reading for pleasure

China
June 25, 2010 8:44am CST
The first thing I want to insist on is that reading should be enjoyable. Everyone is his own best critics. Whatever the learned say about a book, however unamimous they are in their praise of it, unless it interests you, it is no business of yours. No one is under an obligation to read poetry or fiction or the miscellaneous literature which is classed as belles-lettres. He must read them for pleasure, and who can claim that what pleases one man must necessarily please another?
5 responses
@dodo19 (47336)
• Beaconsfield, Quebec
29 Jun 10
I really do enjoy reading in my spare time. I find it very enjoyable and very relaxing. It's something that I've always found enjoyable, ever since I was a kid. Personally, I think that it's the way that it should be as well. I understand that some people just don't like reading, but I think that it's just a little unfortunate that this is the case.
• India
26 Jun 10
Most of the time reading is a forcefull activity just because of nature of job, need to read requirements and technical things to get the work done. I read blogs to enjoy and other news related to politics and economy as well. It is different for each people to enjoy reading, one may enjoy reading novels on ethics however other may love to read romantic stories. It depends person to person.
@sender621 (14893)
• United States
25 Jun 10
I agree. Reading should be for pleasure and enjoyment. Why bother reading if it now a chore to you? We would have more people reading if they could just see the benefits reading can give to your life.
• India
25 Jun 10
Hey buddy yeah I agree with you that every individual has their own preferences and their own choices and likes& dislikes about any thing. So it also applies to reading too. But still since we all are human and we generalize most of things like .. there's a movie which becomes a hit.. or any show which is liked by a large number of people or any particular dish in any particular restaurants which is served the most,.. So the same may be applied to books as well. Best sellers books simply means that these books are admired by a large number of people and so there must be something really amazing about it. It gives an idea about the content of the book. And why not, you can get pleasure from reading the best sellers as well. So sometimes, such things can be generalized.
• United States
25 Jun 10
I love reading, and no matter what I read, it's pretty much all pleasurable [There are a few exceptions, including really boring books about stuff I don't like]. But I hate when people think that what they like, everyone else will like and they force you to read that, or to listen to it. I like poetry, fiction, and other stuff, and even non-fiction, depending on what it's about, but I don't expect everyone else to like what I do.