Who likes books?

[Walden]

Someone asked this question elsewhere.

Seems like a ridiculous question, like "who likes food?"

Books is such a broad category. TV Guide is a book. A person doesn't even have to be literate to like a book of landscape photography. Who doesn't like a telephone book? What about notebooks? They are useful for writing down addresses. What about a book of trading stamps? You could redeem it for a new set of spoons or something!

Who likes books? I think most people like books. If one were to ask "who likes novels?" that might be a whole different matter, but even that encompasses a huge variety.

[Jack]

I do!

[Denny]

Who doesn't like a telephone book?

my wife....hate's 'em, she does

[Innocent Bystander]

Fair enough, Walden, but I know a few people who do not read. At least, not for pleasure. They read road-signs and thumb through newspapers and magazines, but when confronted with a book their reaction is "Ugh!".

And there are those who think that Maeve Binchy is Wonderful and Dan Brown is a genius, but go pale with confronted with something challenging, like "Treasure Island".

I read a lot. I was stumped recently by Lord Dunsany's memoirs. I ploughed through one volume but refused at the second. Fella likes his huntin', don't ye know. Accounts of the animals he killed do not make interesting reading. At least, not to me.

[fearfaoin]

Who doesn't like a telephone book?

my wife....hate's 'em, she does

Yeah, I was gonna chime in there, too. Our area actually got more
telephone books (due to increased competition) right about the time
that the Internet should have been killing them. They're bulky, slow
to look things up, and they require a lot of dead tree. I recycle mine
immediately.

My friend worked for the county department that handles recycling,
and they begged the companies not to send them any (because they
get one per worker, and they know what a pain in the recycling bin
the books are), but a truckload of the buggers were delivered anyway.
You can't stop 'em from coming!

[Walden]

I said a telephone book not a truckload!

[fearfaoin]

Speaking of books, I don't understand some people's aversion to the library.
These are people who read regularly, they just insist on buying the book (or
borrowing it from a friend who owns it). Does the library have a stigma the
way public transportation does for some people?

[fearfaoin]

I said a telephone book not a truckload!

I still refuse to use one anymore. We keep a yellow pages book because
my wife thumbs through the restaurant section occasionally if we're trying
to decide on a place to eat.

[Jack]

Speaking of books, I don't understand some people's aversion to the library.
These are people who read regularly, they just insist on buying the book (or
borrowing it from a friend who owns it). Does the library have a stigma the
way public transportation does for some people?

No, some people need to write, rip, fold, and tear a book when they read it (I'm one of those people) so we tend to keep the books we read.

[Flyingcursor]

My impression is most people who frequent the Pub like to read books.

I suppose someone would like books who didn't like to read but that seems rather pointless.

[Walden]

Does the library have a stigma the
way public transportation does for some people?

It probably does, at least in the cities, where it's a comfortable place for vagrants to spend the day.

[chrisoff]

Speaking of books, I don't understand some people's aversion to the library.
These are people who read regularly, they just insist on buying the book (or
borrowing it from a friend who owns it). Does the library have a stigma the
way public transportation does for some people?

I don't use the library, but only because I like to own books. Used the library heaps when I was growing up though. They're great for other things to, our central library here also rents CDs and certain items of equipment that would otherwise be hard to get (recording kit, badge making machines for example) for some people.

I just had a small bit of extra money come my way so went and ordered 3 books online at lunchtime (along with the complete west wing boxset). Trouble is I've already got a small pile of unread stuff to get through, so dunno when I'm going to get a chance to read these ones.

[fearfaoin]

No, some people need to write, rip, fold, and tear a book when they read it (I'm one of those people) so we tend to keep the books we read.

Weird. I had a couple of librarians in elementary school who drove into our
heads that damaging a book was akin to electrocuting kittens. They even
had some of those 70's films with titles like "Johnny the Book-Beater, Will
He Ever Amount to Anything?" Johnny always ended up dieing alone in the
gutter, bemoaning his treatment of books.

I still can't make myself even fold down a corner of my own books. Perhaps
my grandchildren will be thrilled to inherit a pristine copy of "Harrius Potter
et Philosophi Lapis".

[Walden]

Weird. I had a couple of librarians in elementary school who drove into our
heads that damaging a book was akin to electrocuting kittens.

An obvious reason why these people prefer not to frequent libraries!

[Jack]

No, some people need to write, rip, fold, and tear a book when they read it (I'm one of those people) so we tend to keep the books we read.

Weird. I had a couple of librarians in elementary school who drove into our
heads that damaging a book was akin to electrocuting kittens. They even
had some of those 70's films with titles like "Johnny the Book-Beater, Will
He Ever Amount to Anything?" Johnny always ended up dieing alone in the
gutter, bemoaning his treatment of books.

I still can't make myself even fold down a corner of my own books. Perhaps
my grandchildren will be thrilled to inherit a pristine copy of "Harrius Potter
et Philosophi Lapis".

Well...I used to work in a library and I know lots of library employees who are like that. I was a bit of an outcast in that I openly folded my books "the wrong way," wrote in them, and such, but c'est la vie.