What is your favourite way of reading books? - Page 2 — Scope | Disability forum
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What is your favourite way of reading books?

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  • chiarieds
    chiarieds Community member Posts: 16,007 Disability Gamechanger
    For me too it has to be an actual book, preferably a hard back. We had a secondhand bookshop for nearly 25 years, so I was spoilt for choice. Our bookshop is mentioned in one of Peter Robinson's books, not one of the Inspector Banks series, but a standalone novel 'Before The Poison.' He used to come into our shop to check out other crime fiction writers (!), & used to sign all of his books that we had in stock at the time.
    Both my son & I are book collectors, yet my daughter isn't remotely interested in books.....
  • cartha
    cartha Community member Posts: 1,390 Pioneering
    chiarieds said:
    For me too it has to be an actual book, preferably a hard back. We had a secondhand bookshop for nearly 25 years, so I was spoilt for choice. Our bookshop is mentioned in one of Peter Robinson's books, not one of the Inspector Banks series, but a standalone novel 'Before The Poison.' He used to come into our shop to check out other crime fiction writers (!), & used to sign all of his books that we had in stock at the time.
    Both my son & I are book collectors, yet my daughter isn't remotely interested in books.....
    I suppose that makes you a genuine bookworm ;-) I remember our local bookshop growing up. It used to cost hardly anything to swap a book over for another one. I was heavily into Secret Seven, Famous Five, The Hardy Brothers, and Biggles in those days. My daughter got into Famous Five for a few months but is more into fantasy type stories involving fairies, mermaids, etc. At the moment she's making her own Anime comics. She's amazing at drawing the characters.
  • chiarieds
    chiarieds Community member Posts: 16,007 Disability Gamechanger
    Oh definitely @cartha - we also used to do a paperback exchange, so if books were brought back in good condition a customer got half their money back, sometimes in cash, but most just wanted more books. One of the biggest delights was seeing children so interested in books, & yes, we had Enid Blyton, The Hardy Boys (F.W. Dixon), & of course Biggles (many of which I've read), Beano, Dandy & Eagle annuals + more! Once heard a parent say walking past our shop to their son who wanted to come in, 'what do you want another book for, you've already got one'.....how awful. The saddest moment was when a 10 year old girl, who used to come in once a fortnight with her Dad & younger brother, just came across & gave me a hug with tears in her eyes, when I said we were closing, saying 'please don't close.'
    I do really appreciate how other ways of seeing & hearing other books has helped both disabled & able bodied people, but they were part of the beginning of the end for secondhand bookshops. We used to get customers saying we were a dying breed several years ago. Sadly our son closed the bookshop down just over 2 years ago.
  • Grinchy
    Grinchy Community member Posts: 1,807 Disability Gamechanger
    I prefer an actual book to an e reader, currently reading Carrie fishers wishfull drinking, a funny account of her problems with addiction and her mental health struggles, i like autobiography's and anything by Terry Pratchett, glad to see so many people still reading  
  • BrettW
    BrettW Community member Posts: 698 Pioneering
    Terry Pratchett is my favourite author :smiley:
  • cartha
    cartha Community member Posts: 1,390 Pioneering
    chiarieds said:
    Oh definitely @cartha - we also used to do a paperback exchange, so if books were brought back in good condition a customer got half their money back, sometimes in cash, but most just wanted more books. One of the biggest delights was seeing children so interested in books, & yes, we had Enid Blyton, The Hardy Boys (F.W. Dixon), & of course Biggles (many of which I've read), Beano, Dandy & Eagle annuals + more! Once heard a parent say walking past our shop to their son who wanted to come in, 'what do you want another book for, you've already got one'.....how awful. The saddest moment was when a 10 year old girl, who used to come in once a fortnight with her Dad & younger brother, just came across & gave me a hug with tears in her eyes, when I said we were closing, saying 'please don't close.'
    I do really appreciate how other ways of seeing & hearing other books has helped both disabled & able bodied people, but they were part of the beginning of the end for secondhand bookshops. We used to get customers saying we were a dying breed several years ago. Sadly our son closed the bookshop down just over 2 years ago.
    Oh, yes the annuals. They were rare where I lived growing up (Africa) but my uncle used to buy me a load every year. My daughter has a Beano subscription plus I buy her the yearly annuals for Beano, Dandy, and the combined Beano/Dandy annual. She's Beano mad! I've been trying to collect annuals for her from years past at markets (then COVID happened!), and she has a very large collection but still a few years missing. Some friends run a used bookshop in the nearby town (it's massive!) but not sure if it will survive the lockdowns. They have already had to close one business, and the bookshop has been closed for ages. Last I spoke to them they were going to try their best to keep the bookshop going so they must be doing well with it. Good to know people are still reading "proper" books :-1:

    When my daughter was growing up I used to read to her. As soon as she started picking out words and reading herself we started reading together. In no time she was reading to me every night. When she started school she was very advanced with reading, and still enjoys reading now. Seems I got something right there ;-)  She also loves the Guinness book of records and some other book about mysteries that I can't remember the name of right now. "Can you believe it?" Something like that. My daughter's primary school were very big on pushing books and reading so that has helped, too. She went to a Welsh speaking school so reading English books at home helped keep her English up to scratch. Now she's a teenager she speaks something us old'ns have never heard of!

    I always loved Enid Blyton books. I had to source a rare Biggles book for a friend a few years ago. I still have a copy somewhere (digital) and hope to read it myself. Can't remember the title off-hand. I still remember a couple of books from school that I enjoyed, Flight of the Grey Goose, Flight of the Phoenix, Douglas Bader. Amazing how they have stuck in my head. I've also seen the films of the last two.

    Sad to hear about people who don't appreciate books. I once was trying to help someone with medical advice they had got wrong, so I got a medical book to show them what they were doing wrong. A proper medical book put together by doctors and experts in their field (a family medical book) but the response I got was "can't believe everything you read in books"!  I don't know what put her off of books but it sounded like something to do with the parents, too. Just sad to hear it come out of the mouth of a 40+ year old.

    Sorry to hear you had to close your bookshop. My daughter has never shown interest in digital books. Even with her art, she can do it on the computer but seems to prefer doing it on paper. She may be interested in audio books playing while she draws. She likes a lot of things going on at once. We don't have TV in the house so there is also a lack of that distraction to encourage her to sit and do nothing while being entertained. Everything's available online these days so we can watch something whenever we feel like it rather than being dictated to by a TV schedule.

    I'm really typing a lot. I better stop before I send people to sleep! ;-)

  • BrettW
    BrettW Community member Posts: 698 Pioneering
    I dont watch TV either @cartha. I've always been a big reader but I find it more comfortable for me now to listen to my books audibly. I think books and stories open up the imagination far more than TV does
  • Tori_Scope
    Tori_Scope Scope Posts: 12,488 Disability Gamechanger
    I loved Enid Blyton when I was growing up @cartha :) The Famous Five was one of my favourite series of books. 

    You're not sending anyone to sleep! It was interesting to read about your daughter's relationship with books over time. I definitely used to read a lot more when I was younger, but it's something that I'm trying to get back into. I read 'The Thursday Murder Club' by Richard Osman over Christmas and really enjoyed it. 
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  • Dragonslayer
    Dragonslayer Community member Posts: 2,165 Pioneering
    There is nothing like reading from a real book, Simply holding one and turning the pages is for me all part of the reading experience. I have quite a few of them in my library especially the ones I really enjoyed and prefer them in hardback. But I must admit since using my first kindle years ago I now read E- Books. Since then I have had a Amazon fire7 tablet and now a fire10 one which I have stored many other books.   
  • [Deleted User]
    [Deleted User] Posts: 1,651 Connected
    I've read most of the old Discworld books by the late Terry Pratchett, after playing the Discworld games on the PC in the 90s I decided to read the source material for the plot of the games.

    Very funny some of them as well.

  • Ross_Alumni
    Ross_Alumni Scope alumni Posts: 7,652 Disability Gamechanger
    Ellestar said:
    I loved reading Enid Blyton books as a child, and I still read them today.
    Which is your favourite?
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  • [Deleted User]
    [Deleted User] Posts: 1,651 Connected
    I might save up my Audible credits for a bit, the current WWE Champ Drew McIntyre's got an autobiography coming out in May, wouldn't mind listening to that, he seems like a nice enough bloke, and recently he's embraced his Scotch heritage and started wearing a Kilt to the ring.


  • coylygirl
    coylygirl Community member Posts: 283 Pioneering
    I haven't read a book for over 2 years as I haven't been able to concentrate.  I used to be an avid reader getting through at least a book a week.  I was intrigued by Richard Osman's book The Thursday Murder Club and bought it on a whim.  I now read a chapter a night and it helps me go to sleep  :)
  • Tori_Scope
    Tori_Scope Scope Posts: 12,488 Disability Gamechanger
    I really enjoyed it @coylygirl :) You'll have to let me know what you think of it once you've finished!
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  • coylygirl
    coylygirl Community member Posts: 283 Pioneering
    I;m finding it intriguing but gentle,  Trouble is I'm a linguist so pulling apart the grammar!
  • [Deleted User]
    [Deleted User] Posts: 1,651 Connected
    I've not spent last month's Audible credit yet, trying to find something worthwhile for it.

  • Tori_Scope
    Tori_Scope Scope Posts: 12,488 Disability Gamechanger
    Yes, I'd agree it's gentle @coylygirl, but I found that quite comforting (despite the topic :D)! Ah, I'm not cursed with linguistic prowess thankfully. I did find it quite an easy read though, which I actually appreciated. I think I saw that it's his first go at a novel, so perhaps there's some room for improvement. 
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  • coylygirl
    coylygirl Community member Posts: 283 Pioneering
    Oh it's just me, I've a degree in linguistics and am a pedant and a grammar nazi!  I don't blame Richard, he just needed an better editor (like me perhaps)  :)
  • coylygirl
    coylygirl Community member Posts: 283 Pioneering
    a better editor lol

  • chiarieds
    chiarieds Community member Posts: 16,007 Disability Gamechanger
    I'm definitely there with you @coylygirl - I'm no linguist, but struggle with a book if the grammar is poor. If you look above, you will see we had a secondhand & antiquarian bookshop for nearly 25 years, so I had the opportunity to read many & varied books; I used to get through on average 3 books a week if it was fiction.
    I remember trying one of J.K. Rowling's books, as we sold so many; I couldn't get past the first page.
    I'm now unsure I would try Richard Osman's 'The Thursday Murder Club' book, altho I like country-based gentler crime writers such as Ann Granger's 'Mitchell & Markby' series, & wished I had kept these books to re-read.
    Please say what you think about 'The Thursday Murder Club' when you've finished it. :)

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