Does anyone else find it hard to read fiction?

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If I read fiction, which is rarely, it has to be about a subject that interests me. A fictional story about a person dealing with a particular issue might catch my interest because of the psychology behind it. I usually read memoirs and books with facts and information. Psychology textbooks are interesting, as are medical dictionaries. I've been reading them since I was little.

Fictions the bomb, but I've been slacking on reading lately.

You have to find something that mostly interests you or, for me, you can relate to, and because of this I tend to start books because I'm in a certain mood and once that shifts I leave it unfinished for another time. Horrible habit, but whatever.

There's that quote that goes something like "art is to comfort the discomforted and discomfort the comforted," and I think this is incredibly true. Think of that whenever all of you who aren't fond of fiction decide to pick out and possibly read fiction.

Yup. Can't be doing with it. Simple as that.

Guess what.... YOU LIKE FICTION! And probably read it just fine....



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Do_android ... tric_sheep
Read that... That might help explain that story in a very aspie friendly blunt way..... But honestly, I wouldn't like that story either. I haven't read it, but it honestly sounds alot like a clockwork orange, or 28 Days, or any number of other very dry, quasi-philosophical pieces of fiction using sci-fi as an excuse to allow the author enough freedom to posit their ideas in a way that's acceptable to their publisher and at least mildly interesting to the public at large. Im not surprised your wife likes it from what little you've told me about her.

Alot of Fiction from the 40s-60s I find to be boring and uninteresting. Since Ive learned more about asperger's Ive learned that alot of the reason for that was that alot of the fiction from those eras tended to be very emotional outlets for people that were dealing with alot of stresses coming out of those eras. Emotions weren't talked about (Read up about Child abuse, and the difference between now and the 1950s as a case in point, or PTSD and now vs 1948, or 1957, or even as late as 1972), but for whatever reason they seemed to be expressed quite liberally by those era's Authors in a variety of ways..... Further, alot of the authors from that time period, if not directly involved in a war, knew people that were. Or used emotional backdrops stemming from things like the cold war, etc etc (Sound familiar now that you've been drug through "Do Android Dream of Electric Sheep"? it should...).

I honestly can't get into most of Isaac Asimov, H.G Wells, John Wyndham, or anyone else from that era. I found their writing to be very flat to me. It just didn't "Speak to me" in a way that I found interesting. Of course, I didn't live through those eras either, and maybe if I had Id have had a better understanding of where they were coming from, but there ya go. I mean, alot of their stories sound like they would be interesting in premise, aliens, robots, psychological and moral dilemmas of such magnitudes to affect entire planets.... But their writing style, and the way they wrote about the topics involved, just dried it up for me... I find alot of their writing to come off to me as cheap and banal, even though on a logical level I know we wouldn't have alot of modern fiction (Which I enjoy much more) with out them....

Finally on this more direct line, I want to highlight Writing Style. I have tended to find that, to enjoy a book, I have to "jive", as it were, with the authors writing style. Too much detail and I feel like Im forcing molasses down my throat. Not enough and I feel like Im trying to make sense of a 3 y.o.s stick figure hand painting.... Too much focus on emotion rather then actions taken by the characters and I feel like its a day time soap rather then whatever it claimed to be and again lose interest, and vice versa and I dont feel any connection to the characters (Though I can forgive this to a great extent if the story itself is interesting enough).

I have become more accepting of books since Ive gotten older. When I was 14 my father tried to make me read Starship Troopers... I got about 1 chapter in to it and proceeded to start a holy war with my father that lasted about 3 months and I never did read it while I was on speaking terms with my father. about 5 or so years later, they made a movie based on the book and suddenly I had another perspective on the story, a more enjoyable one (That also happened to be more modern, with a more updated syntax). I have since gone back and read that book, and found it far more enjoyable (Though still not a page turner). This has been true for similar experiences in school with stories like Watership Down, Beowolf, The Odyssey, and numerous others (Not all have I gone back and read, updated perspectives or not).

I too enjoy Graphic Novels, though I prefer Manga to DC Comics. I would suggest that the mere act of drawing out the charachter movements presents a commonality, and a similarity to reality, that cannot be shaped, altered, denigrated from, or otherwise reduced or exaggerated away from. There was a really good book done on this topic, called "Understanding Comics, The invisible art" by Scott Mcloud. Really an incredible read, and it has applications far beyond just graphic novels, comics, Manga, manwha, and Cartoons.

http://www.amazon.com/Understanding-Com ... 006097625X

One last point I want to make. I recently read an accounting of a high school english teacher that was appaled to hear some of her students proclaim things like "Why couldn't Ahab or Romeo & juliet, just get a take a few prozac and go home?".... Back before modern psychology, people mostly had to put up with their own, and others, emotional issues and idiosyncracies. As such, alot of literature from previous eras highlights this in a great variety of ways..... Emotional stoicism is a dieing institution however.... Amongst many other things cherished in "Classic Literature". Im at a loss to describe much of it for you all reading this, but I have a sneaky suspicion this might play a role in why so many people here seem to be so picky about their fiction (I have yet to see one person in this thread come out and say "Yup, Im a bibliophile, I love ALL Fiction", and I have a sneaky suspicion there wont be many, if any, though this will require further definition if any here wants to discuss it).

Hope it was interesting if you read all of this,
Aldran

Edited to finish a half finished sentence

I was going to start a new topic but decided to resurrect this old one instead, as it's what I wanted to discuss

Does anyone else wish there were pictures in adult fiction books? I struggle to visualise the setting that has been described. Sometimes I think I've got it but then the author will describe something that contradicts the picture I have in my head so I have to rethink it. Also I try to visualise the characters but then I read something that tells me my vision of a character cannot possibly be like that. It's so frustrating. What's worse is if there is a picture of the characters on the cover but the description is different.

I cannot read anything with too complex a plot but I do like to read simple romance novels, the type where you are guaranteed a happy ending

I'm wondering if anyone else would like to see pictures for books? I'm thinking of creating a website where people can post pictures relating to books they've read. I'll look into this more if I ever get more time to spare and people think this is a good idea

I enjoy WRLLing both fiction and non fiction. My favorite fiction genre's are Romance and Erotica/Porn stories. It's weird because real life me is a Aromantic Asexual but fiction wise I really enjoy romance.

I read somewhere that reading fiction helps the reader to develop empathy and theory of mind.

It's understandable that many people on the spectrum would find fiction difficult and/or off putting, but most would benefit from reading it.

Fiction is kinda like intellectual spinach for autistic folk.

The only books Ive ever read was one series as a kid (The Deltora Quest Novels) and I liked it soo much I wanted to bag and seal it so the book can be passed down because it was soo good.

The second was the Harry Potter series which were pretty good, and I'm not even nerdy by today's standards, Must read, I recommend it

And a few others I cant remember, but I do remember the author of one, it was Robert Ludlum, and no it wasn't the Bourne series.

Yes, I find most fictional writing to be a dreadful waste of time, serving only as a hedonistic exercise in identity type thinking.
If I wanted pure fantasy I would just listen to a normal person talk about their lives and interests.

It was reading a work of fiction frightened me into changing my life. I'll agree most books are rubbish but most beer is rubbish, most food is rubbish, most music is rubbish, most art is rubbish, most comedy is rubbish etc. But the more of it you take in the more refined and sophisticated your tastes become. Put the time in, it is well worth the effort.

If you have dyslexia and own an Ipod, try audiobooks.

Yes! and portraits of people!
I personally used to enjoy fiction, but over the last ten years I found it hard to read longer fictional texts. I also can't remember what happened in the stories I read.
No such problem with non-fiction, however long and strange (I really, really enjoyed Gödel Escher Bach)
I very much enjoy fiction in films, but within that, I find the non-fiction aspects more interesting, i.e. how does the film fit within its genre, what are its structural peculiarities and stuff like that.
But there is a thing that annoys me about films as well: I find spaces often to be poorly established. I feel like I'm being shown only the few, carefully desinged aspects of a set (which is probably very much the way things are being made) and I wish for a wide shot or a camera track that shows me the whole space and how things are connected, so I can get the feeling of a real place, not ust setpieces in closeup.
topographic equivalent of action scenes which are fast and confusing and disjointed.

I'm not so sure about my original idea now I just made a new avatar of my favourite book and whilst googling for this I found some pictures of the characters. Now the reason I love this book so much is because of the character Lord Westcliff. I do have a picture of him in my head and the pictures from Google do not match my picture at all. I much prefer my idea of Lord Westcliff who is older and sexier than how those other people paint him