Okay, I'll be the first on this thread to chime in on the opposite side of the crowd: I rarely read. Books, at least. And fiction, almost never.

To be sure, I think I have a high degree of intellectual curiosity. At different points in my life, I would voraciously consume books on the things I was interested in: chess, math, and physics, mostly. Magic too, but a bit less voraciously. I was a bibliophile... I loved owning these books at least as much as I loved reading them. I loved how they looked on bookshelves, I loved how they smelled, etc.

At one point I decided to quit playing serious chess, so I sold all my chess books. (With the one exception: Averbakh's Chess Tactics for Advanced Players, because it contains some truly beautiful ideas.) When I went to law school, I sold most of my math and physics books.

In law school, I actually didn't even buy books after the first semester (with two exceptions: patent law and antitrust law). When I needed to read cases, I would do so online. When I really needed to read the textbooks (and not just the cases in them), I would stop by the library. And even then, I would really only read the textbooks when I needed to ramp up for a test.

Now I'm a practicing patent lawyer, so obviously I read a lot of patents every day. I spend a fair bit of time on Wikipedia. I read a bunch of blogs mostly covering law and technology (sometimes separately, sometimes together). And I read the news.

Other than that, no reading. And separately, I don't read stuff on paper. I haven't really printed anything for my own reading since about 2006.

Interesting points, MobilityBundle. It does take all kinds.

Ed, your mention of Discworld reminds me to mention the "Ringworld" series. Too "seventies" in some ways, but a few very well-imagined features. (I believe that the Wookie Chewbacca was a take-off from the Kzin . . . the Puppeteers are quite a concept, too.)

But can't anybody remember the children's book I was describing?

I only read non-fiction, with a particular lean towards science and skeptical topics.

Everything from Dawkings, Harris and Hitchens, to Sagan, Muller and Park

Thank you for the kind words Woland, now if only I could spell as good as I read. :O)

I don't know the book you were asking members the title of, but it sounds interesting.

I also enjoy reading biographies of interesting people - (not movie stars) but people like Amelia Earheart,Charles Lindbergh, Raoul Wallenberg, Helen Keller, Harry Houdini as an example.

One of my favorite quotes I'd like to share is:

From grade 1 to 3 you learn to read
From grade 4 and upwards you read to learn.

That's a nice quote, indeed, Chrystal. Study of the biographies of the great men and women of the past should continue to be encouraged as it has been since Plutarch. I spent one of the most pleasant weeks of my life on an island off the coast of Massachusetts with a dear friend, a bottle of bourbon, and Dumas Malone's 6 volumes on the life of Thomas Jefferson. Raimond Gaita's memoir, Romulus, My Father, is also well worth reading as an example of a biography of an apparently not-great, unknown, but highly interesting person.

I was starting to get alarmed at how little fiction I had been reading recently; even my daily subway commute was filled with my smartphone Internet sites or faro shuffles. Last week, I decided that I was going to use the time on the subway to read some real books. I picked up the nearest thing on the shelf at my house. Turned out it was The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton. What a wonderful book! Almost finished, I look forward to going on the subway now. Saw the Scorsese film years ago, but it will be fun to revisit it after I finish the novel.

Thanks Woland for the heads up regarding Romulus, My Father as I looked it up and it is something I would enjoy reading and will add it to my wish list. You may be interested in reading the Kite Runner which is an enjoyable read written by Khaled Hosseini. It was 5 years on the New Yorks best selling list and published in 55 languages. It also reminds me of a book that I read last year (I can't remember the name at the moment) but was an autobiography of a young aboriginal man who grew up on a reservation and was allowed to leave due to a scholarship but was then shunned by his own people and his schoolmates who viewed him as different. It was a powerful book. I'll have to wrack my now tired brain and try to remember the title and pass it along.

Leland I agree it's much more enjoyable to read a book and then either revist the film or view it for the first time after a novel is read first. I think I'll also place that one on my wish list too.

I've found that I can generally only enjoy film adaptations if I completely seperate them from the source material. An exception to this rule is Harry Potter. LOTR is kind of an exception, but I do have to forget about some of my favorite stuff from the books that didn't make it to the films (like Tom Bombadil.)

I also was a fan of Tom Bombadil and was sad to see he wasn't even mentioned in the films but I quess that was due to the length of the movie. I did receive, The Adventures of Tom Bombadil, one year as a gift but it wasn't what I expected as it wasn't so much about him, but a book of verses in which he was mentioned. Still, you may enjoy it if you can find it.

The first books I read with a passion were Hardy Boys.

I pick one up now and then for nostalgia, and all is well with the world. There is always justice. The good guys (boys) win. There is always an explanation. No one dies. Great stuff!

Suddenly the green car made a swerve right towards them!
"Look out, Frank!" cried Joe.

Thank you for the suggestions, Chrystal.

Another biography worth mentioning is the 4th volume of Robert Caro's biography of Lyndon Johnson, to be published next month. This is the first volume to cover LBJ's presidency. If it is anything like the previous 3 volumes, it will be very revealing and a gripping read.

The 2nd volume, with its counterpoint portrait of Governor Coke Stevenson was my favorite, although the 3rd volume provided an amazing picture of political power, venality, and corruption in the most powerful Senate Majority Leader of all time.

There is also a nice biography of J.R.R. Tolkien that I thought was quite interesting.

In the past, I would have also said that LOTR was my favorite book but that has been supplanted by George R R Martin's, (our modern era's Tolkien), Song of Ice and Fire. I do so hope he finishes it. While I loved LOTR, I was never able to read it more than the first time. I started several times but I found it too slow to continue a 2nd reading. On the other hand, I've read Song of Ice and Fire 3 times, re-reading the published books just before a new one is published and finding so much material and insights that I had forgotten each time.

I just read through the Hunger Games series while on vacation this last week and started 11/22/63 by Stephen King.

While my wife reads constantly, I read in fits and spurts. I'll go months without reading anything and then I'll get on a binge and read constantly for several months. Almost always fiction. I used to read a lot of programming books but I'm happy to no longer be in that field!

Hi rockwall,

I've never been able to finish the Silmarillion. When I most recently re-read LoTR, I concentrated on the 2nd and 3rd volumes. (I was not really enchanted by Tom Bombadil, who I think looks back to The Hobbit, which to me is very much a children's book, whereas the story of LoTR is quite adult literature.) I've also listened to an uncut Two Towers on CDs - read by Rob Inglis.

The Hobbit is indeed childrens literature. And while not taking anything away from LOTR, I now think that compared to Song of Ice and Fire, LOTR is young adult lit. You should give it a try.

Ane while I purchased the Silmarillion, I admit to giving up on it quite early.

I liked Lord of the Rings, but in the end of the day it is an adventure story. Moby Dick gives the same sweeping epic narrative, but more depth. A hell of a book.

I was no fan of Tom Bombadil, as I felt it was a bit of a diversion from the story. The walking trees did nothing for me either. The rest was pure gold.