msnbc.msn.com— New survey shows biggest readers are women, older people...and that's probably only because they don't have their own computer :)
Aug 22, 2007View in Crawl 4
good authors tend to publish books, not magazine articles or blogs. and authors tend to spend a little more time writing books than say bloggers do on their blog entries. it's just a more serious medium--not in terms of tone of writing, but in terms of professionalism, intellectual value, etc.most serious literary works won't fit in any other format--some works even span several volumes. that's why if you only limit yourself to 3-4 page articles in magazines or on the web, you're depriving yourself of the bulk of serious literature. it has nothing to do with pretentiousness. it's just common sense.
I'm Digging this cause I Idefinitely like reading. When I was a kid, the other kids tried making fun of me by calling me a bookworm...I took it as a compliment....They left me alone after that.
amazon.comlibrarything.combut if you think playing RPGs and reading articles on the web are the same as reading good literature, you're probably just using a lack of good books as an excuse to avoid reading.
My bad on the "day and age" mistake, but it's hardly noteworthy as long as you understood the intent of the post. As for comparing gaming to reading, I did the opposite. I just said that you gain different skills doing different things. You can't gain skills for leading a group by reading a book, but you can in video games. Also, I didn't equate a self help-book to "real literature." I just used it as an example of a book that many people tend to read and when most books are of equal trash as that style of book, reading more of them does nothing. I'd also argue that reading Shakespeare doesn't exactly do much either and question what people want to consider "real literature." Is "Romeo and Juliet" somehow better than "A Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy"?And honestly smackhero, it seems like you are trying to take a jab at me with your last sentence, even though writing also reflects one's intellect and you failed to capitalize the first letter of all your sentences. Normally I wouldn't give a s**t since this is the internet, but when you try to belittle someone while making a mistake of equal value, I love pointing that out.
Reading is not reading. When you read primarily "media sources" web, newspaper,etc. you get lots of headlines, little depth. There's a big difference in content when the media varies." Moving from print to electronic media we have given up an eye for an ear." Each medium, independent of the content it mediates, has its own intrinsic effects which are its unique message.--McLuhan
Could be, but reality is that there are a lot of books, and trivial adventure books are a minor part of the book business. Personally I read a book a week. Not a single star trek or X-men boo. They are paltry offerings compared to some of the incredibly rich scifi works out there. There are some great scifi works like Ring World, or the Foundation Trilogy. They are completely different in depth and imagination than the average light entertainment reading.
amoveoAug 23, 2007
Then read older literature? Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, 1984, Brave New World, Oryx and Crake, and Catcher in the Rye are all great books.
smackheroAug 23, 2007
good authors tend to publish books, not magazine articles or blogs. and authors tend to spend a little more time writing books than say bloggers do on their blog entries. it's just a more serious medium--not in terms of tone of writing, but in terms of professionalism, intellectual value, etc.most serious literary works won't fit in any other format--some works even span several volumes. that's why if you only limit yourself to 3-4 page articles in magazines or on the web, you're depriving yourself of the bulk of serious literature. it has nothing to do with pretentiousness. it's just common sense.
Closed AccountAug 23, 2007
I'm Digging this cause I Idefinitely like reading. When I was a kid, the other kids tried making fun of me by calling me a bookworm...I took it as a compliment....They left me alone after that.
smackheroAug 23, 2007
amazon.comlibrarything.combut if you think playing RPGs and reading articles on the web are the same as reading good literature, you're probably just using a lack of good books as an excuse to avoid reading.
hanskAug 23, 2007
chaucer sucks
pakeAug 24, 2007
My bad on the "day and age" mistake, but it's hardly noteworthy as long as you understood the intent of the post. As for comparing gaming to reading, I did the opposite. I just said that you gain different skills doing different things. You can't gain skills for leading a group by reading a book, but you can in video games. Also, I didn't equate a self help-book to "real literature." I just used it as an example of a book that many people tend to read and when most books are of equal trash as that style of book, reading more of them does nothing. I'd also argue that reading Shakespeare doesn't exactly do much either and question what people want to consider "real literature." Is "Romeo and Juliet" somehow better than "A Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy"?And honestly smackhero, it seems like you are trying to take a jab at me with your last sentence, even though writing also reflects one's intellect and you failed to capitalize the first letter of all your sentences. Normally I wouldn't give a s**t since this is the internet, but when you try to belittle someone while making a mistake of equal value, I love pointing that out.
shupyAug 29, 2007
Reading is not reading. When you read primarily "media sources" web, newspaper,etc. you get lots of headlines, little depth. There's a big difference in content when the media varies." Moving from print to electronic media we have given up an eye for an ear." Each medium, independent of the content it mediates, has its own intrinsic effects which are its unique message.--McLuhan
shupyAug 29, 2007
Could be, but reality is that there are a lot of books, and trivial adventure books are a minor part of the book business. Personally I read a book a week. Not a single star trek or X-men boo. They are paltry offerings compared to some of the incredibly rich scifi works out there. There are some great scifi works like Ring World, or the Foundation Trilogy. They are completely different in depth and imagination than the average light entertainment reading.