Why do you read (or not)

Cool! I can't wait to check it out, Caitie! I've also gotta get back over to GoodReads. We need to start a new book on our book club!

My family was always big readers. I think that contributes significantly. You just assume it's something you're supposed to do. I usually read in batches now. In a typical week I just read the Economist, but for a couple of months spread out during the year I'm in "Reading mode." Usually it's when I want to learn about something. I read primarily non-fiction now, although historically I've been a big fiction reader.

Great post, Caitie. I'm interested in the comment from you friend that he doesn't read, he just talks to people about what they're reading. For some people, reading is a chore that they just don't have time for, but for others, it's an escape worth making time for.

Thanks for posting, Caitie!

Hi,

I read for fun or to learn. I'll read almost anything that catches my eye. I am a member of a number of book forums, including Goodreads; a Meetup group of readers from the Philadelphia, PA area; and Booklovers General Fiction forum over at Delphi Forums. I'm a huge science fiction fan, but I'll read general fiction and nonfiction as well.

I read 65 books last year. I won't reach that many this year. On Goodreads I have 176 books on my shelves including 120 that I've already read, one that I'm currently reading and 55 that are on an ever-expanding To Be Read (TBR) list.

I'm currently reading *The Colonial Period of American History Part I: The Settlements* by Charles McLean Andrews. A book from my local library that I've already renewed once, it's a very good, detailed account of American colonial history from the British point of view, which was published first in 1934 and won the 1935 Pulitzer Prize for history. I'm reading it as part of the challenge on Booklovers General Fiction on Delphi Forums to read all the Pulitzer Prize Winners from 1917 to 2010.

I started *The House of Seven Gables* by Nathaniel Hawthorne in December of 2009 and finished it on January 4, 2010. It was a paperback classic that I bought at a Collingswood, NJ antique and book shop in August, 2008.

On Booklovers General Fiction I am also a member of a book circle in which members buy one book (published in the current year and has a customer rating on Amazon of at least 4. and then get some 35 for free to read and rate on a 1-5 scale. As part of the 2009 book circle I read *The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo* by Stieg Larsson, which I thought was great. I finished it on 1/11/2010. Then I read the 2004 Pulitzer Prize Winner in Biography, *Krushchev: The Man and His Era* by William Taubman; and the 2007 Pulitzer Prize Winner in General Nonfiction, *The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11* by Lawrence Wright.

I also borrowed two books on music from my local library, *Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Albums of All Time* by the editors and publishers of Rolling Stone; and *1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die* edited by Robert Dimery. I was curious to see how many of those albums (in any format but mostly CD) I actually own; it turns out that I own only 96 (95 CD, 1 Sony MiniDisc) of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time and only 101 of the 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.

I apologize for the length of the foregoing; I gave no warning; but once I get on a roll (be it dinner, kaiser or torpedo), I find it hard to stop.

Jim

Jim, you'd better stop reading and start buying CDs!!!

Nice post, Caitie. Thanks for sharing with us over here.