This is probably the reason why there are so few readers out there

[GraceKrispy]

Originally Posted by twowheels

You mean it's not a good example to press the next page button with your elbow or slide the text up with your nose? Uh oh!

My mom (who is an avid reader herself) once said, with a very exasperated tone, "Grace! I have never seen ANYONE in my life vacuum and sweep floors while reading a book!"

Yep, I got mom karma all right....

(and nothing wrong with the elbows and the nose slide, unless you've got a snotty nose. that minimizes readability....)

[kindlekitten]

Originally Posted by GraceKrispy

My mom (who is an avid reader herself) once said, with a very exasperated tone, "Grace! I have never seen ANYONE in my life vacuum and sweep floors while reading a book!"

Yep, I got mom karma all right....

(and nothing wrong with the elbows and the nose slide, unless you've got a snotty nose. that minimizes readability....)

vacuuming I get, not sweeping. I need two hands for that

[WT Sharpe]

Originally Posted by GraceKrispy

My mom (who is an avid reader herself) once said, with a very exasperated tone, "Grace! I have never seen ANYONE in my life vacuum and sweep floors while reading a book!"

Yep, I got mom karma all right....

(and nothing wrong with the elbows and the nose slide, unless you've got a snotty nose. that minimizes readability....)

Karma to you for the creative ways in which you find time for reading!

A friend of mine and I used to work side by side on a production line. Each of us would load boxes of empty jars from a pallet onto the line, then when our pallet was empty, place boxes of jars now containing peanut butter onto the pallet. Now, you can't very well read while loading boxes full of peanut butter; the boxes were heavy and took two hands. (Remember the song "16 Tons"? We estimated that during each shift, we each handled 32 tons of material.) However, loading boxes filled with empty jars could be done with one hand, so on the night shifts, when The Man wasn't there, whichever one of us was emptying his pallet of glass at the moment would be reading a book with the other hand, and when we weren't reading, we often as not would be discussing what we were reading.

People said our job was one of the most physically demanding ones at the plant, and many people couldn’t do it; but reading made it enjoyable.

You load 32 tons and what do you get? A bit more educated, if you try.

[bobavey]

Originally Posted by GA Russell

Bob, I can believe that the lady was allergic to book pages, but I don't understand why she was in a book store!

An interesting question.

[Xanthe]

Originally Posted by Steven Lake

It's probably due to idiot moms like this. Ugh.

http://creativeauthorsguild.blogspot...-buy-book.html

It's people like this telling their kids that books are stupid and not to read them that are making this world so bad, and reducing the total reading public. Of course, these guys aren't the only ones hearing that kinda stuff. I've talked with a lot of people at conventions, signings, or just on the street, and their general take on books is, "They're stupid" or "Nah, I don't read. It doesn't interest me." or excuses even more lame than that.

One of my favorites comes from a comic book convention where I asked a guy, "Why don't you read books" to which he replied, "Oh I do. But I want mine to have pictures in them.

Uh, isn't that what your imagination is for? And no, just because a comic book has the word "book" in its name doesn't mean it's truly a "book" by the proper definition of the word. Ugh. Sorry for the rant, but this just bugged me.

I've got no issues whatsoever with people who read comic books. I was an avid comic book reader as a kid, because that was the reading material I could afford to buy at that age (Remember, in the 1960's comic books cost only 12-25 cents depending on whether they were the regular monthly issue or a special larger-size issue - and on a 25-cent a week allowance, I could afford to buy them.). Between library books and comic books, my reading jones was satisfied.

Comic books introduced me to the world of scifi, which in turn stretched my imagination and made me question the assumptions of the society that surrounded me. They also built up my vocabulary, and gave me a lifelong appreciation for the graphic arts. They were the introduction point to the world of magazines, with all of their varied content, which in turn pushed me into reading non-fiction, which I probably would have never touched voluntarily without that sequence of building blocks.

My parents always encouraged me and my siblings to read. But, I am the only one of us that really has a love of reading, the one who will let real life concerns drop by the wayside in order to spend a few minutes reading whenever I can. I'm the only one who can't count the number of books I actually own; the one who hauls 25 books with her on vacation (in addition to the books on the ereader) just because "vacation" also means "unfettered reading".

I am not surprised by that mother; I've come across people like her. She wasn't taught that reading is enjoyable (or else she has an undiagnosed learning disability that didn't make it so) so there's no way for her to comprehend that others might find it so. Hopefully, the obstacles she throws in her daughter's path will just make the girl more determined to read, and not discourage her and push her more firmly onto her mother's path of ignorance.

[voracious71]

Originally Posted by twowheels

You mean it's not a good example to press the next page button with your elbow or slide the text up with your nose? Uh oh!

On the contrary, it's a fine example. . I have one arm and hand in a cast right now, so I'm happy that I have an ereader.. I'd still be trying to read a DTB if I didn't but the results wouldn't be pretty.

[Latinandgreek]

Originally Posted by Marc Johnson

Hey, I read comic books. They're a lot deeper and well written than you give them credit for. At least most of the non-superhero ones, which is what I mostly tend to read these days. And a lot of movies are based off comics. Not the obvious ones like Watchmen or 300 but ones like The Road to Perdition and A History of Violence.

I don't know if you read comics but if not you may want to give anything Vertigo a try. Then there's Bone, Strangers in Paradise, The Walking Dead.

And (although I'm sure that everyone mentions this one) Sandman. I also like Fables and I have recently started reading Northlanders. Great comics that make you think.

[Latinandgreek]

Originally Posted by AlbertaCowboy

That's a great story. I wish I was so lucky. I had "The Stone Angel" by Margaret Laurence inflicted on me in Grade 12. Despite being considered one of the great classics of Canadian literature, I revolted and stopped reading after chapter one. When it came time for the inevitable book report at the end of the semester, I wrote an honest editorial on the first chapter. I think my teacher stopped reading my report after I stated that "I can only assume that it was not Margaret Laurence, but Lucifer himself who penned this mind-numbing drivel solely in the hopes of driving me insane". (I remember that verbatim after 15 years!) Good thing that the (unrelated to the book study) Diploma level English 30 essay counted for 85 percent of my final grade!

I had "Fifth Business", which I have read many, many times since. It was the best book I've ever been assigned in school. I think we read "A Handmaid's Tale" and "1984", as well. I was always lucky with reading assignments in school. I don't recall ever having to read anything that I outright didn't like.

[GA Russell]

I read Dick Tracy and The Flash every month when I was nine and ten, but I can't say I've done much comics reading ever since.

However, I must say that ten years ago I enjoyed very much reading a book of one year's worth of Prince Valiant. As I recall, the MSRP was $18.99, which seemed high to me, but I guess that's what they cost now.

[patrickt]

I can remember my father screaming at me to put the damn book down and go out and play ball. It didn't bother me much, though, since I had already realized that no matter what I did it would be wrong.

I'm in my seventieth year and still reading.

[queentess]

Originally Posted by Steven Lake

One of my favorites comes from a comic book convention where I asked a guy, "Why don't you read books" to which he replied, "Oh I do. But I want mine to have pictures in them.

Uh, isn't that what your imagination is for? And no, just because a comic book has the word "book" in its name doesn't mean it's truly a "book" by the proper definition of the word. Ugh. Sorry for the rant, but this just bugged me.

Why is it bad to read a comic book? Reading is reading is reading. Or perhaps you are not familiar with today's graphic novels... you should check them out before sounding so ignorant. It's a "real" book, just told along with drawings. (And amazing drawing work, I might add.)

[queentess]

Originally Posted by AlbertaCowboy

I can understand having a bad day, or disliking subject matter or especially being strapped for cash. What I can't understand is the response "books are stupid". There are a billion different things that could have been said, but the one that was used is "books are stupid". Not "No, THAT book is stupid" or "No, that is not something I want you to be reading at your age" or flat out "No". She was told outright that "books are stupid". This actually breaks my heart for that girl. Good luck kid, you're gonna need it.

Yes, because we are privy to the exact, non-paraphrased quote that was used. Geez. She probably modified her statement, but the blogger was just incensed and paraphrased. You guys are reading way too much into this.

Even if we assume the mother WAS being complete idiot about it, so what? There are idiots in the world. I don't believe taking this one blogger-reported story and generalizing it to the entire world is a smart way of looking at it though.

Perhaps this thread is signaling the end of common sense! EVERYONE, EVERYWHERE, ALWAYS takes things out of context and believes EVERYTHING they read on the internet! Oh, the hugemanity!

[BenjaminJames]

too me it sounds like a made up story, its designed to offend readers and provoke a response. I am not naive but really even if the mother was the most uneducated cretin surely she would not have forbade her daughter from reading, merely not encouraged her or said no to buying more books.

[AlbertaCowboy]

Originally Posted by queentess

You guys are reading way too much into this.
Even if we assume the mother WAS being complete idiot about it, so what? !

I have to admit that you are probably right, but I get so few chances go be morally insufferable that I have to take the chances when they come up.

[Maggie Leung]

I've encountered people who sneer at reading. Shrug. It's not as if I respect their opinion.

I'm middle aged and my mom still bugs me about reading "too much." She insists that it will eventually blind me. My response: I'll learn Braille.