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[eattheolives.livejournal.com]

Have your reading habits changed over the years? Since I have kept a list of all the books I've read for over nine years now (I was thinknig it was five years, since I started keeping track in 2000 ... my how time flies), I've been able to really notice shifts in my reading patterns - nine years ago I read almost exclusively fiction; probably 10/90, if even that. At one point my parents - who never really monitered my reading in any other way - started strongly suggesting that I should read a nonfiction book for every two fictions I consumed.

 

For the last number of years the split has been more 50/50. A big factor, I think, is working at a library - I am exposed to SO many more nonfiction books in the course of my job thnt I ever was when I just haunted the fiction shelves. And with reading so much nonfiction, I think it's changed my standards for fiction. It takes a lot more for a novel to grab me than it did before.

 

How about you?

Comments

[main-hoon-emily.livejournal.com]

Well, I'm an unapologetic fiction reader and proud of it! :-P I went through a "mostly non-fiction" phase in high school and read a lot of books about whatever interested me, with a heavy emphasis on Russian history and what to look for in a spouse. I didn't discover the real pleasure of losing myself in a novel until after high school -- I read fiction while I was growing up, of course, but I read the same few books over and over again instead of searching out new ones. Now I'm doing things in reverse: I read the same non-fiction books over and over again when I'm in need of guidance, and look for variety in fiction.

ETA: On continuing to think about this, I've realized that probably the biggest change to my reading habits is that now I read to enjoy the story. When I was in school, probably from 4th or 5th grade on, I always had to have paper and pencils near while I read because I wasn't just reading to find out what happened, I was taking notes on what the main character looked like, what she wore, how her personality was described. I don't remember now why I did it, whether I was planning to model myself after them or what, but I was always writing these things down and was very protective of my lists. I was a very strange child...

[eattheolives.livejournal.com]

Oh, a fellow Russian history enthusiast! I went through a period where I was reading tons about Tzar Nicholas and family.

Lol, keeping lists like that sounds like something I would have done, if only I had thought of it. And I also used to reread my favorite novels again and again ... I think the ones I read most were Gone with the Wind, Rebecca, Little House on the Praire, Anne of Green Gables ... ah, such good stuff.

[eattheolives.livejournal.com]

...now I would LIKE to reread a whole host of my favorites, but I don't feel like I can justify taking the time since there are so many books I need to read for the first time! ACK.