"But...but...you HAVE to help me!"

[LingualMonkey]

*steps out of the intellectual closest and stands proudly as a "reader"* (Cookies for the reference)

I read for a lot of reasons. The main one is so I don't end up as a f***ing waffle waitress.

[EricKei]

Lapsed, but proud, Book Nerd, here

This thread reminds me of two of my favorite teachers ever, both from college -- Second one first.

2nd fave: Senior-level Chaucer prof. She knew enough about the history and the older forms of the English language itself to teach classes about same. Things like the Canterbury Tales become much more engrossing when you have someone who can explain even the most obscure references in the text without having to resort to the Cliff Notes. It's thanks to her that I can read the Tales aloud with proper pronunciation. The scary part is, it's not that hard to understand when you *hear* it.

She got elevated to my second place "fave", edging out my high school English teacher, when I discovered that she had written quite a few books about JRR Tolkien. She knew enough about that subject to teach a class about him (but never did). Please note that I mean "a class about Tolkien himself", not Hobbit/LoTR...Though I'm sure she could have done that, as well. This was a few years before the movies came out.

My all-time favorite teacher was the lady who taught me English Literature. She probably skipped more classes than any student, but that wasn't her claim to fame. She had a very simple philosophy when it came to exposition, papers, and the like: "If you can prove your point by using evidence from the text, YOU'RE RIGHT, even if I personally think you're full of s***". She says that the only time she told someone flat out that their idea would not fly was the time that a student proposed that Shakespeare's plays were describing events that took place during Star Wars... Even she had her limits.

[cinema guy]

I read for a lot of reasons. The main one is so I don't end up as a f***ing waffle waitress.

"Well, it looks like we got ourselves a reader."



For those who don't know: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uvs2g5Nj0NI

[Yfandes]

Does anyone else like to read in fairly busy places? I don't know why, but one of my favorite places to read is at a fairly busy bar. Of course you have to deal with the whole "whatcha readin' little lady?", but some of the regulars at a dive bar I used to go to would actually join me. Then the bar tender started putting "rails" of 2 x 4's and broomsticks either side of us to keep people from bothering us

For the strange reading material selection: when I was 9 I had a fascination with Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's "One day in the life of Ivan Denisovich" and re-read it over and over again

[Setsunaela]

I can't wait till I can afford to go to college.. I'm praying I get a "difficult" english prof.
I've gotten into trouble many a time for my book-devouring ways, but this one is absolutely the most memorable.

In sixth grade, our state had its first state-wide standardized english test, to gather information on everyone's reading level. It had already been established that I had at LEAST a 12th grade reading level, as the test they gave me didn't go any higher than that..
We took a pre-test (to get us used to the idea of a standardized test with rules and a 1.5 hour time limit) there were five different tests, and those various tests were spread out so that no child was sitting beside another with the same test.
I was also seated in the back of the class, beside only three students. One napped the whole test period, and two were failing the class miserably. I finished my test in 10 minutes, and carefully re-read every question and checked every answer. Twice. So, 30 minutes in, I do as instructed, and quietly leave my seat and carry my (covered) answer sheet to the teacher, where she has a special transparent sheet that she lays over my sheet to check my answers. I had a 100.

She pulled me out of the classroom, and screamed at me in the hallway that I CHEATED! I cried. She took this as a sign of guilt. She assigned me detention for cheating, and said I had to take the test again, alone, in the hall, with a different test. I took it, crying, in the hall, humiliated. I didn't even bother checking my answers, just did the thing and handed it in asap. Another 100, another accusation of cheating, and me being informed that if I cheated on the real test, I would be expelled. I was sent to the principal and my mother was called. My mother fought tooth and nail (and won) to have this "cheating", and the punishment, removed, and removed from my school record. I was transferred away from this teacher and sent to the only other one with room, and spent the rest of my 6th grade year in "year-round" school schedule, where my teacher basically gave me private english classes, with my own books to read, my own essays/book reviews to write, in back of the class, with full permission to either ignore the easier classwork the rest of the class was doing, or to do it for extra credit.

I'm always running 'round with a book under my nose, as is my mother.

[Dreamstalker]

There was a guy in my college freshman class who had a .2XX GPA.

I have no idea what the ex's GPA was, but I'm willing to bet it was similar. Through four years of college he had a whopping 13 credits...and had no idea why this was (um...maybe because you never studied?).

[AriRashkae]

Does anyone else like to read in fairly busy places? I don't know why, but one of my favorite places to read is at a fairly busy bar. Of course you have to deal with the whole "whatcha readin' little lady?", but some of the regulars at a dive bar I used to go to would actually join me. Then the bar tender started putting "rails" of 2 x 4's and broomsticks either side of us to keep people from bothering us

We plan to have a reading corner, stocked with random finds we get from used book sales, etc. Now if only my husband would get off his @$$ and tell me what he wants so I can work on the damned business plan!

[Drakstern]

Every teacher in my high school knew who I was, even ones I'd A.) never met and B.) NEVER HEARD OF. It was due to my tendency to read while walking and do so without missing a beat. I'd even keep my balance/hold on the book when the inevitable gauntlet of feet would come out to attempt to trip me.

Of course, the teachers quickly learned that taking away my book during a class would do nothing, since I would just start reading ahead in the textbook... and they couldn't take that one away from me.

Then again, I was also infamous for being the one that always caught teachers off guard, since I never looked like I was paying attention. I cannot sit still. It is physically impossible for me. I am always moving. About the closest to 'still' you get from me is that I'll be sitting and watching, but my feet will still be moving, or I'll be tapping my fingers, or I'll be doing something else unconsciously. I don't notice it, and literally do not know I'm doing it. Anyway, this was worse when I was younger, before I started to get some control over it, so I would never appear to be paying attention. To add to this, I don't take notes. When I was younger, I had a choice, I could write fast or I could write legibly. If I was writing fast enough to keep up, I wouldn't be able to read my *own* notes. If I didn't, I fell behind. So I just stopped.

So, what do teachers do when they think you're not paying attention? They call on you.

I would always get the answers right, to the point that I would recite EXACTLY what the teacher had just said back to them.

They stopped calling on me after a while and just left me to it.

As an aside, at last count(last year), including all my D&D books, graphic novels, and various book type things... I currently own over 1200 books. And that's not including the books I've bought over the last year, which- since I was being careful with my money- probably only add another 50 or so to the count. I have read each and every one of them. Most of them more than once. Some of them to the point that the binding is falling apart.

[Dreamstalker]

one of the teachers there saw me reading a full blown novel and took it away from me because it was too complicated for me to understand or some such nonsense.

The teacher of a "special ed" English class of mine in high school (how I got shuffled into that I will never know) was the same way. Except...she meant "too complicated" as in relative to the assigned reading (some mind-numbingly stupid YA sports novel that I finished in two hours).

We were to do "reading logs" (mini book reports). Mine typically involved Heinlein, Bradbury, Lovecraft...and the teacher would grade me poorly because she didn't think I understood said books (this is HIGH SCHOOL, check my record and you'll see that I was reading at a ninth grade level in fourth grade).

[Yfandes]

We plan to have a reading corner, stocked with random finds we get from used book sales, etc. Now if only my husband would get off his @$$ and tell me what he wants so I can work on the damned business plan!

OMG my fantasy bar!! I'd bring in books to swap!
Will the snacks be "whatever you feel like making, or here's a bag of peanuts?"

[Seshat]

So, 30 minutes in, I do as instructed, and quietly leave my seat and carry my (covered) answer sheet to the teacher, where she has a special transparent sheet that she lays over my sheet to check my answers. I had a 100.

She pulled me out of the classroom, and screamed at me in the hallway that I CHEATED! I cried. She took this as a sign of guilt. She assigned me detention for cheating, and said I had to take the test again, alone, in the hall, with a different test. I took it, crying, in the hall, humiliated. I didn't even bother checking my answers, just did the thing and handed it in asap. Another 100, another accusation of cheating, and me being informed that if I cheated on the real test, I would be expelled.

THAT sort of thing really pisses me off.


Some people are just smart. That's all there is to it.

[ArcticChicken]

Let's see if I can remember everything I wanted to comment on in the 15 pages of thread I just read.

Never mind that I read at a college level by the time I got to middle school.

I tested at a college level in either fourth or fifth grade. It took me a while to realize that the test was for comprehension, not what I was actually reading. All of a sudden it made a lot more sense.

A sad percentage of my students, when asked for their favorite book on the first day of class, respond with "I don't have a favorite book. I hate reading."

I don't have a favorite book, because that would mean I have to pick. I don't have a favorite author at the moment either.

He handed out a copy of Jabberwocky to demonstrate that even nonsense can be poetry. He jokingly asked if anyone volunteered to read it in front of the class, and was shocked when I instantly agreed; he was even more surprised when I did it without stumbling over any of it, and keeping a consistent rythym.

I almost wouldn't need the printout to read Jabberwocky. I always got compliments when I would read things aloud for class. I'm told I was the most understandable and interesting of the people in my class, because I read like I'm familiar with the work, even if I've never seen it before.

I do this too! People always ask me how, all I can say is... I just do. It's not hard. Front brain deals with book, rest of brain deals with all other input (including space around book in peripheral vision and audio).

I can't do that, too much of me goes into reading and I tend to just....stop moving.

"How many of you pisscutters couldn't figure out which state was named for William Penn?!"

Oh, and as the librarian's family, we always helped set up the Friends of the Library used book sale....which meant scouting out all the good books before anyone else arrived.

I think I might hate you.

My poor younger sister, who only read about half of what I did, always thought she was stupid. Till she went to college. And encountered people who thought "facade" was pronounced "FAY-cade", and had about a quarter of her vocabulary.

I still pronounce a great deal of my vocabulary wrongly, because I didn't hear it actually said by anybody until it had gotten stuck in my brain the way I guessed it to be pronounced, and I just don't hear it often enough to correct it. Mostly this manifests as stresses on odd syllables, but it took me ages to stop pronouncing it fuh-KADE.

I don't know how else to describe it. The only thing that existed while I was reading was the book itself.

I can think of at least two instances where I missed the end of recess bell because I was so engrossed in a book, and once I couldn't figure out why the characters in my book were riding around on motorcycles and not wearing raincoats. Then I looked up and realized that I was in the middle of a raging thunderstorm, and it was sunny in the book.

As to the extra apostrophes, etc....

My current favorite pet peeve is misused quotation marks. For example a carryout place near me some outdoor tables, and the signs in the window read "No" Alchoholic beverages allowed outside. GAHH!

my teachers, my parents, my ExWife and my daughter quickly learned that when I was reading a book you could have a direct impact nuclear explosion go off right next to me and I would not notice.

I can't seem to train my housemates call my name, then wait for me to look at them or reply when they want to get my attention and I'm reading. It can seriously take 30 seconds for me to process that they've said anything, and by that point they're halfway through what they wanted to say, and they're pissed that they have to start over.

I've actually stopped buying books since I read them so quickly that its simply not a cost effective way to pass the time.

You don't reread them?

The scary part is, it's not that hard to understand when you *hear* it.

The first thing I do when I have trouble understanding something is to read it aloud, that takes care of the problem most of the time. That's how I handle anything written before, oh, say, the late 18- to early 1900s.



There, I think that was everything that came to mind. Forgive me if it's not entirely coherent, it's 3am, and besides, I know what I was trying to say.

[TonyDonuts]

She pulled me out of the classroom, and screamed at me in the hallway that I CHEATED! I cried. She took this as a sign of guilt. She assigned me detention for cheating, and said I had to take the test again, alone, in the hall, with a different test. I took it, crying, in the hall, humiliated. I didn't even bother checking my answers, just did the thing and handed it in asap. Another 100, another accusation of cheating, and me being informed that if I cheated on the real test, I would be expelled.

Teachers like that kill the school experience for so many kids. "Oh, you did better than I think someone should do on this test, you must be a CHEATER!"

And then we wonder why kids don't like or respect their teachers. There's too many like this around.

Good on your mother for standing up for you.

Also, I'm glad to see I'm not the only one to have had the Bill Hicks Restaurant Encounter (tm) with an employee who "tsk, tsks" at the person eating alone who is reading a big old book. "Well, you know I hate reading."

Really? I never would have guessed that about you.

[bookishfreak]

I started reading at two, and have been a huge book nerd since. I remember being eight years old at the book fair at school, wanting to buy "Phantom of the Opera" and the lady I was buying it from refusing to let me buy it!! "It's too hard, it's too long. It's too complex. There aren't any pictures, you won't like it." My teacher intervened on my behalf. I bought it, read it, understood it and loved it. I honestly hate it when people try to tell kids that they "can't" read something...if a kid hears that enough times, they will believe it and stop wanting to read!

I later on took a test at ten and it showed that I had a reading and writing level that was college level and beyond. My favorite book is probably either "Frankenstein" (Read it when I was nine, and I absolutely loved it. I must have re-read it at least ten times since.) Or if I'm in a easy book mood the Harry Potter series. (So good for that instant escape for me...I breezed through the last book in about six hours or so..) lol But also, Stephen King is really good too. I LOVE being a book nerd, my nose is always in a book. I have also gotten good at the whole "reading and walking thing" although once, I DID walk straight into a tree. I swear that thing jumped into my path!!!

[dysplektia]

I am not alone !

The reading and <insert other activity> without mishap, is my main physical skill. In many other areas that require multiple co-ordination of hand/brain and feet, I'm rather clumsy.
Living in a small village, we had a travelling library. It was the accepted practise to drive past my street, pick me up, and let me sit in the back of the library van reading until the end of the tour of the village, at which point I was allowed to depart with an adult tickets selection of books instead of the two allowed by age ( This was before seatbelts )

I had the apparently usual hassle at primary and junior school ( age 4-11 UK ) with teachers insisting that because my peers couldn't read/understand something, then I was obviously lying or cheating. My mum "had words", and they left me alone, after proving that yes, I read, I read fast, I understand what I'm reading, and can remember what i've read - years later. I eventually had an awesome teacher who lent me his own copies of The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings and encouraged my love of reading.

I think my most humiliating reading related incident was a reading test at age six where I mispronounced grotesque. It came out " grottys kew ". It was a combination of embarrassment that I pronounced it wrong and annoyance that they hadn't expected me to know what it meant.

Like others, I'm a terrible book hoarder. I left home at nineteen with a suitcase of clothes, a bag of other stuff and six large boxes of books. I now have a small library - which was my main ambition in life as a child. I'm not sure how many books I have. That excuse works with my boyfriend and I'm sticking to it. I'm working through scanning the barcodes in with "Delicious Library" - a session usually ends when I start reading something I should be scanning. For quite a few years my boyfriend and I lived in a studio apartment while saving for the house, I had really limited storage and got into the habit of only keeping books I would re-read, and farming some of the others out to parents / friends / siblings who I could reclaim them off. All my other discards went to an Oxfam bookshop next to where I worked. However, as I'd go in once a month with a carrier bag full of discards - but come out every other day with three or four books that just needed to be taken home, the overall book count was still incrementing.

The book thing gets annoying when travelling. I travelled to India with my job twice last year, and seriously weighed up the pro's and cons of more books versus more clothes in my luggage. This choice was made simpler when I was advised I could claim next day laundry services on my expenses. In september i bought a Sony Reader - PRS-505. I love it very much. It means I can now buy smaller handbags, as i no longer have to fit a large hardback in there. Sadly I now spend twice as much on books - most in dead tree, and some in electron.

Do other folks re-read things? I remember plot / characters / main lumps of story years later, but I do love to re-read most books if i enjoyed them. I find it rather comforting. The downside to the borrowing from library is the requirement to give the things back.