Does the Average Gamer Read?

[mhacdebhandia]

I read a lot, and so do most of my gaming friends - put it this way: if any of them are avowed non-readers I haven't heard about it.

Popular series like the Wheel of Time, A Song of Ice and Fire, Discworld, and Harry Potter tend to get passed around even to those who aren't into them enough to buy their own copies. Neil Gaiman's Sandman, too.

I would say that members of SUTEKH, my university gaming society, are just as likely to lend each other their favourite books, or persuade their friends to buy them for themselves, as they are to pimp their favourite TV shows or movies - and we do a lot of that.

I don't read a lot of fantasy myself - I don't like the kinds of stories you get from mainstream fantasy, especially since I thoroughly dislike The Lord of the Rings, which of course is the template for them all. My reading has lessened since I've been busy recently, but I would say that the majority of what I read is non-mainstream fantasy (Mieville, Powers, et aliis), nonfiction in the areas that fascinate me (like fringe religions), science fiction, horror, and a few specific authors from other genres or mainstream literature (like James Ellroy).

 

[BlueBlackRed]

I barely have enough time for reading rule books.

At work I have the luxury of reading job specs and regional code requirements.

Heck if it weren't my bathroom I wouldn't have time to read anything else.

 

[Olaf the Stout]

I can't really speak for gamers as a whole but personally I do read.

Since I finished university I have almost exclusively read fantasy as far as novels go. I read the newspaper on an almost daily basis and I read magazines fairly regularly. Unfortunately I don't have a lot of free time to read at the moment so most of my reading currently is RPG books or adventures. Not that's necessarily a bad thing!

Olaf the Stout

 

[bento]

I read the Hobbit and LoTR in Jr High and decided that I never needed to read another Fantasy novel for the rest of my life because they were all rip-offs.

I read alternative history and a few D&D related novels (Eberron) occasionally. For the most part I read either for work (telecom) or RPG books.

Now to be the contrarian, most all of my players DO NOT read. If they read for pleasure (they're college students) its something quick like manga. I was talking with one who has a two and a half hour commute on the bus every day and he said he'd much rather listen to his MP3 player than read.

 

[Rothe]

I tend to read one to three books at a time. Not much fantasy these days but did reread REH Conan works recently and reread LotR before for the movies. Mostly non-fiction science (theoretical physics mostly), history, political-social stuff, and archeology. Now and again I read some sci-fi. On periodicals I tend to read National Geographic and Scientific American.

 

[morrolan]

(Mieville, Powers, et aliis),

Hijack - Shouldn't that be et alii, if you're gonna spell out the whole thing?

edit: or et alia if you want to be gender friendly.

I read a lot, but I prefer horror for my genre fiction.

 

[Harmon]

Everyone at our table reads.

Some read better then others- couple hundred page BattleTech book for Coyote6 done in I think a morning, while my wife took over a year to get through Game of Thrones (course she doesn't have much time to read). Black Ronin reads two and three books at a time, and I think DarthJaye reads a book a week. Me I have to read pages two and three times to get the comprehension so needless to say it takes me a while too.

All my best wishes .

 

[Captain NeMo]

I read the Hobbit and LoTR in Jr High and decided that I never needed to read another Fantasy novel for the rest of my life because they were all rip-offs.

I've tried reading The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings many, many times. Each time, they've bored me to tears and I've given up. :\

 

[Drowbane]

Hello, my name is Brew... I'm an avid reader/gamer. I like long walks through musty dungeons and murdering indigenous lifeforms and taking thier loot...

 

[Li Shenron]

Do you think the average gamer out there reads as a past time? (Aside from rule books and game magazines...)

Personally I read a lot all the time, and I think my players read at least fantasy novels...


Actually I often think that the thing which gamers do NOT read is exactly the rulebooks. I don't say this because I think they don't know the rules, but because I think that 90% of the people buy a book, browse it the first evening, come to the forum to praise how fantastic the book is, and then put it in the shelves and start thinking about the next book already.