do you read physical books or magazines in your free time?

not talking about reading forums like this one. the real books you find in the library or school or you know?

let me know.. because i do.

 

Since I travel often, and portability is key, my Kindle is full of 600+ books.

(and my rl/"hardware"(ffs lol) books are unfortunately boxed up in storage currently for the most part, as I do enjoy holding printed paper etc, just not carrying it all everywhere. )

 

i can't even read this!

 

I read a lot of books and studied literature in grad school. Since completing that, now I only read for work and spend my free time trying to make music. It’s been 5 years, and of course this is anecdotal, but I feel way dumber now and am worse at writing and things like Jeopardy (the quiz show).

 

my Millennial/Z brain won't let me

 

I of course used to read physical books, in fact more devoured them, but in perhaps the last 10 years or so haven't bought or taken a book out of the public library until recently buying a small collection in a single soft cover copy of Richard Braughtigan's Trout Fishing in America, Pill vs Springhill Mine Disaster, In Watermelon Sugar. 99% of the books, maybe 60 that I had in my bookshelf, those that I bought the first 15 years where I currently live I gave away to a local non profit second hand store as space to display them where we are moving is limited. When I left NYC for Los Angeles I gave my neighbor who was a book seller perhaps 500 books. I however have near a thousand books and magazines in digital form, and as long as we don't run out of electricity or a magnetic pulse renders all electronic storage media erased then I'm good to go.



https://archive.org/details/the-twi...ight+Zone+1959+S01E08+Time+Enough+at+Last.mp4

 

yup! mostly educational / self help type books nowadays. Some fiction here and there. I try to get 30 min - 1 hour in daily.

 

Bull. You don't want to.

 

I love reading. It's more immersing than a movie of the same book. There are more detail and once your mind constructs the world and characters you're reading about, you live it.

 

Most novels are fictional and then there's only seven plots to lie in.

Only fiction i read is manuals.

 

Avid fiction reader, mostly si-fi, speculative, dystopian. Read everyday and have done for last 40 odd years.

 

I'm a huge fan of fiction, especially political autobiographies.

 

The only physical books I have left are those I inherited from my mother. For me, 'reading' fiction == listening to audio books or audio plays while doing other things.

All in all, at least one fiction audio book/play per week (~9-20h / week). Learning material I mostly read with my eyes (~3-8h / week). Other non-fiction books (eye-witness accounts, philosophy, history, ..) I listen to as audio (irregularly).

 

https://www.wattpad.com/1156229539-nintendo-juiceboxes-chapter-1

 

I think it's time to take another trip to the Dark Tower, I must have read those books at least 10 times now

 

Yes, I read a fair bit. Give me some books and I can keep myself entertained. And if not "entertained" then at least I can go for some adversarial reading. Though like most things I go through phases, from reading several books a week to barely reading.

It's odd though, if I get started on a book I rarely drop them, whereas a film I can stop after a half or a TV series I can quit after a few episodes (or even seasons). Dunno why that is. Feels like a chore sometimes even when I like the stuff.

 

I clicked on this thinking it was a poll about reading music... but sure, yes, I read - voraciously. I've been reading since I was two years old - not about to stop anytime soon.

I travel a lot for work, and leisure too, so I always carry 2-3 books with me to read at the airport, in the plane, at the restaurant while I'm alone, and at the pool or beach (I have an iPad too, and thousands of books on it, but in bright sunlight, or while flying, I prefer a book).

I subscribe to a couple of audio/music industry magazines, and get complimentary subscription to several others through my work, but they usually sit waiting for me at home, so I read the PDFs or online versions in my hotel room - or restaurant. Magazines (The Economist, etc) and newspapers I get for free in the plane, in the airport lounge, at the hotel, so I read them there and then as well.

As far as genres, I'm highly autistic so I'm very curious (voracious as I mentioned earlier) and deep dive a lot when something really captures my attention. I read a lot more non-fiction than fiction these days (last 12-15 years), unless said fiction is staged in a city or country I've lived in, worked in, or visited. For instance, I lived in Singapore for a year, and have been back repeatedly, so I've picked up some Singaporean authors' literature (I read the Crazy Rich Asians trilogy long before the first book was made into a movie).

But high on my list (as I've already read all the fiction works of my favorite authors) are Musicians' Autobiographies. I enjoyed most the autobiographies of Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Quincy Jones, Andy Summers, and Elton John. Highly recommended.

Reading is the OG software update.

 

I'm immensely grateful you gave me the opportunity to see again the whole series.

 

I'm currently reading the self-help book: Why I should absolutely keep my private experiences to myself.

 

Last edited: Apr 29, 2026