to people?
...is it to find people like you?
...is it to find people different than you?

Something else?

Does why you're reading change? Why?
When you finish a good book how eager are you to talk with somebody about it? Or is it your secret treasure? Does this change with whether it is fiction or nonfiction / self help or low brow?

[Anonymous]

Escapism and entertainment.

TV has slowly become dominated by crime shows or reality shows. I don't find that relaxing, which is what I want at the end of the day. Also, during the pandemic, I learned how wonderful it is to be taken out of the present day. I fell in love with character-driven books with historical settings.

[Anonymous]

Among many reasons (love of reading) it keeps the brain working better.

[Anonymous]

Escapism. I want to immerse in something else. I enjoy well flowing prose. Sometimes i want interesting plot and sometimes i want beautiful words and descriptions.

[Anonymous]

To keep my brain active. Plus, I often just crave a book. It’s not escapism for me. I simply like to be reading something, anything, all the time. I think I just like to learn about other people/places/history.

[Anonymous]

Comfort, fun, escapism, learning things. I'm a big rereader of everything; I like revisiting stories I enjoyed and I find it easier to stop if I already know what is going to happen. If I'm reading something new that I enjoy, I find it hard to put down and with a job and little kids, I can't really let myself get sucked into new books anymore. I read a lot of genre fiction for the same reason -- predictable plots are less stressful and easier to step away from -- and am getting into nonfiction (although nonfiction is almost exclusively audiobook format for me -- I put it on while doing chore or playing with my toddlers). It's also a good way to fill time e.g. in waiting rooms/train rides. Never leave home without a book has been a family motto since my childhood.

[Anonymous]

I don't know! I love reading (listening to audio books). I have loved reading ever since I learned to read. I have no other explanation. I read some for my book club. I only read books I enjoy.

[Anonymous]

I have always loved reading. I was a literature major in college.

I like physical books because I am starting to have some dry eye issues in my 40s and my eye dr. advises cutting down on screens, so reading real books is a great hobby that keeps me off screens some.

I really love a mix of fiction and nonfiction. I tend toward women authors but have had a few recent faves by male authors. I like mainstream stuff - John Grisham - and more obscure stuff like nonfiction sociology type things. I mostly read fiction and memoirs. I don't really do much historical fiction or sci fi.

[Anonymous]

This is an awesome question! I learned to read when I was pretty young, and I quickly realized that books gave me access to worlds beyond my own, and to information that people in my life did not have access to. Reading became a refuge, and, in some ways, possibly even an addiction. Reading has changed the trajectory of my life in that I’m certain that I owe quite a few standardized test scores to my reading habit.

Reading is a hobby, a source of information, a means of facilitating connections with others, a calming habit….Reading is just what I DO.

I don’t watch TV, rarely go to movies, and have yet to get into audio books.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is an awesome question! I learned to read when I was pretty young, and I quickly realized that books gave me access to worlds beyond my own, and to information that people in my life did not have access to. Reading became a refuge, and, in some ways, possibly even an addiction. Reading has changed the trajectory of my life in that I’m certain that I owe quite a few standardized test scores to my reading habit.

Reading is a hobby, a source of information, a means of facilitating connections with others, a calming habit….Reading is just what I DO.

I don’t watch TV, rarely go to movies, and have yet to get into audio books.

This is me. Reading is just what I do, and who I am. I’ve always been this way. It almost feels hardwired into me. I love to talk about books and articles with people who feel that same charge of energy around words and ideas, but I don’t know many people like that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is an awesome question! I learned to read when I was pretty young, and I quickly realized that books gave me access to worlds beyond my own, and to information that people in my life did not have access to. Reading became a refuge, and, in some ways, possibly even an addiction. Reading has changed the trajectory of my life in that I’m certain that I owe quite a few standardized test scores to my reading habit.

Reading is a hobby, a source of information, a means of facilitating connections with others, a calming habit….Reading is just what I DO.

I don’t watch TV, rarely go to movies, and have yet to get into audio books.

Me too. I read for pleasure and enjoyment. As a wife, mother, employee, it's one of the only things I get to do for *me*.

I'd much rather read than watch TV, and I don't do audio books either. I also don't read books on Kindle or electronically (although I do a fair amount of reading of other things electronically). The physical act of reading from a book, turning those pages, is much more enjoyable to me than being read to.

[Anonymous]

To feel less alone.

To try on different lives, since I only have this one.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is an awesome question! I learned to read when I was pretty young, and I quickly realized that books gave me access to worlds beyond my own, and to information that people in my life did not have access to. Reading became a refuge, and, in some ways, possibly even an addiction. Reading has changed the trajectory of my life in that I’m certain that I owe quite a few standardized test scores to my reading habit.

Reading is a hobby, a source of information, a means of facilitating connections with others, a calming habit….Reading is just what I DO.

I don’t watch TV, rarely go to movies, and have yet to get into audio books.

Me too. I read for pleasure and enjoyment. As a wife, mother, employee, it's one of the only things I get to do for *me*.

I'd much rather read than watch TV, and I don't do audio books either. I also don't read books on Kindle or electronically (although I do a fair amount of reading of other things electronically). The physical act of reading from a book, turning those pages, is much more enjoyable to me than being read to.

This used to be me, but I do get sad when I read a good book (I'm talking really good book) and I have no one to share it with. Then I can go to book clubs or talk with other readers and tell them to read it, but have to wait two weeks and them maybe they'll talk about it. Or when there is someone else who has read said book and we can just talk about how good it was.

But I think I have changed. I think I still like some of the genre of books I was reading, but once I expanded it a bit, I found that I could talk with people about some of the things in these books without them having read it.

I remember reading the Alchemist and seeing the spoon and the oil. I had talks with friends about that without them having read the book. Sometimes there is advice like that or there are events that sound cool (archery or martial arts for example) that I read about and say that sounds cool. Some of them like running I have actively added to my life (I think I read Pillars of the Earth where Grace was running from somebody and she did a run/walk/run/walk thing to escape and I thought it was a cool way to get into running even though I couldn't run at the time).

But while I read to get away and entertain myself, I will say that I definitely enjoy sharing different opinions of books and seeing what others got from it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Escapism and entertainment.

TV has slowly become dominated by crime shows or reality shows. I don't find that relaxing, which is what I want at the end of the day. Also, during the pandemic, I learned how wonderful it is to be taken out of the present day. I fell in love with character-driven books with historical settings.

I agree with this. And I was talking to my wife about my love/hate relationship with audio books. I've heard some audio books that I had already read, and the speaker's interpretation of a given person is not how I had pictured them. In the same way, when I see a movie adaptation of a book, sometimes they just totally distort the mental image I have of the world. People say that's how the author wanted it to sound/look and I say IDGAF. This is my fantasy world that I'm escaping to and if I want to picture the librarian as the old lady I grew up hating then let me. Don't ruin that for me cause Hollywood wants to cast some 25 year old fresh out of college with glasses trying to look like she's a grandma.

[Anonymous]

I had a pretty horrific childhood and books were an escape for me. My voracious reading appetite also garnered me a lot of attention in school which reinforced my desire to read. I could lose myself in books and transport myself to safe, exciting places that were so very different from my reality. While they were fiction (and sometimes fantastically unreal), they helped me envision a better life, the life and family I deserved rather than the life I had.

I'm in my mid-50s now and while there have been times I haven't been able to read much (grad school, small kids, etc.), I still love how books can transport me somewhere else. Ebooks and audiobooks are the greatest thing EVER. I was going through a rough time and treated myself to a Kindle Unlimited subscription (in addition to the cards I hold for 10 library systems). I'm never without a book.