I've got ALOT of books that I have bought over the years, however they just tend to gather dust. I don't know, I just find it very hard to sit there and read. My two main distractions at home are TV (DirecTV + vids/DVDs) and surfing around the net. It's been several years since I've actually finished a book front to back (I think it was the second Lance Armstrong book). I tend to read books in spurts...like just reading certain sections or chapters. So I come to the "Books" forum of BigSoccer seeking advice.... How the f*** do I get through a damn book?
Well, we're reading Of Mice and Men right now, only 103 pages. Join us in the book club thread. You could start out with a good graphic novel. I really liked Road to Perdition, which I understand has been made into a Tom Hanks movie. You could also try some short stories. While I hated Ernest Hemingway in general, I did connect with his Nick Adams short stories. I also preferred F Scott Fitzgerald's short stories to Gatsby. Edgar Allen Poe is also fun. Or conversely, get a gripping longer book, one that can carry you a while and let you enjoy the moment. Among my favorites, Dune (if you like sci-fi), Watership Down, The Stand, It, and Lord of the Rings. Young adult fiction is quite good. Read Dicey's Song or The Bridge to Terabithia. Or, try reading the book of a movie you like (or dislike) since most of the great books make pretty poor movies. The Godfather or Fried Green Tomatoes were exceptionally well done. Lastly, unplug the computer and the TV and go cold-turkey for a week. You'll have to do something....
I can't imagine NOT reading--now matter how busy I am, I will always, at the very least, read a few pages of whatever book I'm in the middle of before nodding off to sleep at night. That said, I have a couple of very smart, very intelligent friends who just don't read books, period. At least one of them wishes he did, but for whatever reason, it almost never happens. One time, he was looking at one of my many bookcases--he gestured at one shelf (mostly filled with quickie mysteries people like me tend to read on an afternoon off) and said "It would take me 10 years to read that much." Knowing him, it's true. So, I don't know--I guess you have to want to. Then put some time aside, decide to 'unplug,' and just open the book and do it. And don't force yourself to read something because you think you 'should' read it. Read whatever you feel like. Read something because you want to know what the author has to say, or (if it's nonfiction) because you want to know something you don't already know. Reading shouldn't be a chore, or an intellectual requirement. It takes a little more mental effort than sucking up information from broadcast media, but it should be FUN.
Though, the same could be said of lindsay lohan movies. I have a problem with not finishing books, but I never have problem reading. I take a 45 minute train ride to and from work, so I've got built-in reading time every day. Sometimes I steal a newspaper or something, but I'm usually reading a book at least an hour a day. I was trying very hard to get through "The Perfect Spy" by Le Carre but just couldn't for the life of me. I hadn't tried so hard to finish a book in ages, and it evenutally beat me at page 390 of 586. I echo the comment about finding long books, but it's hard to tell someone to "start" anything by going 900 pages to begin with. The Tom Clancy books are very readable and if you can get hooked on one of them you'll be there for days. Ditto one very popular bigsoccer book, Cryptonomicon, which is rollicking adventure book (though, a fair amount of science in it as well) that is a page turner well through it's 1000+ pages. But, you should start small. I'd go with a popular fiction book that's easy to read, something like Angels & Demons, Da Vinci Code, The Bourne Identity, etc. Or maybe a book like Freakonomics, which is interesting and funny at the same time, so it goes by quick. If you like soccer, try to find Tim Parks' very funny "A Season with Verona". That's one book you can't help but finish; it's very funny and it's broken into home and away games, so you get the ebb and flow of a season together with a mini-travelogue of Italy. Highly recommended. Also, some books are just collections of articles by magazine/newspaper writers (PJ O'Rourke, etc), and they can be easy to breeze through because the topic is constantly changing, so you won't get bored. If for some reason I really had to start someone out on reading a long book, I'd go with one of the Harry Potter books. As mentioned, it's a young adult book and you can read 50 pages in an hour (if not more). They are fun to read, not challenging in any mental way that would tire you out, and if you can suffer the ego hit of reading one in public, it's a fun couple of hours. No shame in not being serious all the time. (I'm currently 2/3rds of the way through Bill Bryson's A short history of nearly everything, which is an intersting though voluminous review of science and how we got to know what we know. It bascially covers everything (or tries to) from the smallest particles to the largeness of space and all of the crap- fecal and otherwise- inbetween. It includes topics like how old is the earth, what is the earth made of, how did they figure out how many stars there are, etc. It's a bit too detailed at times for a "review" of science- especially the chapters about particle physics- but it is funny how many of the discoveries about science that we take for granted were happened upon by accident, were bungled into existence by poor scientists only to be re-discovered later, etc. An awful lot of stupid trial and fabulous error went into making your 9th grade Biology textbook, and seeming every third page has a sentence like "Scientist X, who once published a paper suggesting that the moon was actually made of ocean salt from Antartica ejected into space by a volcano (??), went on to discover that the galaxies are are moving apart at a uniform rate, allowing us to determine the age of the universe", etc. (made up example, but it's a crazy book)). So, yeah, read more.
One other thought, since you spin so much, try an audio book. a couple of years ago my wife and I drove cross country and a friend had given us Grisham's The Rainmaker read by some grade B- actor of the miniseries variety, and it was great! The reader was fabulous. We had a lot of fun on the trip, but the book was certainly part of our memories.
Here's my tip; Give a book 30 pages. If in those 30 pages it doesn't grasp you, put it down and pick up another book a week later.
I know, since I have digital cable, that it can be really tough to read once you've flipped on the TV... I mean, I think I watched Return of the King for the 407th time last night. That's why at least 3 nights a week I leave the tube off and grab whatever book I'm working on. Mrs. Whirlwind and I have a contest to see how many books we can make it through each year. I won for 2005, 20-15. I got 6 books as Christmas gifts, it was a good year in the genres that I like... picked up 2 Dan Brown, 1 George R.R. Martin, 1 Neil Gaiman and a couple others...
Some of the best books I've read didn't grasp me in the first 30 pages at all. In fact, my favorite novel of the past 50 years took over 50 pages to get interesting.
What I would say is take a book for what it's meant to be. Many people sag off The DaVinci Code, but I don't think it should be taken too seriously. If you think about the things that are presented as fact in the book then you will realise it's complete hogwash, it's a novel, a story, a bit of fun. There is one book I would recommend to start, precisely because it can be taken in chunks, E, by Matt Beaumont (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/04...02-1382336-0185626?s=books&v=glance&n=283155). It's written as a series of emails between various people in an advertising agency, it's funny and pretty short.
Audio books are awesome. I listen to them almost exclusively in my car. THey make the mundane nature of driving so much better. I'm listening to Angela's Ashes (again) and will start McCourt's Teacher Man today.