Have your reading habits changed? (single, benefit, best, smart)
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For starters, with the advent of online magazines and newspapers, I spend more time reading them than books. It's hard to keep up with just the Washington Post and the New York Times and the local papers. Reading Facebook and forums like this also consumes much of my reading time.
As far as book content, when I was younger I read more contemporary fiction, mostly by women writers (Lorrie Moore, Ann Beattie, Jayne Ann Phillips, Iris Murdoch, Anita Shreve, Mary Gordon). Now that I'm older, I'm no longer interested in content about young single women, young mothers, women having affairs, and so on. The plots were compelling to me at that life stage, but not any longer. Not so easy finding quality fiction aimed at older readers. I've never particularly enjoyed mass market fiction (as in, most bestsellers), so that further limits the field.
I still read memoirs and biographies and other nonfiction.
My reading habits have not really changed at all. Like @kevxu, I was taught to read at a very young age and have always loved it. As a child I always read myself to sleep, and all meals were spent with a utensil in one hand and a book or magazine in the other. Every magazine that came into the house was devoured by me before my parents had a chance to read it: everything from Popular Mechanics and Popular Science to Readers Digest, Nat Geo, and Womens Day!
My favorite genres have always been historical (fiction and nonfiction), science fiction, and natural history -- and they still are, although the sci-fi ratio is lower now that the greats like Clarke and Asimov are no longer with us. Gardening as a genre was added when I was about thirty. In every house I have owned, one bedroom was converted to a "library" with at least one wall full of bookshelves. I always buy books: hardcover preferred, but if a book was only published in softcover I will buy that rather than not at all. I grouse about it not being hardcover though. I loathe e-books for multiple reasons. One of my favorite authors put out a small novella strictly as an e-book two years ago; I bought it, along with an iPad to read it on, via Amazon and am still trying to figure out how I can print the blasted thing out on paper without having either WiFi, a Mac OS, or using Google Cloud, LOL. It's very annoying.
I no longer subscribe to magazines because of the escalating cost and the degradation of almost all of them into 50% - 75% advertising, which IMHO is a waste of space.
I still read myself to sleep and when I eat, I either have to be reading something, working at the computer, or watching something on tv. My reading hours are about the same as they were before retirement, unless you could normal web surfing and blog writing as "reading"; in that case, they've at least quadrupled if not more!
ETA: I still use the public library just as much as I have done all my life, which is to say constantly. There is always one library book that I'm reading during the day, plus one of my own books as my bedtime reading material. But never more than two books in progress at a time.
I just realized the other day that I don't think I've read a book in a few years! No, wait, I did read a book about Alzheimers few months ago. It was called "Still Alice." I tried a kindle but didn't like flicking through the "pages" so fast--I had to make the font so big that it only took a fraction of a second to read a page, lol.
I used to love non fiction. Then, in retirement, I finally got started on fiction best sellers from Good Reads. But that ended somehow. sigh. It's just too much trouble to go to Good Reads and figure out which books to get from the library. Thanks for the reminder because I really do want to get back to losing myself in a good book.
My reading abilities began dwindling some years ago which made me very depressed as I was always a voracious reader. The problem was my eyesight. I found there were many books on which my eyes could just not focus.
Then along came e-readers. Hallelujah! I was saved! I can read anything!
I can adjust my Kindle so I can read anything. I have a first edition Kindle from which I have since graduated to a Kindle White Paper but I keep that relic for old times sake. Recently I bought a Kindle Fire and I love the size because it's the size of a book and I can read magazines and newspapers on it too.
I recommend an e-reader for anyone who has trouble reading print in books. They are the best invention ever.
So, as far as my reading tastes go, I don't think they have changed too much. I have always preferred non-fiction over fiction. I like biographies and books that tell me about things I never knew before. I do enjoy a good novel every now and then though. Some Sci-Fi and every once and a while a mystery by Sharon McCrumb.
My taste is pretty eclectic. I'll see a title, read the synopsis, download a sample and if I like it I'll buy it.
It's funny but e-readers and tablets mess up my eyes' focusing ability bigtime. It takes more than five minutes for my eyes to begin to start focusing normally after spending any time looking at an electronic screen. There is also something about the backlit page in a small size (meaning less than the 24" monitor that I'm currently looking at right now) that causes eyestrain for me in a way that a paper book does not. It's one of several reasons why I don't have and don't want a smartphone. When I went iPad-shopping for the aforementioned eBook (I couldn't see getting a Kindle when I had no intention of ever using the thing for more than that single novella, so I might as well get something that I could also play games on!) I discovered that the full size iPad is too big for me to hold in my hand comfortably. So the Mini is a good compromise. I take it with me when I have doctor appointments so that I can play a game rather than handling some germ-covered waiting-room magazine.
Because of sleep issues I impose a 9 pm deadline on "nearby" electronic screens. The tv is okay because it's 16 feet away, but anything closer will cause all sorts of problems with falling asleep, staying asleep, and having nightmares. Apparantly my brain takes at least 3 or 4 hours to 'downshift' after looking at pixels within anything like close range.
I read a lot less, but I also read less printed media.
I'm reading thus thread on my smart phone, for example.
But the only books I have are old books thst I've kept, or a few magazine cut outs ibe kept in a binder.
I used to read a slim book from the schools library A DAY when I was in school. A large book ( Leon Uris Trinity, James Michner's thick books) in a week. Now I find it hard to concentrate on reading paper media. Just find it inconvenient.
I also like interactive reading, such as this forum.
I read hardly any fiction these days. My taste is almost exclusively drawn to nonfiction. I particularly enjoy history including the history of technology. I've been reading a fair number of books on Egyptology as well. I love my Kindle Paperwhite, but most of what I read is only available in physical editions.
My areas of interest always change so what I enjoy today is likely to change tomorrow. However, I doubt that I'll read much about politics again.
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