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I also find I'm reading different sections of the paper as I get older.
Reading less:
War stories and car accidents aren't interesting to me anymore--guess I realized that gruesome things happen all the time, but there's nothing I can do about it. Certainly my reading these stories doesn't seem to change that.
Business news--I used to read this indepth but now just scan to see if there's anything related to the funds I own or to social security, etc. There was a time when I read the business section in detail, on the theory I might need to know something down the line. Now that I can look up anything I need to know, I feel no need to learn about companies before I'm interested in them.
Wedding notices--there was a time when the chances were good that I'd know the couple. Also, I'd read them to get ideas about where to hold my own wedding, or just because it made me feel romantic.
Classified Ads--I used to read these all the time just to see what was for sale. But as I get older I seem to have most of the things I need. Just not interested in buying a lot of stuff anymore.
Movie Reviews--I don't seem to have the same taste as the younger movie reviewers. The last few times I went to a movie that some review lavished praise on I was very disappointed. And lately I've been to a few movies that I really enjoyed, even though the reviewer sneered at it for being corny.
Reading More:
Comics/Puzzles/Horoscopes: When I was busy busy busy this was the part of the paper I'd pass over. Now I have more time for a laugh and doing puzzles is a healthy way to start the day.
Obituaries--Guess I'm reaching the age where the chance are good I'll see a name I know. I'm still young enough that most of them are my parent's age--but they're people I know or have heard of through work.
Grocery store ads--I never used to read them because I bought what I wanted without caring what was on sale. Now I've become a little more frugal and read the sales.
Sports--Never would have guess I'd become interested in sports, but I have. Go Nats!
The shift from print to internet wasn't a result of being retired quite so much as just "the march of time" and moving - ten years ago I lived in a larger city and could get daily delivery of several papers. Not possible where I live now, plus many newspapers are on-line now, including several international papers, which just wasn't the case then.
Because my morning is less rushed and time-scheduled, I do read more news and commentary than I used to. A lot of it is interest-based blogs (Science Daily, The Oil Drum, Big Picture, Calculated Risk).
I don't watch TV news, it's a waste of my time to get "blurblettes" - the press release version of the news.
The net changed my news habits. I get all my news online. Occasionally CNN or some other news channel will be on as noise. Or if something 'big' happens I will switch it on. I don't check out the weather channel nearly as much anymore, probably because I live in an area with no severe weather to watch!
The shift from print to internet wasn't a result of being retired quite so much as just "the march of time" and moving - ten years ago I lived in a larger city and could get daily delivery of several papers. Not possible where I live now, plus many newspapers are on-line now, including several international papers, which just wasn't the case then.
Because my morning is less rushed and time-scheduled, I do read more news and commentary than I used to. A lot of it is interest-based blogs (Science Daily, The Oil Drum, Big Picture, Calculated Risk).
I don't watch TV news, it's a waste of my time to get "blurblettes" - the press release version of the news.
Good points. By the way, congrats on getting a star.
Before the internet, I would go to Public Library to read all the magazines, journals and newspapers that they subscribed. I plop my butt, happily, and spend hours reading and getting information. Now why bother spending gas and time to sit there and get what I can easily get at home.
Also, I find it much easier to read print documents that are delivered to my large computer monitor. It is crisper and I can expand the text size. I have a Kindle and a matte screen netbook, The work great for reading.
Today I listen to more radio than I did in the past. I never enjoyed American Popular Radio. It was too abrasive with the egos of the disc jockies and I do not enjoy much of the music; also, too many commercials. I use my netbook more as my portable radio, as I listen to the expansive shows on public radio.
We have our own NPR http://www.npr.org/ but it pales to the offerings of BBC Radio. I especially enjoy all the radio drama and shows on BBC radio. It is like radio was in our country before TV. I recommend highly for people to explore the vast offerings of the BBC radio http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/ It is amazing how much is offered from every genre and every tastes in British Society and there is no commercials. It is a little complicated to understand the listings but over time you will get the idea. The different genres are identified a numbers, as we would call radio stations. They have a special online radio player which will help BBC iPlayer - iPlayer Radio Home You can listen to the broadcast live but most are available for replay for a week. BBC online TV is not available here.
In addition I listen to French and German Public radio. In addition, Germany does broadcast some video internationally.
Deutsche Welle, auf Deutsche, THEMEN | DW.DE There is a link for English Broadcast
Radio France, Radio France :: Accueil, There is a link for some English broadcast
I try to keep up with German and French but my abilities are fading fast with my failing aged memory. I did study French through High School and College. The Army trained me in German at the Defense Language Institute.
One of my favorite public radio website is PublicRadioFan.com You can set your own selections that will be remembered.
Netbooks are getting cheaper and past their prime, as tablets as supplanted their popularity. I have found them real cheap and they work good as wifi radios all over my house. I am thinking of getting another one.
Livecontent
Last edited by livecontent; 08-18-2012 at 04:10 PM..
Since 9-11, a day I was was painting the room and didn't turn on the tv until late afternoon so I wouldn't get distracted, I have to see something about the news when I wake up. But I get coffee cup number one and turn on the computer and see what headlines Yahoo has to show. If nothing awful has happened, I close it and go on the normal routine. I haven't read newspapers since the problems I had with my eyes, now fixed, but I found the newsprint made me sneezed too. I can find a great variety of informantion from a great many points of view online. I tend to factor in point of view in anything I read.
I like both solid, real books, especially my history collections, and classics I love, first editions if possible. But I read a lot of fanfic (though I'm picky and not the 'romance' or the horribly written) and enjoy it. And I write 'dark' themed stuff which I post. I've never bought an ebook, nor do I have a kindle, but a relative who had to give up reading as she couldn't see the print can read on kindle quite well and its been a blessing for her. Among the emergency give ups in case something bad comes along financially, the internet is not on that list. I can hook up a phone and watch what I'd miss on tv that way too.
But the range and variety of what's out there to KEEP the brain in good supply of food for thought is the most important. You don't have to go to school or joint the debate society to keep your mind full of life when if you look you can find many places to use it from the comfort of your favorite easy chair. Even take college classes.
I retired in January. Yes, I read the paper more. I used to skim the sports only. Now I have time for the Opinion page and the comics. . Plus, I'm reading more books.
You kind of sound like my husband used to be. He used to think there wasn't anything written in the last 100 years or so that was worth reading. I found his attitude annoying. Now I generally read 2 kinds of books. Good contemporary literature - and what I call "beach/bathroom books" (I read tons of classics when I was in school - and I find they are generally a little slow paced for my taste). So I started to experiment with my husband. Handing him books in the "good contemporary literature" category (mostly books on my Kindle these days). I was pretty selective. And he read some - and liked them. Then he started to find ones I hadn't found - and gave them to me (again - mostly on his Kindle these days). I think the first book I gave him in that category was The Color Purple. And I think he expanded his reading horizons a lot. Do we like everything the other suggests? Of course not. But 2 or 3 out of 5 ain't bad.
Then I started to pass on a couple of "beach/bathroom books" to him - on an even more selective basis. Like the Millennium Trilogy (a thoroughly addictive series IMO - I gobbled it up - and he did too). I won't give him the Hunger Games - because that is pretty much written at a high school level (I liked the story but it took me perhaps 3 hours to read the book - and I won't be reading the next 2 books). I don't know how old your niece is - but you might consider giving her a Kindle so she reads more. On your part - take a look at Amazon Prime. Which - along with the shipping perks - comes with a once a month free lending library feature. Also - if you buy a book from Amazon for your Kindle - there's a 7 day return policy. I don't know about you - but I can usually tell in the first 10 pages whether or not I'm going to like a book. I'll usually finish the ones I like within a week - but won't return them if I read them and like them.
As for DVDs - there are thousands on Amazon that are either inexpensive new - or downright cheap if you buy "used in new condition". And you can trade in your DVDs on Amazon too.
I agree with you about "going to the movies" these days. Can't stand it. But watching a good movie at home - that's another matter. And although I don't have an "active prostate" - or - indeed - any prostate at all - when you're watching at home - you never have to worry about taking a bathroom break - making a batch of your own favorite popcorn in the middle of a movie - watching a movie over the course of a couple of nights if you start to nod out - etc.
IMO - there was as much garbage around 100 years ago as there is today. It's just that the garbage from 100 years ago has pretty much disappeared (or become so iconic that we don't dare "diss" it even if it's a total bore). Anyway - today - we have to sift through a lot of the newer stuff to get to the stuff we like. I am looking forward to the release of the movie The Hunger Games tomorrow (I like dystopian stuff). Robyn
I started looking into my geneology online, and found some interesting situations, and since the 1600's and 1700's are usually a page in the US history book, and maybe a week in a college class, I started looking for material. I stated out looking for information on convict labor from the Old Bailey and then other true indentured by force labor (not the aprentice system which used them but was different). It's hard to find books but the pile keeps growing because each new one has a list of references. I've expanded into looking at just why there were many thousands of 'excess people' in English cities who could be scooped up an not missed as well. What's really fascinating is this is the time of formation of our values, and yet its almost unknown.
At this point, I DO want to go back to school and GET the rest of the history degree that had to be dumped since I needed something which would produce a job. But if not, just a class or two and access to stuff I haven't read.
I think that one reason those that are retired, maybe early on like me from disability or maybe later, is there is so much that was put off, from there not being time and there was too much stress. So with a more whole view of life than an 18 year old, history looks much different and we can see things which we might have missed.
I find I see events in a much different light than those who really don't know any history, especially their own. I think this is true of many of us who have curiosity and life experience behind us.
If only society VALUED that as much it does the latest fad some teenager has inspired.
I take it as a complement that I was like your husband. I have always read heavily. When I was a child, the library was my refuge from all the idiotic kids because they and their parents never went to the library. It was my quiet little place where I was left alone. Today, I never go because all these young pimpled faced youth sit at the computer, watching porn, posting messages on facebutt. The stacks are empty of patrons and the shelves are bare of good books. I do not need to go to the library anymore as I borrow electronically from the 5 libraries that I have online access.
I do discriminate what I read and I do not believe all old books are great. However, many books today are written to sell movie rights and you tell by the quick scenes, fast dialogue, inordinate violence and overt sex. I do not need that nonsense. I just get bored with most modern movies for the same reason. I like slow scenes, long explanatory dialogues and a theme that I can relate. I do like the old musicals.
I do read much of the books of early explorers into Africa. Missionary journals I find fascinating because they have the earliest contact with the West of people of Asia and Africa. I read much and all kinds of genre.
My dream was always to have my own massive library and it has come true. Ebooks and the internet has given me access to millions of books in many languages. That is my greatest pleasure in life--to read.
My niece is 11 and she is intelligent for her age. However, many of the youth of today do not have the patience to read the books that I have enjoyed in my youth. Yet, if they knew more of what was available and get away from the media hype they would read more. Not all old books are long and complex; some have simple stories.
When I was in the Army, I was sent to the Presidio of Monterey for Language Training. Monterey is the setting of many of John Steinbeck's books. I would read Cannery Row, East of Eden, Tortilla Flat and go and see the actual scenes he was describing. It was one of the best experience in literature in my life. It was even better as I was in Monterey before they built the Aquarium and Cannery Row was decayed and still had many of the characters you read about in the novel. These are funny, sad and simple books for older children to read. Also, the movie, Cannery Row was a pleasure to watch. I am planning to buy her the book and the movie and see her reaction.
I try to read books that are written by the people of the time because they describe dress and normal household and street scenes that to them are the common everyday. I love having to go to reference books to find out what is this item or that; having to take time to learn about different carriages and horse conveyances, to understand these books.
I am a boring person to others but to myself, I am my own great amusement.
Livecontent
This is SO important. Some don't even realize that we see the world through the filter of our own time. In a hundred years, I'll bet, we'd be rather surprised what the current population thinks of us. But the only way they can know how we see it is the written records we leave behind.
I found a g/granfather x something who got married at 14. Astonishing, but not really in his world. I'd love to find something about the sort of life he lived in a small farming English village and knew and understood because its like a place someone would make up in a fantasy novel. I've got a couple of books recently written in the 1700's and while the language is a challenge, even the formality of it is something which tells you about them. They would have thought most of us adults were still children.
And maybe your boring to *some* others, but I think a lot of us who crawl into old books would have some fascinating conversations. I find that finding those obsessed with history is a fairly hard thing to do.
The net changed my news habits. I get all my news online. Occasionally CNN or some other news channel will be on as noise. Or if something 'big' happens I will switch it on. I don't check out the weather channel nearly as much anymore, probably because I live in an area with no severe weather to watch!
The weather is one reason I do watch the local news, or as local as halfway across the state you can get. I often pause the tv or dvr it if its not critical. Then fast forward past the crime, drugs, sports, yacking and such and it doesn't take much time at all.
I will keep access to local channels, even if at some point I don't have satalite, since its one constantly when there is big weather or when there was a fire a mile or so at the other end of towm. The sites do not have a feed of the broadcast. itself.
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. Plus, I'm reading more books.
