Any fellow booklovers in your life?

[booknerd]

Do you have any fellow booklovers in your life? Anyone that you talk/trade books with? Book clubs? Friends or family, etc.?

I only have my MIL. Her and I like some of the same authors (Kristin Hannah, Jodi Picoult, Nora Roberts, etc.) We trade a few books every couple of months. She recently recommended Winter Garden by Kristin Hannah to me. I let her borrow my copy of Angels Fall by Nora Roberts. We read each other's stuff and then meet up to discuss them and recommend other stuff. We also go to used book sales together.

I miss her mother, my H's deceased grandmother. She died two years ago and she and I shared books for years. She got me reading the JD Robb series and she borrowed all of my James Patterson books. I miss her so much. Any time a new book comes out in either series I think of her.

How about you?

[dorothyinAus]

My parents are voracious readers, and always have been. My younger brother and I inherited the trait. When I lived at home and we would go out to dinner, the waitstaff recognized us at out favourite restaurants calling us "the reader family."

My tastes are different than my families, but I do share a couple of mystery series with my parents, and Jasper Fforde's series with my brother, as well as various stand-alone books. In my mother's case, she reads the books and forwards them to me, while in my father's case, I read the books first and then send them to him. With my younger brother, we just buy each other copies of the books.

My MIL is a reader and I share some books with her, but our tastes are vastly different and have really only overlapped on a few non-fiction books. In that case, we share books, trading them back and forth.

My BFF in high school and I shared many books, but we really lost contact after she married. I am sorry about that, I miss her dreadfully and I miss sharing the books with her.

[GilliC]

My dad has been reviewing books for as long as I can remember. He often passes things on to me, but this happened a lot more when I was younger. My tastes evolved a bit differently, and he mostly reads murder mysteries and scientific or historical non-fiction.

My boyfriend and I have some shared ground in the SciFi/Fantasy genre, so we share books when we can. It's a bit hard since we both live in non-English speaking countries, so we get most of our books digitally. We do tend to read things together, and he got very antsy when he was ahead of me in A Song of Fire and Ice, because he really wanted to talk about it!

I also have quite a few local friends who read a lot. One of my colleagues has a fantastic collection of SciFi classics that I borrow, and another friend borrowed a few books while she was cat-sitting last month. I used to have a group of very close friends from a local book club we started, but they moved away, and my new book club has somewhat different tastes than me.

[charlatti]

My mom and most of my sisters read a lot, so I share tons of books and book talk with them. DH used to read constantly but not so much anymore. His sister used to be my best book source -- she worked at a used book store and was never not reading, plus she has excellent taste. She lives across the country now, so I don't get to steal her books and recommendations as often. Several local IRL friends are readers, though weirdly we rarely talk books and just get ideas from each other via Goodreads.

[duckduck]

I have a small IRL book club. One of the other girls is also a voracious reader, but the other three don't read much beyond our monthly picks. Our tastes are usually fairly similar, but one of the girls is a slow reader, so we can't read very long books.

That's really it for me. My grandparents both read a lot but our tastes don't overlap. I have a couple of far-off friends who are readers, but we can only share thoughts on Facebook and by email.

[booknerd]

I completely forgot about my husband.   Though we don't read much of the same things anymore. We've known each other since middle school and actually read the Harry Potter series several times when we started dating. We went to the midnight releases together as well. Now he mostly reads Stephen King and Game of Thrones, though he has convinced me to read the Hunger Games trilogy.

[chicacocodrilo]

My husband--we're both big readers, have similar tastes, and talk book news all the time. We even send outraged texts to each other when our favorites don't win book awards (though we usually end up reading and liking the winners). We both volunteer for a local book review website; he basically runs the thing while I copy edit our reviews for posting. I'm lucky to have a guy who geeks out over the speakers at the National Book Festival jus as much as I do.

[rootbeerfloat]

My mom is a reader, and we share occasionally. My ILs are also huge readers, but we have a very different interests. And some of my friends are big readers, too.

[christy082]

My mom loves to read, even more now that I got her a Kindle last year for her birthday. We share books. I refer to my bookcase as "the library of Christy" and she'll come borrow from it sometimes. I'll sometimes borrow books from her too. My H reads but now as much as I do. We have different interests, but I've gotten him to read some of the same books I do (i.e. Hunger Games series, Girl with the Dragon Tattoo series).

[amy726]

My mom is a big reader. We don't share actual books (as we live on opposite sides of the world) but once in a while we will recommend books to each other. I've talked books with my MIL before but don't see her enough to share books.

[daydreamer]

Tons. My mom reads all the time. It's interesting. We both hate the same books, but don't love the same books. DH reads, and honestly, I would have been incompatible with a man who doesn't. I'm also a member of a book club and so I get to talk books IRL regularly.

Curiously, other people know I like books and so they are always coming to me to talk about them even if they aren't big readers. I find it interesting what people read. Especially people who read only a few books a year.

[whitepicketfence]

Not really. My SIL enjoys reading but we have very different tastes in terms of genre. DH reads occasionally but it's not very regular.

None of my friends are readers

[pooh8402]

No.

My mom used to be a big reader, but has stopped in recent years. My youngest sister is starting to read a bit and I've been loaning her my Outlander series. Few of my friends are big readers like us; I'm the only person in my family and social group with a library card. I know a coworker who is a bookworm but we're not close.

Sent from my SPH-L710 using proboards

[ufcasey]

I have only one book friend, and she's actually my sister's friend more so than mine, but we email each other back and forth solely to discuss books. But we don't share books because she has a kindle and I have a nook and we don't live in the same city. I need more book friends! None of my other friends/family members read.

[secretlyevil]

I belonged to a book club for six years but it's kind of fallen apart this year (basically since I stopped organizing it).

A couple of my sisters, my mom, several friends - all book worms.

[Nonny]

My dad, brother, and grandma were voracious readers of books when I was growing up (my dad still is, not sure about my brother as I hardly see him). My mom subscribed to and read tons of magazines, but in the last few years or so she has also started reading more novels. My MIL reads a ton, and gives me lots of books ideas as well. My BFF reads a ton too, and I'm jealous of a little mini-library she has off her bedroom.

I belonged to a book club of women for several years, but we regularly read the same book for 2-3 months on end, because most of the people were more into just hanging out than talking about the book. Which was fine, but it wasn't really a book club. My book club now is through work and mostly men, and we've only met once, but had a good discussion of the non-fiction book we read. We'll see how well we do with the fiction novel that's this month's pick.

My H hardly reads at all though (except articles online). He goes through maybe a book a year, and always seems baffled when I re-read something instead of reading something new. I say that I read more new books in a year than he does and it doesn't matter if I re-read something I find enjoyable.

[writingwithheld]

I don't really think any of my friends or family read as much as us on this board do. It is kind of sad. I suppose they have other hobbies, but it just seems weird to me because I have been reading voraciously since 1st grade. I guess it is a time consuming hobby, but aren't all of the hobbies time consuming?

[booknerd]

May 19, 2013 20:59:09 GMT -5 writingwithheld said:

I don't really think any of my friends or family read as much as us on this board do. It is kind of sad. I suppose they have other hobbies, but it just seems weird to me because I have been reading voraciously since 1st grade. I guess it is a time consuming hobby, but aren't all of the hobbies time consuming?

I hear that a lot from people in real life. "I just don't have time to read." "How do you find time to read so much?" 
Uumm...you make time for it? Like any hobby/interest? Seriously how often do people watch TV every week but don't have time to read?

[BlackCanary]

DH, two of my closest friends.

DH has introduced me to Jim Butcher, George R.R. Martin and Neil Gaiman. My friends and I talk about books a lot. I introduced Jim Butcher to one of my friends. 

[GilliC]

May 19, 2013 23:19:18 GMT -5 booknerd said:

May 19, 2013 20:59:09 GMT -5 writingwithheld said:

I don't really think any of my friends or family read as much as us on this board do. It is kind of sad. I suppose they have other hobbies, but it just seems weird to me because I have been reading voraciously since 1st grade. I guess it is a time consuming hobby, but aren't all of the hobbies time consuming?

I hear that a lot from people in real life. "I just don't have time to read." "How do you find time to read so much?" 
Uumm...you make time for it? Like any hobby/interest? Seriously how often do people watch TV every week but don't have time to read?

To be fair, I can kind of understand this because I'm a very slow reader.  I could watch an entire season of a TV show in the time it can take me to read one book.  Plus, I could be cooking dinner or sorting/folding laundry while I was watching the show, which I can't do with a non-audiobook.

But on the flipside, I read on the train, where it would be much harder to be watching TV.

[writingwithheld]

May 21, 2013 7:42:55 GMT -5 GilliC said:

May 19, 2013 23:19:18 GMT -5 booknerd said:

I hear that a lot from people in real life. "I just don't have time to read." "How do you find time to read so much?" 
Uumm...you make time for it? Like any hobby/interest? Seriously how often do people watch TV every week but don't have time to read?

To be fair, I can kind of understand this because I'm a very slow reader.  I could watch an entire season of a TV show in the time it can take me to read one book.  Plus, I could be cooking dinner or sorting/folding laundry while I was watching the show, which I can't do with a non-audiobook.

But on the flipside, I read on the train, where it would be much harder to be watching TV.

I guess it depends if reading "so much" is a reference to time spent or number of pages. If people marvel at the fact you read so many pages/books it is fair to assume it is partially because that person can read quickly. However, if I am spending an hour a day reading as much as I am able to do in an hour it is really no different than knitting. You can do a certain amount of stitches in a certain amount of time. However, I think the point about reading being something that you can't multitask on is a pretty unique distinction, at least for me. Pretty much all of my other hobbies I can do while watching TV or having a conversation. 

Of course, there are people who marvel at people who have time for any hobby at all. In certain cases, these people may genuinely be constantly doing work, but I think a lot of these people also just don't make time for themselves and/or their hobby. Whenever I notice that I feel like I "just don't have time" during the week, I try to schedule it in. I am almost always surprised to find that I can get much more accomplished in a day than I thought I could if I actually sit down and work without random 10 min breaks all the time.

[booknerd]

May 21, 2013 10:53:46 GMT -5 writingwithheld said:

May 21, 2013 7:42:55 GMT -5 GilliC said:

To be fair, I can kind of understand this because I'm a very slow reader.  I could watch an entire season of a TV show in the time it can take me to read one book.  Plus, I could be cooking dinner or sorting/folding laundry while I was watching the show, which I can't do with a non-audiobook.

But on the flipside, I read on the train, where it would be much harder to be watching TV.

I guess it depends if reading "so much" is a reference to time spent or number of pages. If people marvel at the fact you read so many pages/books it is fair to assume it is partially because that person can read quickly. However, if I am spending an hour a day reading as much as I am able to do in an hour it is really no different than knitting. You can do a certain amount of stitches in a certain amount of time. However, I think the point about reading being something that you can't multitask on is a pretty unique distinction, at least for me. Pretty much all of my other hobbies I can do while watching TV or having a conversation. 

Of course, there are people who marvel at people who have time for any hobby at all. In certain cases, these people may genuinely be constantly doing work, but I think a lot of these people also just don't make time for themselves and/or their hobby. Whenever I notice that I feel like I "just don't have time" during the week, I try to schedule it in. I am almost always surprised to find that I can get much more accomplished in a day than I thought I could if I actually sit down and work without random 10 min breaks all the time.

I tried quoting all three of us but it removed my post for some reason... anyway. Both of you are correct and I think it will definitely depend upon the experience of each individual. For example, I've only read eight books this year so far. Normally I've read about twenty by this point. So I don't feel like I'm reading a lot at all, even though to some people I probably am.

I think my post was mainly aimed at a friend of mine who says she never "has time" to read, but she spends hours every week going to the gym, clothes/shoes shopping, and getting a manicure. I tell her it's the same with reading. You might find time to do it, but if it's something you enjoy, you can make time for it. She certainly has to schedule around her full-time job to do those things, so I guess I don't understand what she means when she says she doesn't have time. She does, she just does other things with it.

[GilliC]

I don’t usually get annoyed when people I know say they don’t have time to read, because I know that they really mean "I don’t have time to read, because I spend my free time [mountain biking/cooking/gardening/going out/watching horror films/etc]." No one ever really asks me "How do you find the time?"

I have been asked "How do you read so much?" when someone sees me with different books in a short time span, but usually they'll just say, "You must read quite fast!" I don’t usually bother correcting them, since really I just spend a ridiculous amount of time reading.

I do get a little sensitive about the subject after TN, because I know that I read slowly. When someone posted a reading speed test, I scored dead last among the people who actually admitted their score. And yet when someone asks how others manage to read 10+ books per month, people get very adamant about "I make time for it!" But for me, to make time for that would probably mean giving up my job and eating frozen pizza because I would have to spend all my time reading or sleeping.

[booknerd]

That's true. I know that in order for me to make time to read, I have to turn of the TV/Netflix. Or suddenly I've watched six reruns of The Office and have to go to bed without reading lol.