Why Do I Read This Stuff?

Why do I read the things that I read?
I mentioned
Roy Reads Anything
/ walkinghometo50

[@troytradup]

Great video, Michael. And you schooled me -- I literally had never even heard of Catriona before!

[@michaelk.vaughan8617]

It’s pretty good!

[@davidmitchell6873]

I guess we are around the same age and wow it is true that Star Trek has been on tv throughout my entire 55 years of life.

[@barbaraboethling596]

Great video. As a kid in the late 50s & then the 60s, TV was old movies like Tarzan, Abbott & Costello, and westerns. TV shows that I loved best were all westerns, i.e., until the original StarTrek Why westerns? Easy...horses! I was a little girl obsessed. So my favorite books were full of horses and other animals. So quite naturally, my reading flowed into pioneers, knights, Indians, cavalry stories. All things historical and full of beautiful beasts. I still love it all, but after seeing Starship Enterprise out in space, SciFi lit my fires too. Sure early exposure is a major factor as to tastes, but there must be deeper psychological reasons. Who can say. It's all a mystery. Ooohhh, I like those too!💕💕

[@ellagoreyshorrorstories7524]

Technically, Star Trek had a real "Western" flavour to it anyway. Gene Roddenberry described it as "Wagon Train to the stars." So your interest probably just kind of carried over. :)

[@stephengoodman9058]

This is exactly why I don't watch depressing (UK) soap operas. I don't want to watch ordinary people doing ordinary things - I already experience that for real every day. I'd much rather watch (and read, and play) stories that are either aspirational or way beyond my experience, be that real life, fantasy or science fiction. I'm far more likely to stick with something that captures my imagination; Tad Williams' sprawling "Otherland" being a current case in point. It drags at times but the overall conception is pretty amazing I think.

[@NP-Hunt]

My reading life was completely influenced by my head teacher when I was about 8 or 9 years old. He covered some days while our regular teacher was ill, and decided that instead of teaching a bunch of 9 year olds about the Aztecs and Columbus, he read Sherlock Homes to us, and tried to teach us the basics of binary mathematics. The maths stuff didn't stick at all, but the first story he read to us was The Speckled Band, then I think it was the Red Headed League, then randomly on from there. Everyone was terrified of him, but I knocked on his door one day to tell him (sheepishly) that I'd finished reading the complete Sherlock Holmes, so I wanted to know what to read next. He was just surprised that anyone knocked on his door when they hadn't been sent for an earbashing. He asked me if I'd read HG Wells or Jules Verne, which I hadn't at that point. He told me to read them and I loved everything I read. Since then I've been an avid and verocious reader. Especially of anything dark and Victorian... So that's why I read the things that I read - Mr. Pocock. What a guy! 👍😁😊

[@AngloAus]

What an awesome story

[@salty-walt]

Best Story Evar. ✨

[@troytradup]

Fantastic! Cheers to Mr. Pocock!

[@michaelk.vaughan8617]

Thank goodness for Mr. Pocock!

[@TheNineteenthCentury]

Have you read Rider Haggard, Rudyard Kipling or Arthur Machen? You'd love their work.

[@stretmediq]

I read just about everything. My library is organized thusly; logic, mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, anthropology, languages, history, economics, law and political science, psychology, the arts including literature, painting, music, etc.., legends and myths, religion, philosophy, reference, miscellaneous. I think the reason is because my father was a civil engineer, old school with a drafting table and a slide rule in his office at home, my grandmother was a college professor who taught music and literature and my grandfather was a deacon with an extensive philosophy heavy theological library. And in addition to all that our family home was built in the early 1800s and some my ancestors were associated with some significant historical events. So I have science and math, art and literature, history and philosophy as early influences in my life and had the privilege of getting a classical education consequently I was made aware of just how connected all these subjects really are

[@nefi6746]

"We read to know we're not alone."

[@EmpressNoriko]

I have been enjoying your videos for about 6 months now, but never commented before. I have been thinking about this same question lately. I recently moved, which meant sorting through, packing and very soon organizing about 15,000 books. I read about 80% sci-fi and fantasy. I’ve been reading those genres for over 45 years. Like you my Mom is a big influence. She reads a lot of sci-fi and fantasy. From my Dad I get my love for historical fiction. He can’t understand why we read “all that fantasy crap”. While I do read a fair amount of realistic fiction I definitely lean hard into the speculative. When I was young I think I loved the wonder of reading about imaginative places. As I got older I definitely needed an escape from the reality in my life.Like you I cannot remember not seeing Star Trek, I watched after school reruns with my Mom. I was born during the original run and each time it aired she never let me forget I caused her to miss the first airing of City on the Edge of Forever. My Dad was in the Air Force and enlisted wives did not have TVs in their hospital rooms. I was 10 when Star Wars came out so I hardly remember a world without it. I think I’ve also been considering why I like what I do because of reactions from people. When people find out how much I read, 125-150 books a year, they are intrigued. But for many that changes when I answer, “what do you read?” Or “what is your favorite book?” they ask why don’t I read adult books or “real” books. The contempt some people express towards fantasy and sci-fi is amazing. I’m currently reading the 3rd book in The Children of Time series by Adrian Tchaikovsky. I have a masters degree and am finding myself looking up words regularly. The concepts in this series and books like Project Hail Mary stick with me and I ponder them frequently. The Three Body problem as well as others are not easy reads. Lord of the Rings, Wheel of Time, those characters are like old friends and I think about them often. People see these genres as lesser, inferior or childish, yet I often wonder how well they would do reading them. Of course there is plenty of fluff out there, books that I call brain candy that I read, enjoy then hardly think of again. But all genres have everything from heavy deep thinking books to the dreadful. I’ve never heard someone be chided for loving mysteries. OK yes romance does receive similar contempt. But I have ran many a Jeopardy category and then looked at my husband and said “thank you historical romances!” When I was a teacher I was just happy when kids would read. Especially when getting them interested I didn’t care what they read. You have to spark an interest before you can guide to the great stuff. Like you I know there is no definitive answer. What I like is a combination of nurture (thanks Mom) and nature, something in my brain that likes the fantastic. At the end of the day I’m just happy that one of the things I can call myself is A Reader.

[@Reader-Copy]

Thank you for inspiring me to think more by asking this important question, it's truly been fruit for thought. I had to laugh out loud when you said that the Star Trek series was always around in your life. Same here! Such a huge part of my ever-expanding consciousness during the formative 1970s. Some of my earliest memories were of watching it, and the Outer Limits, with my father--usually in a darkened room. Probably the most impactful, from an early age, were the stories my dad would make up and tell me on the fly; he loved to scare me. Imagination was always key, and he loved to set us kids down out in the yard and tell us kids stories about the constellations, and point them out to us with his telescope. For my love of tales of the fantastic, literature, philosophy, history, and even music, he was the greatest influence on my interests throughout my lifetime. RIP.

[@jeremyfee]

Nice discussion, as always. As I'm sure you know, I also have a very eclectic love for multiple genres.

[@anotherbibliophilereads]

I remember all the old horror films on TV when I was a kid. I discovered Lovecraft in sixth grade and that sealed the reading deal for me. Great video.

[@michaelk.vaughan8617]

Thanks!

[@lisarichards1956]

I remember as a teen in the '70's reading my stepdad's collection of Louis Lamour westerns. Never read them before or since, but enjoyed them a lot.

[@chuckmoss7414]

Very articulate video. Well done. Every committed reader has the same story: From the very beginning, something sparked an interest, that led to an unending stream of reading. For me, two books, (one with three books, the other with two) one was a two vol set, The Jungle Book, and The Lord of the Rings. A teacher made the mistake of suggesting I was simply too young to read Rudyard Kipling. You can imagine how I reacted to that. The second disappointment (keep in mind that I was reading The Lord of the Rings in elementary school), was in college, when a senior student (floor monitor) had a set of The Lord on a shelf. However, it did not take long to see, he had not even read any of the books. Oh well. So, from beginning, to then, too many times every reader faces the sense that what each of us makes of our reading experience is unique to us. It makes us special. I like that. I have enjoyed finding your channel. Keep on keeping on.

[@MrGlasgow51]

I'm not sure where I acquired my reading interests. I love science fiction, and reading about worlds that don't exist. My family doesn't read, what made me want to read from an early age? Interesting and thought provoking post on your part.

[@theramblingreviewer5150]

That's such a cool cover for the fritz leiber collection.Also, I love these very introspective questioning videos you put out. Absolutely fascinating and personable.

[@michaelk.vaughan8617]

Thanks RR!

[@Mike-wr7om]

I too have always, for some reason, had a taste for stories about the fantastic, rather than stories about the ordinary or mundane. I too have wondered why it is that I have no interest in stories about ordinary people in the "real" world. Why is it that in order to capture my interest a story has to have something adventurous, epic, extraordinary, mythic, or fantastical about it? A book is a pretty big commitment of time. I'm not going to commit 20 to 30 hours of my life reading something if it doesn't light that spark of joy inside of me and make me feel like I did when I was 11 years old and going to the comicbook shop on Saturday mornings.

[@Creek54]

When I was a young teenager, the James Bond movies had an effect on me and I had to read the books. I never read any spy novels besides Ian Fleming. Shortly after that I drifted towards fantasy, mainly the DragonLance series. After several years I went to science fiction and stayed there. Sure, I've taken detours from time to time like The Da Vinci Code, Hawaii and dinosaurs but I keep coming back to scifi.

[@MarshOakDojoTimPruitt]

thanks for sharing, Wolfman was always my favorite. Your early reading choices match mine too. I did also read the "Gor" and "Horseclan" series.

[@stevengentry9396]

I always come down in the middle of this kind of nature vs. nurture discussion; with reading, I think certain books spark with something in us already, but then with continued reading of the type, the draw is reinforced and entrenched in our habits and preferences. I also started early with comic books, Robert E. Howard, Star Trek and sci-fi, with extras of Terry Pratchett, Dr. Who, Dungeons & Dragons, history books, and others. Each thing really connected with something already there in me, and then stuck with me all through my life as favorite interests, to this day (which is closing in on 6 decades 😱).

[@ItsTooLatetoApologize]

That is a great question, and I have been thinking about making a video about this topic or at least adjacent to this topic. And then you go and put this video out there proving that a lot of readers ponder this question. Great video, Michael.

[@michaelk.vaughan8617]

Thanks!

[@ReekingGallant]

"...classic-ey classics..." You made my morning!

[@rutger9491]

Re: The Wolfman, I love that character and that movie a lot. Last year the highlight for my moviegoing year was being able to see it in the theater with the invisible man. Growing up in the late 70's early 80's my dad had a walk in closet with tons of sci/fi fantasy. Between those gems and comic books there came my love of reading. That led me to Dungeons and Dragons which led me to read more fantasy etc etc. Also seeing Star Wars in 1977, at 5 years old had a huge impact on my love of sci-fi and then the next year seeing superman jumpstarted my love of comic books before I understood what a comic book was.

[@supernova1969]

Hello Michael Hello. I started reading in 1966 with Action Comics, Kafka's "The Metamorphosis " then The Arabian Nights and the Epic of Gilgamesh. Then I read an abridged version of Beowulf. Daddy gave me access to Edgar Allan Poe, Herbert George Wells and Mark Twain. That was when I was long ago , in my primary school days. In addition to Archie Comics, of course. Hope that someday you will share with your viewers your impression on Archie Comics. As to Star Trek, I loved the first episode of the Salt Monster who could change appearance at will, the shape shifter monster. That was really powerful. Later on, I started doing Cervantes, Dryden, Pope, Wordsworth, Victorian poets and novelists, non fiction works by great men like Cardinal Newman, J. S . Mill ,Charles Darwin, Herbert Spencer, as well as creative writers like J.R.R. Tolkien, Graham Greene, Hermann Hesse, Albert Csmus, Vladimir Nabokov, Jorge Luis Borges , Milorad Pavić and a lot more. I think my parents influenced my choices and reading list. I always borrowed from their huge bookcase . Thanks for this wonderful video.

[@philipmsearle1399]

Just an interesting aside: the 1977 Harlech tv adaptation of Kidnapped, with David Mccallum combines both Kidnapped and Catriona. Very faithful to the books, also, and worth seeking out. Nice video, Michael, and as for the question "Why do you read that stuff?" my wife asks it constantly

[@royreadsanything]

Thanks for the mention! In practice I tend towards the fantastic and pulpy I suppose and certainly share a lot of landmarks with your good self. Great video!

[@michaelk.vaughan8617]

Thanks!

[@Thecatladybooknook_PennyD]

I'm not sure where all of my reading tastes started but I devoured Nancy Drew as a young girl. Then I fell in love with Georgia History when I had a year long class in 8th grade which led me to read Gone with the Wind. I don't know if that led me to read historical romance or not but that's what I read some of. I don't remember my parents being big readers but I know they always encouraged us to read. In high school I found Stephen King after we had studied Edgar Allen Poe which kicked off my horror phase. I still read some of that now but I'm picky and usually only read King's books (his early work is my fav up to Pet Semetary although The Green Mile and 11/22/63 are favs). I never read true fantasy until 3 years ago and I've been narrowing down my tastes... same for scifi. I love classics now too.

[@salty-walt]

Even though it is similar to many guys posts, thank you so much for showing us how it happens on the other side of the fence! (It's really neat to see the parallels!)

[@jamesholder13]

Excellent video! It calls for transformation into a tag!

[@michaelk.vaughan8617]

Go for it, James.

[@towerjunikeka-tet1979]

For me it all goes back to images,comics and movies,growin' up in a street that used to have videostore/bookstore kind of thing in the 90's after the war in Croatia had a major impact on me,pictures of real horror in my life combined with all that "magic" in that store provided me great escapism from true state of my mind,i instantly fell in love in "weird stuff",my imagination was filled with cowboys (thanks to Clint Eastwood and pulp magazines my father used to read),scary aliens (x files 🖤),half naked chicks with gigantic dudes fightin' some creepy things, Stephen King,Conan and Bonelli comics,i guess those things shaped me as a character that i am today,and that's a good thing :)

[@crawdad19141]

Such great perspective, and so similar to all of us fellow monster kids of the 70s.

[@laurels7892]

I enjoyed this video because it reminded me of the books that I have read and loved over the years. KZbin brought your book tube videos to my attention not long ago and I am keenly interested in hearing more of Roger's back story and how he came to live with you. I have my own personal shopping enabler, a Fabricated-American Rabbit (stuffed bunny). Hi to Roger!

[@garagegeek4863]

You are like me - eclectic! Good writing isn’t limited to a genre.

[@jscottphillips503]

Fascinating! WHY do we like what we like? WHY do we read what we read? WHY don't other genres give us that same satisfaction? Why? Why? WHY? You have given me much to contemplate. I must get to the bottom of it. I must examine my own motivations. But ... why?

[@frankmorlock9134]

Why not ? (As Arnold Schwarzenegger would say.

[@BobBbro]

You and I have very similar tastes, Michael. My reading habits and tastes started with television and comic books. Before I could read my grandfather would buy me a comic book, usually Superman, and read it to me while I looked at the pictures. The Adventures of Superman was in syndication and I loved that show. The thrilling Superman theme with the brilliant narration by Bill Kennedy. I was hooked. Comic books, led to stories of adventure by Burroughs and Robert E. Howard. That led to classic adventure stories, Jules Verne, Robert Lewis Stevenson. Then onto pulp adventure reprints of Doc Savage and the Shadow. I started to read the Sherlock Holmes stories . Still have my original copy of "The Boy's Sherlock Holmes". Later, hard boiled Detective fiction, especially by Raymond Chandler, were added. Horror stories and films (especially the old Universal's) also added to my reading tastes. "You've seen the movie ,now, read the book! Books, for me, have been lifelong companions, and I am so grateful for their "company".

[@michaelk.vaughan8617]

Yes. Me too.

[@duffypratt]

My reading taste, early on, shifted by the company I keep. Comic Books, Science Fiction, Classics and then Mysteries and Horror, basically in that order. I never fully stopped reading genres I already liked, but I tended to expand my horizons based on the recommendations of people I trusted. It took a fairly long time for me to develop what I consider my own tastes, and this was largely out of necessity. I always had kids around me who read quite a bit, and I could talk with them. As an adult (pre-Goodreads and KZbin), it’s rarer and rarer for me to find actual people who read a lot. Now, that’s been supplanted by talking heads on screens, which is way better than nothing. Unlike you, my early exposure to science fiction was largely through the second wave of Sci-Fi writers - Harlan Ellison, Samuel Delaney, Vonnegut, LeGuin, Philip Jose Farmer. We read some Clarke, Asimov and Heinlein - but not Burroughs, which we would have dismissed as way too old fashioned. Yes, we were idiots..

[@mediumjohnsilver]

This was a really good “80 Page Giant Secret Origins” of your reading tastes, Michael. My own reading tastes started with science fiction, but my interests branch out every time you say “read this book!” On the subject of horror literature - it really is a cross-genre genre, in that there is supernatural horror, science fiction horror, and crime horror. The same can happen with romance, I understand.

[@michaelk.vaughan8617]

I will have to take your word about romance!

[@AndrewBuckleBookReviews]

Great video as ever. For me, perhaps it was Dr Who that has been part of my life for the last 60 odd years, can't recall a time when that was not on. It started in 1963 and that for me probably was the start point for all my love of SF, old books, history, comic books (Dr Who was also in comics such as TV Comic). The BBC always had loads of Sunday classic serials on and all the endless playhouse as well as all the Shakespeare plays and so on. Loved Star Trek (which started about 69 / 70 in the UK) as well as all the Tarzans, Westerns, Saturday Morning matinees etc.

[@michaelk.vaughan8617]

I remember very clearly the first time I watched Doctor Who. It was a Fourth Doctor episode. I was fascinated because I had never seen anything quite like it.

[@AndrewBuckleBookReviews]

@@michaelk.vaughan8617 Tom Baker was always great. My favourite and the one I best remember was Patrick Troughton (now many of the episodes are gone but at least we now have the animated episodes and some are better than the originals).

[@johannemilsom7503]

Why do you like reading stuff like this? Because Sir, you are our beloved Michael! Even with some of the books I would not read, you give us knowledge, entertain us, and make us laugh. I love reading physical books, and ebooks that interest me. The subjects can vary, I love audiobooks in that way too. I learned to love being read to as a child in Primary School. I had a great teacher who read books to us regularly. And that love followed me into adulthood. (Thank you Mr. Crockett!🤗) You can listen while you do "boring" things like housework. I have listened through the cassette tape times and beyond. And am still listening at 63! You are not 'old' in my book, Michael! If it makes you feel younger, young man, you may call me aunty Jo!☺

[@michaelk.vaughan8617]

Ha! I couldn’t call anyone barely ten years older than me “Auntie!”

[@johannemilsom7503]

@@michaelk.vaughan8617 Okay. You don't have to, but I'll tell you something. My oldest niece is only 9 years younger than me. That happens in families sometimes. Aha! so now I know how old you are, Michael!🤗

[@stunik156]

Love this video Michael ..I was really influenced as a child to love horror and science fiction .. lord of the rings and hammer horror in particular along with Doctor who. Great video

[@michaelk.vaughan8617]

Thanks!

[@markw.loughton6786]

Pretty much exactly the same with my reading habits, Lovecraft still to this day has the power to fire up my imagination.

[@bookmarkswithjason9445]

I have the same edition of warlord of mars. Love that cover!

[@pbofan]

As a guy of a similar age with similar entertainment influences and with same result (ardent genre reader), this video is particularly apt for me. Thanks for the exploration of why we’re how we are.

[@konstantinos-6-6-6-8]

Mine was similar too, comics (mostly Conan, Tin-tin, Blake and mortimer, Thorgal, Garfield (why does everyone hate garfield now), some superhero stuff but not much), than Edgar Allan Poe, Lotr at 12, Forgotten Realms, ERB, Legion of Space (the best sf adventure ever!), Dune, then, HPL, CAS, REH, Moorcock… now that I think back, I think the biggest impact came from HPL and CAS, and then Moorcock and Leiber. But in my early twentiesI pretty much abandoned fantasy and became obsessed with PKD and sf from the 1940s to…cyberpunk maybe? Most sf I’ve read is probably between 40s-60s though. After that things have been fairly varied, but I definitely gravitate towards pulpy stuff more and more. S&S, sword and planet, etc. Btw I’m reading Lin Carter’s Green Star series now, I wonder how you feel about his ERB-y stuff? It’s pretty good so far (book 1 meh, 2 way better, 3 is going well). I bailed on Callisto a few years ago, now I think it might do the job. And what about Dray Prescott? Personally I liked the first two books, wonder if the rest of the series is worth it though.

[@MasterMalrubius]

Oh yes. "Hammer House of Horror" for classic monster movies. Also "Creature Feature" for B movies. But I really got into reading due to my older brother who was into sci-fi and fantasy. Andre Norton, L. Sprague deCampe, and Ursula K. LeGuin for notables. All of that really shaped my habits. That was when a sub-200 page book could tell a complete adventure where now it seems that it takes multiple volumes and endless series to get that done.

[@ellagoreyshorrorstories7524]

I'm still struggling to NOT dislike Lovecraft. Maybe I've read the wrong stories, but I'm just not enjoying what I've read. Guy goes to a place. Sees something that scares the stuffing out of him. Here comes the racism! Then he passes out and when he wakes up, here comes the gaslighting! Is he crazy, was it real or all in his head? And that's it. On the plus side, though, he does set a mood well, I just wish there were more of a follow through. Can't say I've read the others. So many books on the TBR list!

[@michaelk.vaughan8617]

Well, I think you are dead wrong about Lovecraft. That said you should feel free to dislike any author. Some writers just don’t work for some people.

[@richardbrown8966]

Last 3 books I read, Galaxias by Stephen Baxter, Lavondyss by Robert Holdstock and Twenty Years After by Alexandre Dumas. Loved all three. Next book probably The Big Book of the Continental Op by Dashiell Hammett. I think I'm turning into Michael Vaughan.

[@michaelk.vaughan8617]

There are worse things to turn into. 😅

[@briteskin]

I contribute my love of reading to the fact grew up so rural. Department stores only really carried toys during Christmas period. It was all catalog buying the rest of the year. Drug stores had small toy sections but pretty sizeable book sections. Something like a dedicated toy store was hours away and we would make the trip to toy mecca once a year. So it was easy for my mom to appease me with books and comics. My brother was fine with plastic animals, Matchbox cars, and model kits. Comics were a big factor for me too but they were just a throw away thing pretty much until Secret Wars came around in, I think, 6th grade. TV wasn't that big of a factor because over the air signals were so bad but movies definitely played a big role. Disney, Star Wars, Superman, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Excalibur, and others are big contributors to my tastes.

[@michaelk.vaughan8617]

Excalibur! Anál nathrach, orth' bháis's bethad, do chél dénmha.

[@occultdetective]

We lived mirrored lives. The books of your childhood sound like my own.

[@ellesse3862]

hrm .. reading has always been a thing, someone was always reading a book at home, and silent movies probably lead to my love of world cinema, and subtitled movies. Universal horrors on a Friday night was the highlight of every summer or holiday growing up, I love those black and white monster movies, fantastical Harry Haussen epics, Vincent Price Poe movies, and Saturday morning serials with Buster Crabbe or other fun adventure romps .. wonderful, probably my love of the macabre, fantastical and fantasy books. Hrm .. pulp adventures, documentaries and history books, classic Hollywood black and white movies, its a real melting pot of influences, the main culprits are my family and best friend.

[@benriley6716]

Good stuff as always. Would love to hear your take on Roger Zelazny's Amber Chronicles. There is an 'The Illustrated Roger Zelazny' graphic novel that is phenomenal, art and stories. Strikes me as something you would appreciate. Published in 1979 with art by Gray Morrow that's some of the best graphic novel art I've seen.

[@michaelk.vaughan8617]

I have the Great Book of Amber waiting for me on the shelf. I’ll get to it eventually.

[@arekkrolak6320]

My reading tastes are slightly different, I have some authors I like but I also enjoy reading new stuff, so half what I read is typically new authors

[@ewanstuart5521]

I think my tastes were formed as a lad by 3 SF authors. Silverberg, PKD and Chris Priest. Probably in that order. And then spy and crime fiction le carre or ian rankin (local area).

[@davidnovakreadspoetry]

You were probably too young for _Famous Monsters of Filmland_ magazine, which I read religiously. It’s entirely possible that, like you, the first adult novel I ever read was _Dracula_ which I think I liked and know I finished, but that never translated into a permanent habit, and it has never occurred to me to reread it. I read Walter B. Gibson’s Shadow (of which you have a nice collection) and then mysteries. But working against me was that I wasn’t innately much of a reader. It’s only in my dotage that I’m trying to play catch-up, and what I can’t do myself I get vicariously through BookTubers like you.

[@michaelk.vaughan8617]

I remember Famous Monsters of Filmland very well. I wish I had held onto those issues.

[@dqan7372]

For me it's become more about 'buying taste'. BookTube has me buying and (sometimes) reading more contemporary lit than I once did. Once I became a teen I was into the Hardy Boys. Then I moved on to sci-fi. Then I went off to college, got an English Lit degree, and widened my interest to the point where I can't decide what to read anymore. Was just talking to my mother and she said she didn't get into reading fiction until I was off to college, and then it was all Amish and historical romance. My dad worked in electronics; if he read at all it was Popular Science and National Geographic.

[@DejanOfRadic]

Is that "the Hour of the Dragon" edition from the "Science Fiction and Fantasy Book of the Month Club" from the 1980's"?

[@stews9]

Are you, sir, of fanzine background? I was a Cultist in FANTASY ROTATOR, an APAzine with 13 rotating editors, (hence Cult), which was not only comprised of The Nastiest Bastards In Fandom but also ended up as the oldest fanzine, until it died of digital pox. I ask this because the sf'nal fan term for literature other than imaginative is ... mundane, and there are fen, (plural of fan, of course), and mundanes, which the wise Wiccans would call the cowan. I believe I have sufficiently nerded out now. Excelsior.

[@dana7340]

I used to prefer the darkest, grittiest, most horrifying of reading material. It just seemed ‘more real’ to me than say, cozy reads. But after Covid and all the division and hate directed at anyone that disagree on literally ANY topic (we’ve lost our collective minds, I swear!) not to mention pending financial struggles 🥶 my tolerance for darker material is much much less. So I’ve migrated to lighter stuff (cozy ghost stories vs cannibalism) as a way to soothe the horror show that real life has become. So….I guess reading is still escapism. Before it was to escape a bland reality that was safe, secure and where nothing huge ever happened. And now it’s to escape the 💩-show this world is evolving into.

[@Billy_Carter]

I love your passion for books. I have no idea how I found this video but I'm glad I did. Edgar Rice Burroughs is one of my favs. So is Robert Louis Stevenson. You ever read "The Forgotten Planet" by Murray Leinster?

[@michaelk.vaughan8617]

I have read that! I have the first paperback edition, in fact. Glad you found my dopey channel!

[@DDB168]

I've always been interested in the war and military genre (fiction and non-fiction). Stems from a diet of watching Hogans Heroes, Combat, Rat Patrol, Baa Baa Black Sheep - shows like that, as a child. And lots of war movies too. Who says tv and film are a bad influence ? I was a ''classics are for sissies'' kid. Still am too 🤣

[@michaelk.vaughan8617]

I guess I’m just a big sissy!

[@redwawst3258]

😎

[@luciferfernandez7094]

I think Borges said something like reading a book is dreaming awake (I’d extend that to movies) and a man who has read a 1000 books has dreamed a 1000 lives. My own background is exactly the same: grew up with lot of comics and books around - at 12 I heard a Catholic priest that I would go to hell if I m4sturb4ted, so the first book I read out of my own curiosity and volition was the Divine Comedy - interesting and all, but it didn’t dissuade me of anything, at all. Then it was stuff that influenced my favorite comics, so Gaiman lead me to Robert Graves, Pratt to Conrad, Moore to Lovecraft, etc. The first writer I actually admired for noticing his writing style was Bradbury - also Borges probably. I’ve read a little of everything, but I find the likes of Murakami or whomever wrote Little Women kinda of banal. I’ve haven’t read all of Dostoyevsky not because he is banal or realist, but because emotionally he actually scares me. As a grown up, interestingly enough, I can’t get enough Jack Kirby comics and some medieval occultism stuff that suddenly makes Gaiman or Rowling books look like pastiches.

[@salty-walt]

Well, They *ARE* pastiches, but I don't think either of those authors would deny it. In fact Neil Gaiman would point out that he has left Easter eggs to footnotes to make sure you can find your way back to the original books because he wouldn't want to hide anything from you, he just usually assumes that somehow we are all as well read as him. ( Whereas Alan Moore will look you in the eye and *defy* you to be as well read as him!)

[@luciferfernandez7094]

@@salty-walt Yes, that’s why I appreciate them, they open the door to whomever is willing for something extra. Lately Moore is a little bit more open, about Osman Spare for example, and I learned a lot from the From Hell appendix.

[@salty-walt]

@@davidnovakreadspoetry some autodidacts enjoy Gibbon, and some prophets enjoy Gibson, but I read both Gibbon and Gibson. . .

[@davidnovakreadspoetry]

Oh, sorry @@luciferfernandez7094 my comment was meant for MKV but I put it in the wrong place inadvertently.

[@BookBlather]

Sci-fi and fantasy are indeed very different, except for the fact that a lot of bookstores still group them together 🙄. Why do they do this?

[@michaelk.vaughan8617]

Laziness!

[@frankmorlock9134]

You pose questions about your reading habits that I only recently started asking myself. And I started asking those questions mainly because you were posing them. So it's all your fault !! I really didn't care much for literary books until I turned 14. I was heavily into Western movies before that, and into dinosaurs, nature books (Bambi) and archeology. But literature, no. I resisted. I didn't like fairy tales, and later rejected Western movies because as I grew older, I rejected them as "kid stuff" and I was an adult already at 13.. I didn't watch TV because we didn't have one. My mother thought we'd be fighting over it, so insisted on not having one. I did listen to Radio shows like Gangbusters, This is Your FBI and things like that. Although I was a good student, I didn't like the books we were taught in school or perhaps the way they were taught. I read Julius Caesar in 9th Grade and actually liked it even though it was part of the curriculum. Things changed when my uncle took me to a Goodwill bookstore while I was in High School . I began to enjoy reading fiction without any particular preferences. I read a fictional account of The Life of Julius Caesar in paperback with a lurid cover. I can't recall who the author was but I still would like to know because J.C. became my hero, and I suddenly became interested in Roman History and all that went with it. I read Weyman's A Friend of Caesar in Highschool and liked that, but it didn't have lurid cover or focus on his sex life, so I was somewhat disappointed. But things didn't really get going until the summer between graduating from High School and my first year in college. I read War and Peace and Look Homeward Angel (Thomas Wolfe) within a couple months of each other. And around this time, too, I was starting to read drama by Ibsen, Strindberg, Schnitzler, Sudermann, G.B. Shaw, O'Neill, Yeats, and Oscar Wilde. Drama really interested me because I found it so much more powerful and to the point than rambling novels. (I like rambling novels, but I really want a strong conclusion). In my Sopohmore year, I took a course on Greek Literature in translation and Greek and Roman Drama in translation with Emily Dickinson Townsend Vermeule who was a distinguished classical scholar. To avoid Lit 101, I put off taking Lit courses until my Senior Year and was able to get into a course on Melville and Hawthorne with Edward Wagenecht, and a seminar on George Bernard Shaw. From then on it's all been downhill. I'm still somewhat prejudiced with a snooty attitude toward romance novels, fantasy, westerns as kid stuff or escapism. I think people who read too much fantasy end up actually believing in fairy tales, or over simplified and untrue versions of real life. They're nice people, of course, but naïve about reality. I realize that's just me, but that's the point--it is me. Many people who have never read a fantasy book have over simplified views of life. No reading required. So much for now.

[@michaelk.vaughan8617]

Fascinating!

[@farhad_s]

Funny how I have the exact same taste in books, but only read Lovecraft in my 40s, the only Edgar Rice Burroughs were Tarzan comics (not sure who wrote them though), and no Robert E. Howard at all (2023 will be the Year of Conan, I promise).

[@michaelk.vaughan8617]

2023 should be a good year.

[@joelsilvey9046]

Lately my tastes are deep diving into hard boiled detective/ noir stories weather they are straight or have a sci-fi/fantasy covering

[@glockensig]

Where's your tribble!!!!?

[@michaelk.vaughan8617]

Eating.

[@francissookraj3202]

Hi Michael, do you like moden horror like Stephen king and our own British horror writer James Herbert?

[@michaelk.vaughan8617]

I like them both.

[@salty-walt]

A lot of these stories parallel my own. I'll throw that in the pot and spare you the details 😉.

[@mikebrough3434]

Stevenson's title is pronounced ka-TREE-na. Scots just tend to be awkward for the fun of it.

[@michaelk.vaughan8617]

I knew I was going to mispronounce that title as soon as I picked up the book. But then it was too late!

[@salty-walt]

Are you Ok man?

[@michaelk.vaughan8617]

Other than that bizarre cult I recently joined I’m fine.

[@salty-walt]

@@michaelk.vaughan8617 ! Pro Tip: Avoid Kool Aid AND "Health drinks."