What's 8wayrun Reading?

MorsCodeStutter

MorsCodeStutter

[10] Knight
Any bookworms in here? I could only safely assume that the fan fiction writers are, but who else enjoys cracking a book open for a good read? Hell, what do you like to read in general? Fiction, non-fiction, graphic novels, newspapers, magazines, stone tablets--the list goes on, each containing their own subdivisions of genres.

TV shows and movies are great and can contain their own literary merit, but sometimes a book is great because you can picture the characters and settings in your own unique way within your mind's eye.

My personal story about reading that is kinda lengthy if you're interested...
Personally I like to read fiction for entertainment I can comprise of in my own mind as a result of reading a bunch of words on a page. Words, that if honed well in coherence can paint a vibrant picture that one could only feel more than they can see.

I started off reading fantasy books as a kid like Redwall because of my RPG craze upon discovering Final Fantasy. I was amazed as to how a video game in which text dialogue could hold so much power over my emotional faculties and curiousity as to how it will all unravel as I progressed through it. Plus, I fell in love with sword battles! So I wanted to see more of those any I could.

In class though, we had to read a shitty ass book called The Hatchet, and it was boring as all hell. It was about some over privileged brat getting stranded in the wilderness and trying to survive ALL ALONE. It dragged on and on, and the lack of character to character interaction wore on my attention span. That book discouraged me from reading on my own time, FUCKING EH!!!

Throughout high school, I would completely forget how every time we were assigned novels to read for English class, I would actually read ahead of the class if the book was actually good. I would get so immersed in it and completely not give a shit about my other homework. But my own time was more geared towards video games much to my chargin. It wasn't until I graduated and started playing Phoenix Wright did I respark my love for reading. Soon enough I started reading Dungeons and Dragons novels as well as a handful of philosiphy and self mastery books.

More recently though, I've been getting into literary fiction that's based in reality (with a few supernatural twists on reality of course) that have emphasis on character development that only serves to embellish an otherwise epic plot. Right now I'm reading The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold and loving it so far. The first chapter disturbed me so much and struck a nerve. It's about a teenage girl who gets raped and murdered, and throughout the course of the novel, she gets to watch the lives of her friends and family unfold from her own personalized Heaven. I like shit that punches me in the soul now.

From time to time, I will read the occasional graphic novel when I need some visual aids to give my imagination a rest lol. The last one I read was a collection of Radioactive Man comics (you know, Bart Simpson's favourite comic book superhero!) and that shit was actually laugh out loud hilarious.

To this day, I can safely say that I am and have always been a bookworm at heart. I may have strayed from the path for a little while in my childhood and adolescence, but these days it is my duty to nourish my overly tampered mind.
 
At any giving time, I'm reading and not finishing some books. Though I do finish quite a few books. I've been mostly reading John Donne's Devotions Upon Occasions lately though.
 
I read through the NKJV a couple years ago. Now I'm reading through the GNT. (Slowly) :*) I'm on I Samuel right now.

The last modern books I read were Hunger Games Trilogy, which I liked a lot, The Skinjacker Trilogy, which was okay, and the Maze Runner Trilogy, for which I want the 2 weeks I wasted back.

MorsCodeStutter said:
In class though, we had to read a shitty ass book called The Hatchet, and it was boring as all hell. It was about some over privileged brat getting stranded in the wilderness and trying to survive ALL ALONE. It dragged on and on, and the lack of character to character interaction wore on my attention span. That book discouraged me from reading on my own time, FUCKING EH!!!
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WHOA, WHOA, WAIT A MINUTE. What is wrong with you buddy? Hatchet is one of my favorite books. And D&D books are literary garbage, sorry, but it's true. I actually read more than one. I don't know what I was thinking.
 
The_Landslide said:
I've only read Meditation XVII because of its significance. What do you think of the rest of it?
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You know, I actually Wiki the book before I posted to see if it had any type of huge relevance and didn't know that excerpt comes from it. I've actually been interested in John Donne since high school; I think we wentover a poem that he dedicated to his wife dying and this was a a time where I thought all poetry was pretty gay...after I heard it, though, it was like, "Damn...!" I'm just now...probably 8 years later, picking his stuff up.

As for the book, I like it a lot. I like how spiritual it is and interpreting what he's saying in different ways. Lot of inspiration to draw upon for my own writing too. I'm not religious so I do have to Wiki some of the stuff of the Bible but I figure I'm just learning more.
 
^ o_o...

>>;; I started re-reading the Animorph series~ I really liked them in middle school X]
 
LostProvidence said:
You know, I actually Wiki the book before I posted to see if it had any type of huge relevance and didn't know that excerpt comes from it. I've actually been interested in John Donne since high school; I think we wentover a poem that he dedicated to his wife dying and this was a a time where I thought all poetry was pretty gay...after I heard it, though, it was like, "Damn...!" I'm just now...probably 8 years later, picking his stuff up.

As for the book, I like it a lot. I like how spiritual it is and interpreting what he's saying in different ways. Lot of inspiration to draw upon for my own writing too. I'm not religious so I do have to Wiki some of the stuff of the Bible but I figure I'm just learning more.
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I really need to get around to reading the rest of it. Meditation XVII is the source for the sayings "not man is and island," and "for whom the bell tolls." From that alone it was provocative, and I have it on my shelf at home so I should probably crack it open some time.

I actually just re-read Slaughterhouse Five on a plane ride. I'm a huge fan of Kurt Vonnegut, but his books can be read in one sitting and now I'm looking for something new.
 
UnseenWombat said:
WHOA, WHOA, WAIT A MINUTE. What is wrong with you buddy? Hatchet is one of my favorite books. And D&D books are literary garbage, sorry, but it's true. I actually read more than one. I don't know what I was thinking.
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To each their own I guess. Hatchet pissed me off so much, I kept turning the pages wishing he'd get attacked by a bear or something (which is the only thing I can recall ever happening). The D&D books are usually cut and dry adventures, so the only series out of all of them that had a real grip on literary BRILLIANCE was The Blade of the Flame Trilogy by Tim Waggoner.

Out of all the D&D books I read, those were the ones that were actually captivating on an emotional scale, not just the thrill of the common RPG adventure. It was pretty much about an ex-assassin turned priest "trying to find peace in a land that knows only blood." It was first series I read and actually felt connected to because of the relatable characters and their personal dilemmas. Otherwise, all the other books I read were just to whet my apetite for all else that came after.

But yeah...what was it about Hatchet that you found so appealing? I tried so hard to enjoy it like many of the books we had to read in other grades, but it irked me so bad that yeah, I swear to God, I lost my motivation for reading because of its blandness.
 
MorsCodeStutter said:
To each their own I guess. Hatchet pissed me off so much, I kept turning the pages wishing he'd get attacked by a bear or something (which is the only thing I can recall ever happening). The D&D books are usually cut and dry adventures, so the only series out of all of them that had a real grip on literary BRILLIANCE was The Blade of the Flame Trilogy by Tim Waggoner.

Out of all the D&D books I read, those were the ones that were actually captivating on an emotional scale, not just the thrill of the common RPG adventure. It was pretty much about an ex-assassin turned priest "trying to find peace in a land that knows only blood." It was first series I read and actually felt connected to because of the relatable characters and their personal dilemmas. Otherwise, all the other books I read were just to whet my apetite for all else that came after.

But yeah...what was it about Hatchet that you found so appealing? I tried so hard to enjoy it like many of the books we had to read in other grades, but it irked me so bad that yeah, I swear to God, I lost my motivation for reading because of its blandness.
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That's cool, but stories about political intrigue in imaginary kingdoms, and personal dilemmas, and feelings, usually just bore the snot out of me. Also, I do love fantasy, and sci fi, (they're actually my favorite) but sometimes I like something more realistic, like Hatchet.

Do you enjoy shows like "I Shouldn't Be Alive" or "Man vs. Wild"? (Ignoring that Bear Grylls is a big phony). I think it's fascinating to see how people survive when they're in hostile conditions and especially when the only person they have to rely on is themself. And like I said, it's something I could imagine actually happening to me. Also, just about every other story written is about conflicts arising from social interactions with other people, and first of all, I find that I have enough of that IRL thank you very much, and secondly there's so many stories like that that it's a nice change of pace to cut through all the human interaction BS and see the only adversary being the environment. Did you ever read Robinson Crusoe? Did you like that?

And I'm pretty sure he was attacked by a moose. The bear just left him alone IIRC.
 
UnseenWombat said:
Do you enjoy shows like "I Shouldn't Be Alive" or "Man vs. Wild"? (Ignoring that Bear Grylls is a big phony). I think it's fascinating to see how people survive when they're in hostile conditions and especially when the only person they have to rely on is themself. And like I said, it's something I could imagine actually happening to me. Also, just about every other story written is about conflicts arising from social interactions with other people, and first of all, I find that I have enough of that IRL thank you very much, and secondly there's so many stories like that that it's a nice change of pace to cut through all the human interaction BS and see the only adversary being the environment. Did you ever read Robinson Crusoe? Did you like that?

And I'm pretty sure he was attacked by a moose. The bear just left him alone IIRC.
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I haven't heard of those shows and I can see why you'd prefer a one man cast vs the wild. It is a huge shift from the usual stories, but wouldn't you rather have a cast of people UNITED against the environment that threatens them? If you have social conflicts, don't those kind of stories help you gain some insight as you are watching their lives unfold as an outsider to the story?

Maybe your reasoning for that matches my reasoning for disliking stories that involve one man casts; I spend most of my time alone already, and so stories like that bore me lol. It's like hey, let's escape the isolation...with MORE isolation through the eyes of another loner or unfortunate soul who ended up in some foreign place that's bent on destroying them.
 
MorsCodeStutter said:
I haven't heard of those shows and I can see why you'd prefer a one man cast vs the wild. It is a huge shift from the usual stories, but wouldn't you rather have a cast of people UNITED against the environment that threatens them? If you have social conflicts, don't those kind of stories help you gain some insight as you are watching their lives unfold as an outsider to the story?

Maybe your reasoning for that matches my reasoning for disliking stories that involve one man casts; I spend most of my time alone already, and so stories like that bore me lol. It's like hey, let's escape the isolation...with MORE isolation through the eyes of another loner or unfortunate soul who ended up in some foreign place that's bent on destroying them.
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I think we've solved the mystery. I spend most of my time with family or co-workers. Maybe if I lived in a secluded place I wouldn't enjoy that type of story so much.

My weird hobby is going to google maps and zooming in on some super-isolated place, like a glacier in northern greenland, or an uninhabited atoll, or the siberian wilderness, or mongolia, and imagine what it would be like to be there.
 
I love reading. My favorite genres is action/adventure, Sci fi/fantasy. But I also enjoy other types of literature from time to time. My favorite hangout is the bookstore like Barnes and Nobles. Online reading is nice, but nothing beats the feel of holding a book in your hand.

Although I write fanfictions online, I can understand how online reading may not be that popular. Personally I do enjoy reading fanfics, because I can actually communicate with the author and share my positive feedbacks. For me, it's self rewarding, because when this author succeeds in writing a future novel, you can take comfort in knowing that your words of encouragement made a significant difference. No matter the level of author's writing, it's a good feeling to know that you can contribute to someone's determination to succeed as a writer. I've learned that you help yourself allot more from helping others. It's a known fact that you only get out of life what you put in. All the more reason to spread the love. ^^
 
Tenchi8 said:
I love reading. My favorite genres is action/adventure, Sci fi/fantasy. But I also enjoy other types of literature from time to time. My favorite hangout is the bookstore like Barnes and Nobles. Online reading is nice, but nothing beats the feel of holding a book in your hand.

Although I write fanfictions online, I can understand how online reading may not be that popular. Personally I do enjoy reading fanfics, because I can actually communicate with the author and share my positive feedbacks. For me, it's self rewarding, because when this author succeeds in writing a future novel, you can take comfort in knowing that your words of encouragement made a significant difference. No matter the level of author's writing, it's a good feeling to know that you can contribute to someone's determination to succeed as a writer. I've learned that you help yourself allot more from helping others. It's a known fact that you only get out of life what you put in. All the more reason to spread the love. ^^
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It's even better when you have an actual novel in the works that you intend to publish, and you get feedback on THAT. I think having a critique group while you're in the rough draft helps a whole lot when you start sending your work to publishing houses. That way, there's a whole lot less editorial work to be done and the quicker your shit gets out there.
 
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