Fiction or non-fiction

[markiver54]

Mostly fiction, sci-fy, westerns, police, fantasy but also non-fiction war history. Used to buy books, but ran out of room to keep them so almost exclusively read books from the public county library co-op. I also subscribe to National Geographic. I do not read paranormal thrillers nor zombie, vampire stuff.

Paranormal or Zombie... I'm with ya there Mags!

[markiver54]

Reading, reading, and more reading. Started when I was in grade school. Don't know where that came from as neither of my parents read much, and I was the oldest kid. Did like the small one or two shelves of library books in each of the elementary school classrooms. Probably read most all the books Wilson Elementary had! Anyway, I started then and have never quit. My earliest recall of how much I loved to read was the pretty good chewing out my Mom gave me whenever she caught me reading after bedtime, with my flashlight, under the covers!

I like both fiction and non-fiction. My reading "history" is much like Marine's and his wife's reading experiences; all over the spectrum with many varied interests. Many of the books I've kept are a result of my college years. I have a B.A. and M.A. and both arts degrees are in "Letters." Primary college major study was foreign language with an extremely heavy dose of the literature of the languages. Since I'm older, my large library is not electronic-based, nor do I read using a Kindle or computer. Just plain-ole hardbound and paperback books.

I recently moved. The hardest thing to move was my library books....hundreds of volumes, boxes and boxes yet unpacked downstairs. I'll need to build new bookshelves here in order to get them all out of the boxes!


Each day I'm in different time periods (centuries of the past and future), different countries, seeing many parts of the world, and traveling to and from in every way imaginable. I think I'm reading about six books at the moment. Fun to move around so freely anywhere and everywhere in an instant. Love to read. It astonishes me to think how much I would have missed had I not read about so much!

Even though I know my library is too big and I should just use the public library, I somehow manage to still buy books from time-to-time. Hard to break such an enjoyable pasttime. Great question, OP Mark. Thanks for asking it.

PT7

I am impressed by your open mind into all kinds of literature. You are no doubt a better man for it!
Hope your body is still in acceptable condition after moving all those books though...

[markiver54]

I read western history books. Fiction too. I have books enough to last me awhile. Right now I am working my way through Fran Striker's Lone Ranger series from the 1930's. I have read all of Will James books too. Those are favorites.

Thanks RR...why am I not surprised by your reading genre.

Not just westerns...I read Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine when I was 10 too...

[Mags]

.
I didn't. As a kid I was terrified of monsters, night terrors included. I have no recollection of when I out grew that. But thankfully I did. Oh ya I was also terrified at night by paintings and portraits of people's faces. Their eyes glowed in the dark and followed my moments.

...I read Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine when I was 10 too...

[ChefDuane]

Avid reader. Book of the Month Club. Mostly non-fiction, historical biographies, and history in general. Got a ton of cookbooks, too.

[Les]

I like reading just about anything - fiction, non-fiction and everything else in-between. The biggest problem that I have, though, is that I cannot get rid of any books once I've read them - even the ones I didn't enjoy too much - so I'm rapidly running out of space to fit book shelves. I could buy a Kindle, but it just wouldn't be the same as holding a proper book .... and it definitely wouldn't have that "new book" smell.

[CT_Shooter]

I'm a Kindle reader. When I got my first one back 2010, I loaded it up with every classic novel ever written, some I'd read before, most I hadn't; and I read constantly; H.G. Wells, Bram Stoker, Jane Austen, Jules Verne, Mark Twain, Robert Lewis Stevenson, Mary Shelley, Jack London, James Fenimore Cooper, Arthur Conan Doyle, Charles Dickens, etc. I have several hundred books in the Kindle library now.

I totally enjoyed reading the several Ralph Compton westerns and the Jean Auel Clan of the Cave Bear series. But, most of all, I really like to read Stephen King. The last one of his that I read was Dr. Sleep, the sequel to The Shining. Before that, it was The Dome and the Mr. Mercedes trilogy. I've read The Stand three times so far; the last time was the newly released unedited version. I thought 11/22/63 was fabulous. I will likely never get to read everything he's written, but I'm working on it.

My wife loved historical novels and non-fiction. She was a voracious reader, tearing through them, sometimes finishing a novel in a single day. During her last year, she enjoyed reading mystery novels, especially Anne Perry's. We always had several of them on order at the library... I'd return six and bring six more home. She never had a late fee.

What I like about the Kindle is that I can read any of the e-books we own, anywhere. I have the app on my phone, so I rarely use the device itself anymore, and I always have hundreds of books with me, which is pretty cool.

[markiver54]

Avid reader. Book of the Month Club. Mostly non-fiction, historical biographies, and history in general. Got a ton of cookbooks, too.

Kinda figured the cook books chef. My wife loves to cook and has a book case of them. Food network is always on the TV also.

[markiver54]

.
I didn't. As a kid I was terrified of monsters, night terrors included. I have no recollection of when I out grew that. But thankfully I did. Oh ya I was also terrified at night by paintings and portraits of people's faces. Their eyes glowed in the dark and followed my moments.

...I read Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine when I was 10 too...

Careful Mags, Big Foot might be out there!....

[markiver54]

I'm a Kindle reader. When I got my first one back 2010, I loaded it up with every classic novel ever written, some I'd read before, most I hadn't; and I read constantly; H.G. Wells, Bram Stoker, Jane Austen, Jules Verne, Mark Twain, Robert Lewis Stevenson, Mary Shelley, Jack London, James Fenimore Cooper, Arthur Conan Doyle, Charles Dickens, etc. I have several hundred books in the Kindle library now.

I totally enjoyed reading the several Ralph Compton westerns and the Jean Auel Clan of the Cave Bear series. But, most of all, I really like to read Stephen King. The last one of his that I read was Dr. Sleep, the sequel to The Shining. Before that, it was The Dome and the Mr. Mercedes trilogy. I've read The Stand three times so far; the last time was the newly released unedited version. I thought 11/22/63 was fabulous. I will likely never get to read everything he's written, but I'm working on it.

My wife loved historical novels and non-fiction. She was a voracious reader, tearing through them, sometimes finishing a novel in a single day. During her last year, she enjoyed reading mystery novels, especially Anne Perry's. We always had several of them on order at the library... I'd return six and bring six more home. She never had a late fee.

What I like about the Kindle is that I can read any of the e-books we own, anywhere. I have the app on my phone, so I rarely use the device itself anymore, and I always have hundreds of books with me, which is pretty cool.

I have to admire the diversity of your reading CT.

[clovishound]

I caught the bug early. Read everything of interest in the local library. Mostly I read Sci fi. Still do. I have branched out somewhat, and read the occasional no fiction, but Sci fi is still the major interest.

[markiver54]

Some of what was sci fi since I was a child has become reality.

[Mags]

.
Big foot's a teddy bear or wookie. Godzilla trailer as a kid scared the cr@p out of me. Glad I grew out of it. Jurassic park would have been pure terror.

.
I didn't. As a kid I was terrified of monsters, night terrors included. I have no recollection of when I out grew that. But thankfully I did. Oh ya I was also terrified at night by paintings and portraits of people's faces. Their eyes glowed in the dark and followed my moments.

...I read Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine when I was 10 too...

Careful Mags, Big Foot might be out there!....

[markiver54]

.
Big foot's a teddy bear or wookie. Godzilla trailer as a kid scared the cr@p out of me. Glad I grew out of it. Jurassic park would have been pure terror.

.
I didn't. As a kid I was terrified of monsters, night terrors included. I have no recollection of when I out grew that. But thankfully I did. Oh ya I was also terrified at night by paintings and portraits of people's faces. Their eyes glowed in the dark and followed my moments.

Careful Mags, Big Foot might be out there!....

[Redthies]

In books, I read 90% fiction. TV is 90% documentaries. Old radio shows at night. Tales of the Texas Rangers from 1950-1952 is the current flavor.

[csgrv]

I caught the bug early also, I have a Kindle with a large selection everything from the Constitution to Lord of the rings. Unfortunately after several cross county moves most of the actual books ended up at the local Library.

[markiver54]

I pin books, I read 90% fiction. TV is 90% documentaries. Old radio shows at night. Tales of the Texas Rangers from 1950-1952 is the current flavour.

Nice balance!

[CT_Shooter]

http://henryrifleforums.com/viewtopic.p ... =10#p87327

In addition...I didn't begin my college education until I was 42, so when I was introduced to true literature, it blew my thirsty mind.

I took two semesters of Shakespeare and fell in love with it. The plays that hooked me are Henry IV (1 and 2), Henry V, Macbeth, Hamlet, The Tempest, and A Winter's Tale. I especially love Henry V, though; a profound telling of a wartime King and his "band of brothers."

During my first two semesters, I also took a Literature course where we studied Melville's Moby Dick, Tolstoy's Anna Karenina, Dostoevsky's Notes from the Underground, and Kafka's Metamorphosis. All of these had a profound influence on my understanding and appreciation of writing as an art form.

As a young man of eighteen, the books that most influenced me are Herman Hesse's Narcissus and Goldmund and Siddhartha, and Robert Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land. I've read all of them many times through the years. I strongly recommend each of them as exquisite, well told stories with deep moral and ethical themes. Just wonderful!

[Greyhawk]

Mostly biographies... Just looking at my bookshelf of favorites, here are a few titles I have really enjoyed and have read multiple times:
'Nicholas and Alexandra' by Robert Massie (About the last Czar of Russia, his family, and Russia's move to communism)
'We Die Alone' and 'Sledge Patrol' by David Howarth (great books of true story survival in the artic during WWII)
'Kon-Tiki' by Thor Heyerdahl (Riding a raft across the entire Pacific Ocean... quite an adventure!)
'Stories for Boys' by Jack London (I don't know what kind of boys lived back then.. but these are quite the stories!)
'Endurance' by Alfred Lansing (Stranded in Antarctica, the ship is crushed, and you must self rescue you and your men, it takes over a year but Shackleton did it!)
Great books and could name many others, I love to read about real people and their stories

[clovishound]

Some of what was sci fi since I was a child has become reality.

But where are our flying cars?

I want my flying car!

I'd much rather have that than a flip phone. "Beam me up Scotty" only got a laugh once or twice.