Quote:
Originally Posted by Sirtel
Hmm. I don't think people who use social media (any social media, at that, not only book sites) or like goals and challenges are somehow less proper readers than I am  ; it's just that their thinking is so alien to me I'll never understand it. I absolutely detest social media, in-depth book discussions, goals and challenges, but if it's something someone else loves, more power to them. It's no skin off my nose, and I don't think I'm better than them. |
This.
It was a friend who got me to track on Goodreads for a year. She enjoyed her tracking, I detested it.
Just differences in what we each wanted out of our reading. She tried to turn me on to audiobooks. She loved them, I didn't. She could absorb the content by listening while doing other things like chores, I could not.
I'm not
sorry I gave audiobooks a try, I
did enjoy hearing a book read. Now, I sometimes do a chapter or two of a
familiar book as an audiobook at night before falling asleep. That's a pleasure. But trying to devour a
new book as audiobook is not fun for me.
I don't see tracking, book clubs, social discussion of books, reading goals, or challenges as bad or in any way inferior means of enjoying reading, I simply see them as activities that I
personally am not into.
Like TV. Some of my husband's family was visiting and one asked me what TV shows I liked. And I responded that I rarely watched TV now. And there was this big silence, then, "What do you do instead?"
"I read."
Another BIG silence.
"You seriously mean you don't watch TV?"
"Well, I watched the Olympics opening ceremony and some of the competitions."
"But that was a few months ago!"
"Well, I don't watch much TV."
Dang, they made me feel like I was some kind of weird abnormal ALIEN for
not watching TV!
I don't feel I'm better than they are for reading instead of watching TV, it's just what floats
my boat. Sometimes I wish I did know what shows are popular, and undoubtedly, I'm missing out on some good shows here and there. But my eyes tire easier from watching TV than they do from reading.
When it comes to tracking, I rather admire those who are organized and can keep track of their reading. As Sirtel said, "More power to them." But I just have never been able to develop the habit.