Does anybody know any non-readers?

[carpetmojo]

I know lots, and most of them are OK - I just assume they have a very high boredom threshold.
I once did a 2 x 15 hour coach journey with a group of around 45, and only some 12 people read with any consistency. indeed one guy in particular spent both trips simply looking out the window,or looking round the coach, all the time, except occassional dozes.
The thing is, I like scenery probably as much as the next man, but a good 60% of the time was spent speeding through pitch darkness - apart from the lights of readers like me inside the vehicle!

[Nancy Fulda]

I sometimes wonder whether reading habits are more neurologically ingrained than we tend to assume. I know a man who is highly literate (also highly educated) but who seldom reads for entertainment. He also rarely read his textbooks in college, because he is an audial learner. His brain is wired to process and catalogue spoken information; a task at which I do not excel.

[rkomar]

Originally Posted by Nancy Fulda

I sometimes wonder whether reading habits are more neurologically ingrained than we tend to assume. I know a man who is highly literate (also highly educated) but who seldom reads for entertainment. He also rarely read his textbooks in college, because he is an audial learner. His brain is wired to process and catalogue spoken information; a task at which I do not excel.

I wonder the same thing. I doubt if being a heavy reader or not is simply a matter of choice. A guy I knew who had a boat said that "you don't own the boat, the boat owns you". I think it's the same with us heavy readers. So, I don't think the original poster was asking an impertinent question. I think it's interesting to know if heavy readers tend to stick with birds of a feather or not. It looks like the answer is no (true for me, as well). Still, the fact that most of us frequent this site proves that there is something to the idea.

[speakingtohe]

Variety is the spice of life they say.

I know many people who read, and many who don't.
Of the readers, some read mainly for pleasure and some to gain knowledge. Then there are those who seem to read so that they have something to talk at you about.

In my experience the non readers are just as good company, just as good people, just as good conversationalists etc.

Mostly I have no idea if a person reads or not unless I see them with a book or they bring it up in a conversation. I certainly wouldn't ask them without a very good reason. Anymore than I would ask them if slept in the nude or changed their underwear every day.

It is a big old world out there with a humungous variation in talents, interests, abilities etc. Why get all perturbed if someone is different than myself. Often it makes them more interesting.

Helen

[Native]

Originally Posted by carpetmojo

I know lots, and most of them are OK - I just assume they have a very high boredom threshold.
I once did a 2 x 15 hour coach journey with a group of around 45, and only some 12 people read with any consistency. indeed one guy in particular spent both trips simply looking out the window,or looking round the coach, all the time, except occassional dozes.
The thing is, I like scenery probably as much as the next man, but a good 60% of the time was spent speeding through pitch darkness - apart from the lights of readers like me inside the vehicle!

Some people are afraid of what they'll see when they close their eyes. I ain't much good at it myself, but I prefer companions who can quietly stare into darkness. I think it coincides, rather than conflicts, with reading.

[anamardoll]

I personally get a nice hit of superiority for every book I read. That's why I love the Deathlands novels and Resident Evil movie-tie in books -- I can whip through a couple a day and that makes me obviously so much better than the rest of the plebs.

OK, seriously, I LOVE to read. But sure I know lots of non-readers. One of them watches documentaries and the Discover Channel and the History Channel practically non-stop... while the last book I read was a apocalyptic gun fantasy with magic mutants. And I spend way too much time blogging about Twilight and every little thing I think about it. So clearly "reading" isn't necessarily better intellectually than "not-reading".

So I don't consider there to be any reason to get angry at my non-reading friends.

[mrscoach]

Most of the people I am friends with are teachers, so reading is something they do for their job. Do I consider them readers or not because of that? No. My husband teaches and only reads articles online or in his Texas coaches magazine. I consider him a non-reader, because he only reads to gather information, and not that often, really. It isn't a pleasure thing for him.

But I'm not a golfer and he doesn't hold that against me. He has tried to convert me a few times, but knows my heart isn't in it when I do go out with him to hit a few.

[FizzyWater]

IRL it's always exciting to actually find someone who reads, not the other way around.

[JeremyR]

Originally Posted by anamardoll

I personally get a nice hit of superiority for every book I read. That's why I love the Deathlands novels and Resident Evil movie-tie in books -- I can whip through a couple a day and that makes me obviously so much better than the rest of the plebs.

Yeah, for the most part, books really are no better than other forms of entertainment, like TV or radio or browsing web sites.

That said, a lot of the more mindless stuff aimed that men, like the old Pulps (The Shadow, Doc Savage, Astounding Stories and what not) were largely replaced by something even well, lower brow - comics.

But if you look at how many romance novels get churned out a month for women, that's pretty much the same (low) level of writing/entertainment.

[ebusinesstutor]

I am fortunate that my wife reads and shares my love of Science Fiction and Fantasy. I realized how amazing this was one day when I related something in our conversation to Isaac Asimov's "Three Laws of Robotics" and knew that she would know what I was talking about.

Then it hit me. This was the first time in my life I was romantically involved with a woman who knew the Three Laws of Robotics. No wonder I am in love!

[Ryvyan]

Originally Posted by FizzyWater

IRL it's always exciting to actually find someone who reads, not the other way around.

I'm constantly in need to have the chance and recommendation to read a new genre sometimes, so I'd agree with this. There's always this hint of underlying hopeful glee whenever I ask if someone reads, and the obligatory disappointed "oh" when they say no. Eh, what can I say? I lead an exciting life.

But to add on to your original post: it's always exciting to actually find someone cool (i.e. plenty of other common interests) IRL who reads too.



Oops, to stay on topic: I do encourage some of my students to read because I believe it helps them with their command of the language. Of course it must be done consciously so as to benefit them best, and I never force it on anyone who refuses to do it. It's compulsory for the school to have a reading period though; waste of time for some kids.

[GraceKrispy]

The vast majority of my friends are nonreaders, or very close to that (maybe one book a year). I don't mind. I actually don't really like to talk about books much anyway, so it's not like I find myself unable to communicate with them. The ones that do read tend to read only the bestsellers they hear about through Oprah or friends or whatnot, so I don't always have anything to say about those books anyway.

I'd consider my husband a nonreader, although that's probably not completely true. He does occasionally read a non-fiction book, and he reads Time magazine (in the bathroom). He doesn't really see the point of fiction, and to me, that constitutes a nonreader He doesn't see stories in his head when he reads fiction, he thinks it's a waste of time. I read plenty of nonfiction, but I really like the escape that fiction offers, amongst other things. So we differ on that account. We actually differ on a lot of accounts, but that's ok by me. I don't need another one of me in the house.

[sabredog]

Quite a few in fact. One of my best friends has never read a book in all the years I have known him.

[DiapDealer]

My dog doesn't read. It pisses me off to no end.

[Quexos]

You should try and shame him, make him feel inferior. And while you're at it, let him know how we humans have achieved so much, how we have invented computers, the internet, gone to space, glimpsed at the atom and so on, while his species has accomplished nothing and is utterly subservient to us humans.
I did this to a cat I had a long time ago and It made me feel better

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

My dog doesn't read. It pisses me off to no end.