I spent WAY to much time on RL Stine and Christopher Pike.

[shortylickens]

Should have been reading JRR Tolkein and CS Lewis.



Oh well......

 

[shortylickens]

I never read Goosebumps.
I read this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Point_Horror

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

They're all good reads. No such thing as spending too much time on a good author.

 

[shortylickens]

They're all good reads. No such thing as spending too much time on a good author.

Except he's not a good author. The guy sucks. I was just too young to notice.

 

[TheVrolok]

I read tons of RL Stine (Goosebumps) when I was in grade school. They were awesome! Wish I still had 'em all. TBH, I'm tempted to find the set on Ebay just so I can have them for my kids (one day).

 

[gorcorps]

I used to read goosebumps and animorphs. Pretty sure it all sucked, but at least I was reading something.

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

Except he's not a good author. The guy sucks. I was just too young to notice.

A lot of youngsters would disagree. It's not wrong to get hung up on authors, it's wrong to limit yourself. Reading is a good addiction. I've read most of what Ayn Rand ever wrote. All of her novels and many of her articles and manifestos. She hooked me with her style and kept me reading to my great chagrin as every time afterwards, I realized she never had anything worth saying that couldn't be done in one, two page paper. I blame it on being 14 at the time. However, I also read Pearl S. Buck, James Michener and, Edgar Rice Burroughs at the same time.

 

[UglyCasanova]

Good lord, look at how many books he wrote!

 

[Paladin3]

When I was an elementary school librarian, many of the teachers had a standing rule of no Goosebumps, R.L. Stine or other various horror/crap authors. Some kids will only read crap books three grades below their reading level if you don't challenge them.

I spent most of one semester trying to get someone to read The Hobbit. It was checked out several times, but never finished. Same went for Moby Dick.

I had an 8th grade student ask me for some good science fiction so I gave him Starship Troopers by Heinlein. He brought it back after a few chapters saying it sucked and the movie was better.

 

[lxskllr]

When I was an elementary school librarian, many of the teachers had a standing rule of no Goosebumps, R.L. Stine or other various horror/crap authors. Some kids will only read crap books three grades below their reading level if you don't challenge them.

When I was in grade school, we walked to the country library, and I checked out an armload of adult horror books at a time. Still crap, but the reading level was higher. Most importantly, I enjoyed them, and read them, which is the point of reading. The worst book in the world is still several tiers above TV, and every book doesn't have to change the world. Entertainment is fine too.

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

When I was an elementary school librarian, many of the teachers had a standing rule of no Goosebumps, R.L. Stine or other various horror/crap authors. Some kids will only read crap books three grades below their reading level if you don't challenge them.

I spent most of one semester trying to get someone to read The Hobbit. It was checked out several times, but never finished. Same went for Moby Dick.

I had a 8th grade student ask me for some good science fiction so I gave him Starship Troopers by Heinlein. He brought it back after a few chapters saying it sucked and the movie was better.

I feel your pain. There are two ways to become a reader either, through training/indoctrination by your parents or, by applying yourself. I always felt sad for the kids who never grasped that their imaginations were a greater tool/toy than anything Hollywood ever dreamed or ever will dream.

Movies are great but, they're an entirely different art form. I always thought folks comparing movies and books were rather silly. Sadly, libraries in elementary schools seem to be fading fast and the remaining ones seem to be doing their students a disservice by attenpting to entice them with stories they're familiar with. Youngsters who don't read lack the skills to distinguish literature from Hollywood.

 

[brianmanahan]

best book by stine BY FAR:

this book was probably the most influential resource for my sense of humor. not even kidding in the slightest. i still use many of the jokes from this book to this day.

http://www.amazon.com/How-Be-Funny-E.../dp/0590440993

 

[olds]

Star Trek FTW!

 

[badb0y]

I never read Goosebumps.
I read this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Point_Horror

"Point Horror is a series of young adult horror fiction books. The series was most popular among Caucasian teenaged girls.[1]
[edit]"

 

[mmntech]

Should have been reading JRR Tolkein and CS Lewis.



Oh well......

I read most of the Narnia books when I was in elementary school, and the Hobbit. Really wished we had done Lord of the Rings in the higher grades.

Most of the books we read in school were crap though. A lot that had won obscure awards or were by Canadian authors. Most were about as exciting as watching paint dry. They appeal to stuffy academics but really don't make you think or spark imagination. A good work of children's lit should achieve the latter.

The only great classics we read in high school, off the top of my head, were To Kill a Mockingbird and 1984. Both of which I remember liking.

 

[SlitheryDee]

I remember reading a lot of hardy boys books in grade school. That stuff had to be terrible, but I thought the hardy boys/Tom Swift crossover series was the shit. At some point I got a hold of some better stuff. White Fang was one of the first really good books I read. I got into science fiction with an Isaac Asimov short stories anthology and from then on science fiction made up the majority of my reading. My dad introduced me to Kings Dark Tower series when I was around 11 or 12 as well. I may have even read a few RL Stine books, but they must not have made much of an impression.

I still have many of the books I read as a child. From the colorful dinosaur books that convinced me I wanted to be a paleontologist, to the Asimov book that has the fascinating story that describes mans evolution into god (imagine reading that at 12), to the first edition of "The Gunslinger", before king went back and dumbed it down. That last one has been read so many times its falling apart. I almost forgot about Anne Rice. I think I read all of her vampire chronicle books at a very young age as well.

 

[Mixolydian]

I envy those who have the patience to read books. I just can't do it.

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

I envy those who have the patience to read books. I just can't do it.

It takes practice to do anything in life. You've just been practicing the wrong things.

 

[shortylickens]

It takes practice to do anything in life. You've just been practicing the wrong things.

fap.fap.fap.fap.fap.fap.fap.fap.fap.fap

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

fap.fap.fap.fap.fap.fap.fap.fap.fap.fap

There's your reading problem, you're going blind and can't turn the pages with your hairy paws.

 

[Mixolydian]

It takes practice to do anything in life. You've just been practicing the wrong things.

Patience is not something I know how to practice. :whiste:

 

[SheHateMe]

I remember hoarding Goosebump's from the Scholastic Book Fair in middle school. $5 a pop, I begged the shit out of my mom to atleast give me enough for two books.

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

Patience is not something I know how to practice. :whiste:

That one's easy. Close the 17 tabs you have open and pick up a book.

 

[SlitheryDee]

Patience is not something I know how to practice. :whiste:

When you start doing something that interests you, do you keep doing it? When you find something you like, does it still take patience to engage in it? Reading is a pleasure, not an ordeal. Its a fun ride that takes no effort at all when it hooks you. At some point the problem isn't keeping your attention on the book, but tearing your attention away from it so that you can catch a bit of sleep before the sun rises.

So many people have the wrong attitude about reading. It isn't something you have to do to improve yourself. It will improve you in many ways, but that can't be your conscious goal. I read for the same reason I watch movies, or play video games and sports. I read because it is a proven way for me to gain a great deal of pleasure, to engage myself in something fascinating. A good, long novel isn't a mountain I have to climb step by laborious step, its something I fall into effortlessly. The only dismay I feel is when the pages on the right side start getting thin, and I know the story is soon to end. This is the attitude it takes to read. It has nothing to do with patience IMO.

 

[IGemini]

I could never figure out the popularity of Goosebumps, or really any of the so-called "young adult" books. I tried reading one (couldn't say which) but didn't finish it. It didn't seem to live up to the horror genre.

My favored series growing up was actually BattleTech/MechWarrior. Much more mature writing than Goosebumps. I haven't really been a fan since the Dark Age reboot...Ghost War was good but when I read Ruins of Power I lost all my will to keep reading.

We always had an older set of the Narnia series in the house, but could never bring myself to read it. Probably still won't until I ever find the time to read through LotR.