Book lovers vs. nonreaders

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livnlern said:
Seremina, can’t you get the large print books at the library? Or how about Amazon? Their prices can be pretty reasonable.
“Little Women” is a definite classic!🙂
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I can get them from the library, but their selection is REALLY mediocre. I don’t say this lightly, nor to hurt them. All they have is one bookshelf about 5 bookshelves wide, on only one side, that have large print. Most of it is romance fiction. That’s the only library within walking distance. I’m hoping to move closer to downtown and check out that library. I almost feel like Canada just doesn’t have the variety that the USA does, and accessibility is almost not available here.

Amazon? Don’t they require a credit card, though? I don’t know if they have an accessible version of their site nor if they make it easy to find large print versions of books. I’d like to have a Large Print copy of Little Women for once. 😊
 
Some libraries carry Kindles, and will check them out to patrons, and the font size is changeable–any book can be large print. Check with your local library.

Kindle can read to you, and you can turn on Adobe documents to read to you, and many libraries have free audio books if you get the password. Listen while driving! I get in a lot of books that way.

I love my Kindle 2 and Kindle DX–I’m reading a lot more because of Kindle. I just don’t have the space to pile up any more books. The paper has got to stop.

I didn’t think I’d like the Kindle or e-readers of any sort, but I have librarian friends who were raving about it, so I gave it a try. Love it!!

I think for people who don’t like reading, this idea should be emphasized: the point is learning something new. You are going to be the exact same person five years from now, except for the new ideas that you encounter. So expose yourself to high-quality new ideas. Read, or do audiobooks or podcasts or free online iTunes U courses or whatever! Mosey through your interests personally or professionally. Build your mental and professional capacity. God gave us curiosity and the desire for wisdom and knowledge–so use it. It is one way we are in the image and likeness. 👍
 
Hi All!
I think that one difference between book lovers and non-book lovers is that book lovers have better imaginations than the non-lovers. I think maybe this could be an inborn thing, and it could also be due to not having toys or games as children that required use of the imagination. Either way, I just feel bad for the book haters. I have loved to read ever since I can remember - and I HAVE to have something to read or I would just go bonkers! I even read while I am watching tv! And in the loo! I never got the hang of reading while knitting though - I’ve seen people do it, but all I end up with is some sort of poor misshapen thing that looks like a fuzzy amoeba.
Hope you all have a great day.
 
kentuckyliz said:
Some libraries carry Kindles, and will check them out to patrons, and the font size is changeable–any book can be large print. Check with your local library.

Kindle can read to you, and you can turn on Adobe documents to read to you, and many libraries have free audio books if you get the password. Listen while driving! I get in a lot of books that way.

I love my Kindle 2 and Kindle DX–I’m reading a lot more because of Kindle. I just don’t have the space to pile up any more books. The paper has got to stop.

I didn’t think I’d like the Kindle or e-readers of any sort, but I have librarian friends who were raving about it, so I gave it a try. Love it!!

I think for people who don’t like reading, this idea should be emphasized: the point is learning something new. You are going to be the exact same person five years from now, except for the new ideas that you encounter. So expose yourself to high-quality new ideas. Read, or do audiobooks or podcasts or free online iTunes U courses or whatever! Mosey through your interests personally or professionally. Build your mental and professional capacity. God gave us curiosity and the desire for wisdom and knowledge–so use it. It is one way we are in the image and likeness. 👍
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Audiobooks work if there’s enough amplification. Kindles… ugh. I’d rather use a different eReader. Kindles don’t work in Canada and they’re connected to the internet. They can delete your books (and they have; they deleted users’ copies of an Orwell book) and what book formats you grab and their software are ALL proprietory. Did you know that because of “copyright”, a lot of books won’t have the audiobook capability on Kindles? Talk about less accessibility.

I’d rather have a non-internet connected one that has no restrictions on what book formats you put in it, don’t require conversions, don’t require that only PAID books be on it, has built-in audiobook functionality without restrictions, and the software isn’t proprietory. I already deal with proprietory-everything when it comes to Microsoft Windows when I’m not booted into Linux. Though I’m saving up for an eReader and I’ve found those that fit my requirements and work in Canada, its kinda sad that I might never be able to afford one anyway.

That’s the truth about life. You need a lot of money to get what you need, yet things you WANT are priced cheaply.

I hope I didn’t offend anyone with my bitterness, but I really wouldn’t wish anyone to be in my shoes and having to deal with high prices for life-enriching needs. I’m supposed to be a bookworm, but it relies upon large print. I suppose that makes me a bookelephant.
 
seremina said:
I can get them from the library, but their selection is REALLY mediocre. I don’t say this lightly, nor to hurt them. All they have is one bookshelf about 5 bookshelves wide, on only one side, that have large print. Most of it is romance fiction. That’s the only library within walking distance. I’m hoping to move closer to downtown and check out that library. I almost feel like Canada just doesn’t have the variety that the USA does, and accessibility is almost not available here.

Amazon? Don’t they require a credit card, though? I don’t know if they have an accessible version of their site nor if they make it easy to find large print versions of books. I’d like to have a Large Print copy of Little Women for once. 😊
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Seremina, there’s also a site called Abebooks that I haven’t used myself but believe is reputable. Maybe someone else here has ordered from there and can say for sure. They have a large print copy of Little Women for $1.86 in Canadian money. Am not sure about the shipping cost but it looks like $11.00. The seller is Once Upon a Time Books. I hope this helps and I hope it was okay for me to give this information here.
 
I’ve bought from Abebooks vendors and haven’t had any problems. No commercial intended, but they’re always the first place I check, especially for used, hard-to-find and out-of-print books.
 
livnlern said:
Seremina, there’s also a site called Abebooks that I haven’t used myself but believe is reputable. Maybe someone else here has ordered from there and can say for sure. They have a large print copy of Little Women for $1.86 in Canadian money. Am not sure about the shipping cost but it looks like $11.00. The seller is Once Upon a Time Books. I hope this helps and I hope it was okay for me to give this information here.
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Wow. That’s cheap. Thank you for letting me know! I’ll look around on Abebooks for it, like you suggested. Maybe I can snap that up before it gets gone. Once Upon a Time Books… looks it up
 
Wow! I feel like I’ve met my soul mates! Do any of you live in or near Bloomington, Indiana? I haven’t met anyone in town so far who enjoys books as much as I do…😦
 
PowersMama said:
Wow! I feel like I’ve met my soul mates! Do any of you live in or near Bloomington, Indiana? I haven’t met anyone in town so far who enjoys books as much as I do…😦
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No, I’m in Texas and have the same situation. My friends either aren’t into reading or else don’t like the same kind of books that I do. Wish I could find a book club somewhere…
 
livnlern,
I’m in Texas, too…none of my close friends read and the readers I know don’t read the things I do. And it’s darn hard to have a conversation without talking about things I’ve read.
 
I am a BOOK LOVER! Since I live alone, they are my companions. I can’t imagine not having a book next to me while I eat. I don’t have TV right now-didn’t connect to the digital revolution in June-so my companions are now books!

I remember my mother reading to me and my twin sister before going to sleep from ‘Little Golden Books’. As I grew up, I was always in the library, especially reading religious books [lives of the Saints, Marian apparitions, religious-themed novels].

I love history and biography, particularly books on ‘the great and the good’. When I embarked on my foreign travels, I would almost always get books, either guides from places I visited or in bookstores. One of my favorite places for books overseas was the book department of Harrods’ in London!

I’m still ‘haunt’ the local libraries. If I don’t take a book out, I’ll browse among the shelves, pull one out, and plop onto a comfortable chair and read away!

At some of my past jobs, I would take a book from home and read alone during my breaks and lunch periods.

I couldn’t live without books!
 
I read at lunch at work, too, Barb; it’s the sanity break in my day. I have no problems going to a restaurant alone as long as I can take a book to stick my nose in while I eat.

When I was 20 years younger and thought I was smarter than I really am, I went through a period of attempting to read some really heady stuff. I often stopped at the bank in our office building to cash a check on my way to lunch and would plop the book on the counter while I wrote the check. I remember one week I had St. Augustine with me and the next, Sartre’s Nausea. The teller I always went to teased me about my “light lunchtime reading.” I didn’t get much out of either book, frankly, but as long as I was reading printed words, it really didn’t matter! 😃
 
LisaA said:
Absolutely agree! I save quotes from my favorite books in a (computer) file. No matter how many times I re-read them, they still inspire me, make me laugh, make me cry…whatever reason I saved them as you said they never get stale. Like some classic music, you can hear it over and over again. I still get chills every time.

What is your favorite Gospel? I love John for the beautiful poetry. I saw a one man performance where the entire Gospel of John was recited and acted out in the space of a couple of hours. It was simply amazing!

Lisa a
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That’s an impossible question to answer :o - the moment I think I have a favourite, I think of how fascinating the others are. :o​

 
I used to read a lot of books when I was a kid. I sure wish I could go back to reading again. I just wish I had enough time and money. T_T

On the other hand, I read a lot of comics that have just as much story content. Do those count? 😛 What about fanfiction? I read a few one-shots sometimes and do a bit writing myself too. :o
 
I am definitely a bibliophile, but in the past two years I have gotten rid of the majority of the ones I had read because of space and frequent relocations, simply too hard to pack and too heavy.

My mother read to me when I was young, and later we would read to each other at night, even after high school. My father has, as far as I know, never read a book in the course of my life. My mother is a devout Catholic, my father a pragmatic and cynical realist. If I don’t have a book with me in idle moments I get very nervous and feel I am not using my time well. I have to read in down time, but my problem is that the attention disorder goes further and if one book starts to bore me I must instantly grab another … thus my bedside is always cluttered. I cannot watch TV without feeling bored unless it is a martial arts movie or something profound in some way, the lack of interaction and lack of cognitive proactivity bores me to tears and I get tired of TV very, very quickly since there is simply no level of engagement on an intellectual level.

Having said that, I can watch good boxing matches all day long, but every other sport bores me to tears. The beauty of aggressive motion and the drama of human endurance under extreme adversity is actually engaging enough, but I prefer the small weight classes as heavyweights are a bit too ponderous and slow in general. If I have to put some effort into interpretation I am happier while reading, so Gene Wolfe, Faulkner, Nabokov, and Dostoyevsky are my favorite authors.
 
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