Does anybody know any non-readers?

[Joybells]

I converted a non-reader once. He was 15, and had to read Wuthering Heights for school. He decided that the movie and the classic comic would suffice. He 'read' the comic, we watched the laurence olivier movie together, and then I rewound to a specific scene, played it again, and asked him to describe it.

"Well, it's a sunny, windy, day. Cathy and Heathcliff come out into the garden, and run across the moors to the crag."

Then I read a couple of pages of the book, covering that same scene, with all the descriptive beauty that English held at that period of writing.

"Hmmmmm" The boy started reading.

[shanghaichica]

I know a lot. They often say they haven't got time or would prefer to watch TV.

[bevdeforges]

Heck, I'm married to someone who rarely reads - other than computer magazines and a few others best described as "technical" (home repair, photography, ham radio, etc.). He's a classic geek - hates television, gets his news from the radio and Internet (though he does watch the TV news online in podcast form).

He's got his uses, though, and until I got my e-reader, probably a blessing that both of us aren't filling up the house with books.

[ProfCrash]

My husband doesn't read. Clearly this does not bother me because we are married.

So while I am recharging my K3 and DXG and probably K1 (just to be safe) for me I am recharging my and his PS3, laptop, netbook, IPods, and his Archos tablet.

I am hoping that if we lose power I will have enough toys to hand to him that I can read in peace and quiet.

[J. Strnad]

Hm. Most of my friends are readers, but I don't qualify them on that criterion. I do have non-reader friends, though, and I'd no more pressure them to read than they pressure me to engage in extreme frisbee.

The only people who really annoy me are the "I only need one Book" sorts. It's hard to keep from whacking them with a 2x4.

[DreamWriter]

Most of my friends are avid readers, and my husband reads a lot. Not long ago, my sister called to inform me that she will be starting kidney dialysis soon. Trying to be helpful, I suggested that she might want to read books while undergoing treatments. (I was thinking I could buy her an e-reading device.) Well, she told me very directly that she HATES reading.

Does her dislike of books make me feel angry? No, not at all. Just sad. I love books, and I think it'd be a nice diversion from her problems. But we're not all the same—and that's okay. I guess she'll nap or watch TV while tied to the machine.

[Sweetpea]

Originally Posted by mpd123

I dont find myself angry, just disappointed. especially when someone says things like books are rubbish or boring ,that sort of closed off mind i'm glad i dont have.

I don't feel disappointed, rather sad for them, missing out all the goodness in a good book!

And most people I know, don't read a lot, but I've never come across anybody who said books are rubbish or boring...

Many. Actually I would say most people I know. Uh, reading the sports section, or now more likely the on-line equivalent does not a reader make I assume. It does not make me angry at all, and I do not presume to judge them. I have never encountered any negative comments for how much reading I do, basically every chance I have even if it is just a few minutes. In fact more often I get compliments like: "I wish I read as much as you do." That and I get asked questions about spelling, grammar, and just general knowledge all the time. O.K., the last can get annoying sometimes. Just because I am reading Gravity's Rainbow does not mean I know anything about gardening.

[Harry_Y]

Yes I work with guys who are not really readers

We are all networking engineers so I would not say
they are less intelligent it is just not there thing.

Some are into hiking, woodworking, motorcycling
others are into reading, electronics, or sport shooting.

We all have our interest and what is fun for us.

[Bookworm_Girl]

Most people that I know are non-readers. Many of them are very smart. It's not because they don't like to read or because they prefer mindless TV. Typically they ask me how I can read so much and if I sleep at all. Mostly it is because they don't have time. They are too busy with their kids or doing stuff around the house or enjoying other hobbies like golf or the list goes on & on. I have one friend who is so busy that she listens to audiobooks while she does her daily activities in order to participate in a book club. I have another friend who simply does not like to read. However, she doesn't sit around watching reality TV; she watches news and documentaries. As for me, no, I don't sleep much after all and that's how I fit in my reading sessions, mostly late at night or on weekends.

[voracious71]

I know and am related to a couple of nonreaders..I don't hate them, but I don't understand them either. Kind of like I don't understand people who hate chocolate

It looks like my baby niece is going to like books though- I try to encourage this any chance I get.

[voracious71]

Originally Posted by xg4bx

i was aiming more for the types who think reading is dumb,a waste of time or look at a book like it's something the cat dragged in.

i didn't mean to come off like an elitest or something.

I didn't take you as elitist. Some of the non- readers I've come across have been very judgmental about people who read. I think sometimes, these may have been people who had problems with reading from a young age( learning disabilities, for example) and now they have a grudge against it.

[Native]

I think reading is like another sense that I wouldn't want to give up, but other senses might expand if I had to go readless. It's funny, the person I knew who was the best at connecting with people and topics across a broad spectrum was a retired career Navy Chief who didn't read recreationally at all. He didn't read and I didn't watch television, but we shared a lot of six-packs of wisdom and solved the world's problems many times over.

[Belle2Be]

I have never met someone who thinks that reading is dumb, or who "looks at a book like its something the cat dragged in". If I did, I would assume that there are some serious underlying childhood issues related to the reaction, and then stick my nose back into my book.

Some people just don't enjoy reading. Some struggle at it, or they just can't find the time to get into a book. I didn't start *really* reading again until I read the Twilight series, it made me realize that even though I'm 26, I don't have to read classics or "smart" books and try to decipher meanings and that college encouraged mentality, I could read whatever I wanted (although its still embarrassing to admit that I love YA lit.) TG for my kindle, because I would be way too humiliated to carry around half the books I read.

[elizilla]

I was a reader growing up, pretty much to the exclusion of all else. Thing is, there just wasn't that much else to do. I spent most of my free time reading, and probably would have read even more if there wasn't a chronic shortage of books - as it was I would read them over and over. I also spent most of my school hours reading. Every fall, you got new textbooks, and I slurped them right up, since they were at least new.

Then I went away to college. And suddenly I had a hundred choices of things to do, in any given moment. I read a whole lot less. In fact it became hard just to complete the reading for my classes, let alone extra reading. It was pretty awesome, actually, to have this smorgasboard of cool things to do.

Nowadays I am back to reading a fair bit. But I think I'm a better person, for having learned to not just spend every waking hour reading, and for having experienced more of a life outside of books.

And the whole point of this, is to say, maybe these non-readers have always had enough interesting things (good or bad) around them, that they never learned the habit. I suspect I wouldn't read as much today, as I do, if I hadn't developed the habit when my life was far more circumscribed.