Does anyone still read books?

[Scrounge]

To live in a time when someone will bring a book to your front door cheaper than you can drive to the library; what a strange world we live in!

AMEN! And despite all its other problems, that is a great and wonderful thing!

[farmerjim]

I have thousands of books on my E-reader. Wife reads about 4 books a week, me just one sometimes 2.
When I was farming vegetables, I would listen to audio books about 7 hours a day.
Listening to a book is much slower than reading, but you can do it without slowing down in the field. I listened to Michener's Hawai and it took a full month at 5-8 hours a day. I also listen to books while on long drives like St. Francisville to the Fla. Keys. The average audio book is about 12-14 hours.

[Scrounge]

Not the Dahak. Not yet.

Once upon a time, I was writing my own book. Didn't go very far, as even I could see it was far too derivative of Star Trek. Then I found a copy of Mutineer's Moon, and he did SO much better with the story line that I quit thinking about reviving my effort at it. I have two or three paper copies, and both sequels, plus the omnibus edition. All in both paper & digital forms. When I'm too tired and/or sick to do anything else, and can't sleep, I'll pull that series up on the phone or tablet, and read it. Once upon a time, it was RAH's Glory Road...

[trebor44]

Never stopped, and have given many away!

[Slugster]

I started reading voraciously at about 7 years old. Read Mark Twains' books and was spellbound. My father was born and raised in Hannibal Missouri, and on one of our family visits we were allowed to visit the Samuel Clemons home. Seeing the house where the author lived was really cool.
Wife and I have owned three used bookstores, but it got to where you couldn't make enough money to keep the doors open. The e-readers have killed the book business. We donated tens of thousands of books to local library's. We went through our printed book collections last year and the wife donated most of hers (over 1000), and I donated several hundred of mine. I kept one large storage bin of books that are special to me. Not counting gun related tech manuals.
To me there is something special about the feel, smell, and just having a physical book in hand. Don't like e-readers and never will. Got one for Christmas a few years ago and it is still in the box it came in.

P.S. One of my worst pet peeves is people who dog ear the pages instead of using a bookmark. Grrr.

[alamogunr]

Just read this thread from post #1 to the end. Enlightening to see all the different preferences in book types and subjects. I started reading books at about 9 or 10 years old.
The small town I grew up in had a small public library and the only thing I remember is reading thru the entire Hardy Boys series. I know there were many others over the next 5-6 years. A drivers license put reading on hold except what was required for school and college. Didn't do much reading for about the first 10-15 years of marriage, kids and job.

Didn't really do much more while the kids were in college. Couldn't afford both books and tuition. After they both graduated and I expanded my gun hobby, I bought a lot of hobby type books, Both gun related and woodworking and tool related. So much in some cases that actually engaging in both those endeavors suffered.

I've come to realize that now that I'm in my elder years(81) and alone(my wife passed last spring) that many of these books may end up in a landfill. I've tried to sell a few but I seem to value them more than others do. It is enlightening to go to the online book sites and see the prices that those dealers put on some of the out of print books. I hope they have better luck selling them than I have had.

I've decided to pass them on to the sons and grandsons, especially the gun related books. I've got most of the books that John Taffin has written over the past ten years. I especially like the most recent published by Wolfe. Very good quality

My fiction reading is pretty much restricted to the Kindle. I've got a couple of gun books on one of the Kindles such as The Custom Revolver by Hamilton Bowen. I've also got the hardback copy.

Unlike several have mentioned, I enjoy using the Kindle. I have several hundred that my wife and I have purchased and probably more than that borrowed and returned.

[panhed65]

been reading books my whole life, at 75, still reading them.
Barry

[tinsnips]

Both my wife an I read alot of books.

[MaryB]

At one point my library was over 10,000 printed books... I got tired of dusting them and had read them all way to many times... when kindle ebooks came out I started gravitating to a format that was far more portable... ended up donating most of the physical books to a local library. I pretty much made p their scifi department(prior to my donation it was maybe 100 books...)

Now with physical arm limitations my phone is a lot lighter and easier to read on!

[challenger_i]

I donated some books that were duplicates of some in my collection to a public library: A friend of mine found them in the dumpster behind said library and brought them to me, knowing I liked old books, but not being aware I had donated these. Since then, I have not repeated that error.

[ulav8r]

Highly recommend 1632 by Eric Flint. Currently have just over 3900 books on Amazon, about 7500 my computer, and a few on my phone. Have quite a few print but they are too hard to keep handy and at hand.

[wch]

My old books, my old friends that have absorbed so much of my time over the years, will go to my local library when I'm gone.
I hope they bring others the knowledge and entertainment that they have brought to me.

[waksupi]

I donated some books that were duplicates of some in my collection to a public library: A friend of mine found them in the dumpster behind said library and brought them to me, knowing I liked old books, but not being aware I had donated these. Since then, I have not repeated that error.

There is a used book store here that gets in a lot of material. The owner heats his shop in the winter from books with no retail value.

[MT Gianni]

I serve on the County Library Board, volunteer at the local library, and read a lot. I had some good books on hunting and shooting I took to a gun show a while back. I priced them at what Amazon was selling used for. I took 40 books priced $5 each or 4 for $16. I sold 8.
Montana law says books over 5 years old and less than one checkout in the past year are to be disposed of unless the Librarian signs them to be OK. 95% of our donations go to our book sale, paper backs are 10 cents, hardbacks 25 cents.
There is very little market for used books. More books are being sold and read now than any time in history. I have trouble wrapping my mind around those two facts.

[shtur]

I found very few books that I would spend more than a day reading. I enjoy reading short magazine articles about hunting and fishing.

[Electrod47]

I donated some books that were duplicates of some in my collection to a public library: A friend of mine found them in the dumpster behind said library and brought them to me, knowing I liked old books, but not being aware I had donated these. Since then, I have not repeated that error.

Man, that's a gut punch. A cryin' shame. You deserve an explanation.

[LenH]

Started with James Lee Burke, then Vince Flynn, Lee Child, C J Box, David Baldacci.
I started reading a bit late In life plus I am a slow reader but remember most everything I read.

[10x]

I have discovered many "out of copyright" books here
Some incredible literature and history.
Much of it a window on the time it was written.


https://gutenberg.org/

[farmbif]

im currently working my way through "the flytiers manual" good thing there are lots of pictures. if only I could get my fingers to handle fishing line like years gone by.
every trip to Ollies is an adventure picking through the discounted books

[waksupi]

I have discovered many "out of copyright" books here
Some incredible literature and history.
Much of it a window on the time it was written.


https://gutenberg.org/

The huge plus for ebooks, is how many free books are available on line. For all the books I have downloaded, I've paid for very few.