Tell us about how you started getting into reading.
I read a book before a movie I was planning on watching and found out that literature is far superior to any other artistic medium.
>>7564930
Always liked books as I was young and the most patrician things I read in those days were Roald Dahl and part of Gulliver's Travels. The scene where he's tiny and he is with the giant princess changing being revolted really stuck in my head. I would read everything.
Then I had a phase where I didn't read because it wasn't cool. Then I read again, reading everything bad and good. Then I got into my one and only serious relationship and left reading mostly. At some point we broke up, and I became Muslim and read a lot more. I also had a really cool professor that got me into the Greeks and higher things. That and Bloom's Closing of the American mind made me have a more discriminating taste. Then I had some opportunities with some other languages and started reading in other languages.
>>7564930
My parents loved me enough to read high-tier YA (Kipling, Tolkein, Wilder and Lewis) to me when I was little in addition to the Bible and various ancient mythologies, and provide me with books that would challenge and entertain me. The only thing I could ask for and be given without a word was a new book.
There has never been a question of whether I like literature or not.
I became an avid reader like three months ago and I can't stop. I stopped watching tv and I don't spend much time on 4chan anymore.
Here's how I did it.
-Remember the average person reads like zero books a year. If you read 5 pages a day, you are 5 pages above the average person
-Don't force yourself to read. Commit to read 5 pages a day. I swear after three days you'll feel like reading more and after a month or so you should be reading 50-100 pages a day for pleasure
-Read various books at the same time. When I grab a difficult book or one that makes me sleepy I grab another and switch. This should refresh your head. Keep them thematically different. I read economics and fiction.
-It isn't a race. Reading slowly won't make you sleepy that fast. Try to acknowledge what books are for you to read fast and which aren't.
-Buy the physical copies. When you get the books from your own money you'll feel the need to read them to avoid the feel of wasting your money.
-Start with books highly discussed here so you feel motivated to discuss.
>>7565072
kek
>>7564930
I've been reading since I can remember without any real lapses. In elementary school I read comic books, Ray Bradbury, Animal Farm, tons of YA, Harry Potter (around age 8 I guess, I remember reading it throughout 2nd grade), etc.
In Middle School I read some adult literature and a lot of war novels and biographies (I had an obsession for The Red Baron throughout 7th grade when we learned about WWI. When we got to WWII it stayed because WWII was boring to a 7th grader because all they talked about was how horrible the holocaust was), most of Orwell's other stuff, Dickens, some Hugo and stuff like that. And since I was made fun of for my speech impediment (gone now), I needed an escape (even more so) so I read Star Wars EU a bit.
High school, got into basic literature like Nabokov, Kafka, early Joyce, Beckett, etc. around 10th grade. I read a few translations of Dante throughout the whole shebang after reading him in 9th grade. Lots of shakespeare. In senior year I got more hooked to poetry because we read Keats and Eliot in class so I started reading all the collections of poetry I could find. Have a strong handle on the poetic English canon now (far more than most), but I'm still starting on the French, the Romans, and the Chinese poets. Eventually the greeks in the original when I have the time, but I've read all the Elizabethan-era translations of Ovid and Catullus and Horace et al. around Freshman year in college.
I think the one year I didn't read much was in 12th grade until we read Eliot in class. Even in 11th I was starting to drift out of it but I was reading a lot of Beckett and Kafka.
when le dubs man was spammed on /b/ i watched american psycho and then started reading the book
You're not going to believe me, but ever since I was a kid I fucking loved Greek myth. I would just devour books about Greek mythology. Of course my parents, having never gone to college, didn't really know better so I never got actual texts like Ovid, Hesiod, Homer, etc and instead just got encyclopedic books about Greek myths (one of my favorites growing up was D'Aulaire's Book of Greek Myths. But I read and reread them so much and so often that when I took a classical mythology course in uni I didn't have to read a single page for the class, I maintained and lead discussion solely because I had read the myths so much as a kid that they were eternally embedded in my mind.
tl;dr start your kids with the greeks
>>7565072
Is 50-100 considered a good amount? I always feel guilty if I read that, it feels like I should have gone further.
I read the Stranger, and felt a pleasure I hadn't before. Then all the other stuff I used to like just wasn;t the same, wasn't as good anymore after that.
Everybody praised my reading ability in 4th grade because I read The Hobbit or something and it motivated me to read more often
>>7564930
It gave me a sense of superiority to my peers based on nothing.
>>7564930
I went to school and had parents who weren't stupid.
I started to browse /lit/ without any real background in literature and after a while I started meming people and telling them to start with the Greeks and other shit until I fell for the memes and bought a kindle.
>>7564930
I left high school and found /lit/ at the same time.
>>7564930
I've read ever since I can remember, because my parents encouraged me to, because i enjoyed it, and because i have always been an anxiety-ridden shy little weirdo and books were a refuge from that growing up.
>>7565917
*entered
>>7565956
I left on November 5, 2010. School kept me from books for a loooooong time. Prior to graduating, I averaged maybe 3 - 5 books every year.
>>7565754
If you have a job and a social life, you'll be lucky to get that.
>>7565072
this
I just wanted a hobby that's relaxing and make me feel adventurous and childhood nostalgia. Also it kinda makes me feel smart and accomplished when finishing a whole book. At least I can say reading is a hobby of mine over watching anime and playing video games all day.
I started reading those SCP articles on that horror fiction wiki, the one that made the SCP Containment Breach game and everything. I really enjoyed reading that sort of horror fiction stuff so I got into Clive Barker and Stephen King and after that I started realizing how great books are and how much stuff there is to read and how I haven't ever even tried to get into it before.
I'm sure the fact that reading is not popular among the general public and I'm a contrarian helps.
>>7565155
Same, famm. Throughout adolescence I could feel my understanding of literary devices and symbolism eclipsed that of my peers.for real tho
>>7565099
And you got dubs
>>7564930
I read books that I enjoyed the film adaptations of at around 14 (A Clockwork Orange, 2001 A Space Odyssey, Naked Lunch, Fear & Loathing, etc) and that kinda kickstarted my interest at a young age. I would try to read a book every summer break but my interest in reading didn't really become anything more until I started reading more frequently at uni.
While at uni, every day with a 90 minute commute, I thought it'd be a good idea to start pushing through some of my book collection and reading what had gathered dust for some time.
>>7566008
For slaves and philistines, respectively.
It all started when someone mentioned The Martian in an askreddit thread. That masterpiece really made me rediscover my love for literature. And now here I am, reading through lits top 100 list. Hahaha
>>7567216
Please be bait
>>7565072
Could you tell me more about the gulping technique?
>>7567239
Why are you so hostile? Literature is for everyone.
>>7567271
Amateur. A redditor wouldn't sense hostility that fast.
Hone your craft man.
