Why do we read ?

[KC2UGV]

isn't the inspiration to read sometimes to spur emotions, such as love, fear, tragedy, heroism as opposed to just acquiring knowledge ? Often i read things that I have read before knowing I won't acquire further knowledge but that it will bring me a sense of wonder, enchantment, fear, suspense, sadness, love, etc. Can it then be said that the knowledge part might be incidental to other motivations for reading books ? Or vice versa ?

What distinguishes reading Beowulf, A tale of 2 Cities, Jane Eyre, Treasure island, from reading "Regular expressions" by O'reilly or "The Perl Cookbook by O'Reilly or "Intro to Website Construction" or "Calculus" by Tom Apostal or "Linear Algebra" by Serge Lang ? Or reading "The History of Colonial America" from the rest ?

Acquiring knowledge in the most base sense: You are acquiring the knowledge of the events, as told in the book.

[n2ize]

Acquiring knowledge in the most base sense: You are acquiring the knowledge of the events, as told in the book.

yes, but isn't there a difference in why we read one thing versus why we read another ? What is the inspiration for one or the other.

[K7SGJ]

yes, but isn't there a difference in why we read one thing versus why we read another ? What is the inspiration for one or the other.

Most often, it's brevity.

[n2ize]

Most often, it's brevity.

Such as ?

[KG4CGC]

Such as ?

Brevity is the soul of wit and wit keeps us going, reading, continuing.

[n2ize]

Brevity is the soul of wit and wit keeps us going, reading, continuing.

As opposed to ?

[KG4CGC]

As opposed to ?

That it, John. Your question has been answered.

[K7SGJ]

Such as ?

Would you take a collection of short stories, or War and Peace to read in the crapper? As Michael Gold said in the Big Chill "never write anything longer than a person can read during the average crap".

In my life, the major reason for reading has primarily been to gain knowledge. Although I also like to read for pleasure the time required isn't always available. When you take a look back on an average life, the first six years you get read to, then, in order to gain knowledge, you go off to grade school for eight years, then high school for four years, for some, a minimum of four years college, and then off to the business world. I have found that the majority of the reading I ever did in business was either to gain the knowledge to better my position, or the reading of technical information. I cannot really remember a time in business where I had an opportunity to read for pleasure. Even in our hobbies we do a lot of reading. Is it to gain knowledge, or for pleasure? For me, it is to gain a higher degree of knowledge and proficiency, in order to provide a higher degree of pleasure and satisfaction within that hobby. I believe if you were to ask this question of 100 people, you would get at least 100 different perspectives. This is not a question that has a definitive answer, and one size does not fit all.