I answered in another comment, but it’s more that when I feel like he’s made his point and he goes on and on and on for paragraphs about the same thing, I start jumping to the next paragraph until I’m getting new information. Sometimes that takes an entire page of jumping. But it’s maybe been 4 pages out of 250, so nah, I’m definitely still reading it. But you’re right, I tend to only do this when I’m bored

Good God I was reading sexually explicit books at age 10 and it never haed me and thank God my parents let me read what I wanted to

Libraries don’t serve a single “human right.” Rights are negative, not positive. I think you’re greatly misunderstanding my position. I’m not advocating for abolishing libraries or any of their services.

I’m still reading it. I’ve maybe done this 4 times where I’m in a the middle of a third paragraph where I feel like he’s just dwelling on something that he has clearly already made his point; so I skip to the next paragraph, realize it’s about the same thing, skip to the next paragraph, realize he’s still prattling in about it, skip to the next paragraph… it STILL the same thing, so I skim everything to make sure I’m not missing new information, and I’m not… so by the time he’s moved on, I’ve skipped an entire page.

I don’t do this a lot when reading, but I do when I’m bored. Skipped through a good chunk of the beginning of The Stand doing this too, but you either pick up on the context clues later or the information eventually gets rehashed in a more concise way. If I miss a grand total of 4 pages out of 250, I’m still reading it

I responded above to a similar comment: skipping and skimming is definitely part of being a good reader. No need to slog through every word if parts of a book don't resonate for whatever reason - you're the reader, you're in control.

It's not, ultimately it's just a medium to transmit something and each medium has their own merits and which you use is down to preference.

I disagree - the ability to skip and skim is an important part of being a reader. I'd call it one of the most important skills that makes reading fun and useful.

There are parts of any work, fiction or nonfiction, that may not resonate with you or might be redundant to something you already read. There's no need to slog through them; skim over it and get to the parts that are good for you. It's not all-or-nothing!

It’s only 11 years older than Dune and I didn’t feel this way about Herbert’s writing. I don’t think it’s just the age, this has never bothered me before. I think it’s purely stylistic, which maybe is a combination of age and culture; Tolkien was nearly 30 years older than Herbert, and grew up on a different continent.

Vote. The bastards. Out. While we still can.

From what I've heard, he was chronically bed ridden later in life and had a lot of free time to kill

I never finished the series, but it was one of my favourites when I was a teen. My one gripe was that there were three different Earths - I wanted more of the fantasy realms, especially >!the cat dimension!<

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You have to take into account when it was written. These books are getting close to 100 years old. A focus on more realistic dialogue wasn’t nearly as present then as it is now. Heck, even in theatre, that movement was just beginning to take hold when Tolkien was writing, so it’s not surprising to see it hadn’t transitioned over to highly stylized fantasy.

But I’m in a similar position, I respect JRRT massively for how he pioneered modern fantasy, but I find the films much more enjoyable. The prose in the books just doesn’t grip me, because I prefer more character focused stories.

I'm with you on disliking Wuthering Heights, though I think for different reasons than you! I wasn't too confused by it, and in fact found the way it was writing to be extremely compelling, but I hated the story it was telling so much that I gave up on it by halfway through despite how much I admired the writing.

I've read both of Anne's books, and thought that The Tenant of Wildfell Hall was very well done, but her first book, Agnes Grey, I found to be fairly dull. I wish she'd had the chance to live longer and write more, if she was able to improve so much just between her first book and her second.

For Charlotte, I've only read Jane Eyre, and I have conflicted feelings about it to be honest. I love Jane herself, and what the narrative is doing with her, and notions of a woman's independence and freedom in the era. But I hate hate hate Mr Rochester so it's hard for me to be happy with how the story ends! (admittedly I hate St John even more....)

nah this is gonna be a proper bookshelf and i'm not putting stuff on there that I'm not going to read

And yet, food stamps for struggling populations. You're unable or unwilling to acknowledge the human rights that libraries serve and completion of, yes, needs that they do fulfill, be it education (self, or library sponsored classes, talks), or something like access to the internet (definitely a need in the modern age), to access to printers.

Beyond the obvious easy needs like internet access and printer access, your understanding of human needs also sucks frankly. Life would be cleaner if we were robotic AIs that only needed fuel, sure. But, fortunately or unfortunately, human needs do extend beyond concrete and material physical needs. We need stimulation and enrichment for our well-being. Libraries are set up to provide that effectively, especially in disadvantaged populations, be it in entertainment, education, or simple support via a warm place to gather for social interaction. Maybe even support community togetherness, getting to know your neighbors, etc, which can be an invaluable part of a strong, successful community.

Library services benefit people, in abstract ways (supporting educated, happy, and competent workers) as well as concrete ways, that in turn can benefit society.

They also make for efficient use of resources. Borrowing is beneficial for our environment, and for people's bottom line, which can also then turn around to help people invest in the economy or support themselves in other ways so the state doesn't have to. Libraries also lend other things that can lead to self sufficient members of society: I know of libraries that "loan" seeds so that members can grow vegetable gardens. Libraries can also loan things like cooking equipment, chargers, and technology people might, yes, need in order to support themselves and their families.

You're not being so logical as you think you are. Thats the pitfall of a lot of republican ideal, in my experience as an ex republican. Lots of talk of "cold hard facts" without a lot of substance to them or true exploration of the background of them.

Frankly, your argument is the easy way out, and it's driven by more personal opinion and experience than you likely realize or would be able to admit.

Conservatives generally hate education. Sad fact but not surprising. They will be moving on to banning books next.

And I will always rock on with the reading

You're skipping pages? That's not reading the book though is it? Tolkien isn't for everyone but it's not boring and the dialogue is not bad. It's archaic and that's not your thing. I'd like to see some examples of the dialogue that led you to your conclusion though. I find these kinds of posts a little frustrating because there's never any examples to back up the critiques.

A lot of authors are right here on Reddit. Brandon Sanderson, his reddit name is Mistborn, posts occasionally to give updates. CJ Phipps posts. Others I've seen as well.

Yes exactly, when I read the books for the first time I was amazed to discover how different Tolkien's priorities were in his writing than what I'm used to from more modern fantasy. And creating an atmosphere is definitely one of the things his approach does well! It's odd and takes time to put yourself into the right headspace of appreciating what he's doing, but it's worth paying attention to imo.

Very nicely put. I think reading gives you mental stimulation, empathy the ability to see the world through another's eyes amongst many other things. I don't know if people are plain lazy about not reading and they value physical over mental.

Cool. Now cut the tax breaks for churches that talk about sex and sexual orientation. Oh, they won’t do that? Hmm, interesting.

Honestly.....as someone who loves to read, I don't think that reading is actually vital. People can learn how to use their mind from many different sources. Non-literate societies can have brilliant, insightful, imaginative people, just like literate ones. I read because it's the way that I most enjoy spending time in the world of a story. Other people read for other reasons. Other people prefer not to read, or to read only occasionally, and spend their time mentally engaging with other things. All of that is okay!

I tried reading Tolkien while in the hospital. It's written in a style I thought was cold and disengaging. I found myself wanting to skip the singing stanzas.

While I love the plots of Tolkien's books, I could never enjoy the delivery.

The only time besides Forrest Gump when I liked the movie better than the book.