Grr
While trying to think of which books to add to this QOTW one of the dumb ass receptionist dolls came into the office, so I thought I'd see what she liked to read (other than the obligatory celebrity lives magazines that haunt our canteen). She came out with the following reply:

"Oh I don't like reading books, I tried it once and it dosen't interest me"

What the hell? There isn't a single book out there that would have anything of interest to you? Is your attention span that short that you cant read anything that dosent have a picture to help those two brain cells inside your head draw up a decent mental picture?

Grahhh

Anyone who uses this answer needs to be stoned to death with water damaged old penguin books.
(mon bison powered by magnets, Fri 16 May 2008, 11:54, 7 replies)

Betcha she reads
Posh/Becks/Jamie/Colleen books with their nice big thick print and intermittent pics and celeb mag cut-outs so as her ickle brainywainy doesnt go hurty poos.
(bazmorningstar efil4nat3b, Fri 16 May 2008, 11:57, closed)

there are worse things than burning books
like not reading them for example

-Kurt Vonnegut
( willenium Fist bump for verification, Fri 16 May 2008, 11:58, closed)

True
I guy I work with once said:

"I don't read books, I get distracted by the telly. And stuff."

Personally, I'd rather read a book than watch telly.
(FerretTrout be illin', Fri 16 May 2008, 12:04, closed)

readin'
I know loads of people who don't -or who have never - read. They say they don't have time, that they can't find anything they like, that it's boring. I think its a combination of a few things:

Their only memory of reading is being made to do it at school, with no choice over what they read. Reading is a solitary activity, and people of weak character feel the need to be among others in order to exist and be acknowledged. Plus, reading takes practice and experience. There are not many people who'd be prepared for (or interested in) going from Dan Brown to Dawkins on a single day, or going from Chick Lit to a nineteenth-century doorstopper. It takes flexibility and patience to get into a book.

I wonder how many of the people who slag off Heat or Jordan or other pulp fiction have actually read it. Most of it is quite readable - just not profound. There's room for shallow idiocy if you balance it with something cerebral.
(frankspencer, Fri 16 May 2008, 12:06, closed)

Mrs Vagabond isn't a keen reader.
She's a bloody good designer, photographer, musician and artist, though - intelligent and well thought.

She prefers television and the internets.

I think media is so varied now that the whole "You must read" thing is essentially snobbery, and instead should simply be replaced with the adage "A mind is a terrible thing to waste".
( Je suis un vagabond is an unfunny, up your own arse middle class knob, Fri 16 May 2008, 12:07, closed)

I don't slag off Heat because of the quality of the writing
I slag it off because of the content.
( chenobble rocking his explorer beard on, Fri 16 May 2008, 12:12, closed)

reading and intelligence
I'm sure that reading needn't be synonymous with intelligence, but internet and TV are passive forms of experience. With a book, you can put it down and think through it as you go. It's a slow process with many nuances. Material for TV and the Net is so often premasticated to suit a broad demographic.
(frankspencer, Fri 16 May 2008, 12:28, closed)