Books and Reading habits poll

[Sea Lemon]

I usually tend to read fiction (mostly crime, YA and Sci-fi), although I do like non-fiction if it's about forensics or dinosaurs. I don't mind either e-book or physical copy, but I can't deal with audio books as I tend to zone out while I'm listening. 

[mari123]

@Zendalis
OMG during my high school times when I have fantasy phase I reading Dragonlance books and now I have few that I want to read now.  

[Zendalis]

12 hours ago, mari123 said:

@Zendalis
OMG during my high school times when I have fantasy phase I reading Dragonlance books and now I have few that I want to read now.  

I'm 54 and still happily in thrall to that "fantasy phase" 

[Piotrek]

@Zendalis I think one of the things that put me off fantasy was that the characters very often are very much black and white. There are exceptions (and such cycles/standalone books are among my favourites, though the characters are not the only thing that matters to me), but that seems to be the rule.

[Zendalis]

2 hours ago, Piotrek said:

@Zendalis I think one of the things that put me off fantasy was that the characters very often are very much black and white. There are exceptions (and such cycles/standalone books are among my favourites, though the characters are not the only thing that matters to me), but that seems to be the rule.

I agree, which is pretty much why the whole body of work by Raymond E. Feist  -particularly the long running series that began with the Riftwar Saga-  is one of the three recommendations I routinely give to anyone asking for a great read in the genre. His world(s), characters, and story lines are incredibly well fleshed, complex, and nuanced.

[Piotrek]

@Zendalis

What are the other two recommendations? (Note: I too have my list of fantasy favouries. I would like to see if there is any overlap ).

[argar]

Wait reading fantasy is a phase?

 

Then I have a condition.

 

And the only cure is more fantasy! Lol

[daveb]

2 hours ago, argar said:

Wait reading fantasy is a phase?

 

Then I have a condition.

 

And the only cure is more fantasy! Lol

Me, too!

 

On a separate note - I don't mind black and white characters. Some of the authors/stories I like are ones I like not so much in spite of such things (or what is basically the same plot in nearly every one of a given author's stories), but because of such things. Sometimes (often?) I like a good simple adventure or mystery or fantasy just for the fun of it.

[argar]

Just about everything written by David Gemmell had characters that were all flawed.

 

More grey than anything in a lot of the cases.

 

So are a lot of the character's in Simon R. Green novels as well, particularly his fantasy series.

[chair jockey]

On 20/03/2017 at 9:38 AM, sea-lemon said:

I usually tend to read fiction (mostly crime, YA and Sci-fi), although I do like non-fiction if it's about forensics or dinosaurs. I don't mind either e-book or physical copy, but I can't deal with audio books as I tend to zone out while I'm listening. 

 

I binged on some true-crime related stuff recently. In my fiction-reading days I also read about 35 books by Robert B. Parker and about 20 by Jonathan Kellerman.

 

What kinds of books on forensics? It sounds like something I might enjoy.

[Sea Lemon]

3 minutes ago, chair jockey said:

 

I binged on some true-crime related stuff recently. In my fiction-reading days I also read about 35 books by Robert B. Parker and about 20 by Jonathan Kellerman.

 

What kinds of books on forensics? It sounds like something I might enjoy.

One that I read recently was 'Forensics: The Anatomy of Crime' by Val McDermid - she's a crime fiction writer usually. I found it really interesting the way it went through some fairly high profile historical cases and described all the techniques they used, and how other techniques got developed so we ended up with the forensic science that gets used now.

[AspieAngel]

I mostly read physical books. There's just something about touching and turning the pages that I enjoy. I read fiction and non-fiction equally. I love going to the library because I can't afford to purchase many books. I like going to garage sales and finding old books. I have some books over 100 years old in my TBR pile that I've picked up that way. I do occasionally enjoy audio books. It's like having someone read you a bed time story and it helps me fall asleep.  

[Piotrek]

@sea-lemon @chair jockey

I've read 2 books by Val Mc Dermid featuring Inspector Karen Pirie. Speaking of the English-language crime novels/procedurals I've also read several of Ruth Rendell's Chief Inspector Wexford novels. Interestingly, even though I've watched a lot of true crime content on YT, I haven't read any true-crime non-fiction pieces. Time to chage for this. (Although right now, I already have one to-read book after the current one gets finished.

[Sea Lemon]

11 minutes ago, Piotrek said:

@sea-lemon @chair jockey

I've read 2 books by Val Mc Dermid featuring Inspector Karen Pirie. 

I love the Karen Pirie books! I just finished one the other day

[Andiamo]

I had to count the books on my TBR shelf. 70 exactly. I'll need to fix that by reading more books.

 

Though, to be fair, my read shelves have hundreds on them, so it's not too surprising.

[Sleepy Skeleton]

I read non-fiction almost exclusively. I'm just bored by regular fiction. Unless it's a classic or just a really good story, I don't see the point. I like learning. I like physical books and e-books and I get mine mostly from a library, bookstore, or from friends.

 

I don't have a shelf specifically for books I haven't read, but there are a few that are scattered in there somewhere.

 

But to be honest I just don't read books that often. I prefer articles online.

[Sherlocks]

On 3/18/2017 at 8:57 AM, iff said:

this is a long poll , as you can see by scrolling down to this post after all the questions.

 

I know I will have missed stuff so sorry  

 

I have used as a help to the questions previous threads on reading so I hope it helps in not forgetting something I should have included.

 

And when I say read, this also includes audio books to be clear

 

oh and the last question relates to tbr piles. there is a japanese word

 

 

WellI took your very long poll 

[KendraPM]

Yay! I'm not the only one who reads between 100 and 200 books a year.  I average about 1 book every 2-3 days with a break about once every other week for 3-4 days.

[Hermit Advocate]

I read an average of around 4 hours per day. Unfortunately, school work tend to cut into the time I would like to dedicate to me TBR pile. 

[Yatogami]

I do not read as much anymore. If I do, its Japanese light novels or manga. 

[SithAzathoth WinterDragon]

I read mostly non fisction, that being geology/volcanology, weather, astronomy and well mostly science to history. I will read others as well  that are fiction.

[Skycaptain]

I usually have one fiction and one non fiction on the go at any time. In all fairness, though, since discovering AVEN my book reading has fallen 

[Guest Jetsun Milarepa]

I've not read as much as usual recently, but have loads of books I'd like to start on, maybe later.

[Félinferno]

I read a lot, but not books. I only read around 1-3 books a year, with most of them being non-fiction. I find most novels to get boring fast and the only ones I can say I really enjoyed (and finished) were the Owls of GaHoole series, and Lord of the Flies. I probably just haven't found the right book yet. I mean, most of the books I read were from my schools library, and they had a pretty poor selection (most of them were sports and romace-related, both genres I HATE) and none of the books seemed to look remotely interesting. If they had more fantasy, sci-fi, and Steampunk/Dieselpunk, then maybe I would have read more?

 

Reading is definitely something I'd like to do more (outside of reading ghost stories on the internet and reddit posts. They don't count), but since leaving school I haven't been able to due to the lack of books in my household. Seriously, I only own about 5 books max, and all lf them are either non-fiction or Pokémon-related. 

I also love to write, so reading books would probably vastly improve my vocabulary, grammar, and storytelling abilities.

[iff]

@iff

 

This poll is being locked and moved to the read only Census archive for it's respective year. As part of ongoing Census organization, and in an attempt to keep the demographics of the polls current with the active user base at the time, the polls will last for one year from now on. However, members are allowed and even encouraged to re-start new polls similar to the archived ones if they like them.

 

iff, Census Forum Moderator