Reading books

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Do you find that reading books is a social thing?
I have to understand the mind of the author(s).
Would that be difficult as this have to do with theory of mind?

I just read a book about Martin Luther and I did not find the 95 thesis in the book. Most "NTs" don't need to actually read the 95 thesis but only read a text that says that Luther wrote them? Now I am no fan of "NT" stereotypes. I only said that it seems common for most people to do or need a certain thing.
Most "aspies" want or need the details?

Books are difficult for me to read.
I find that reading them is not a relaxation from the social world. The social difficulties due to ASD do not dissapear when reading books. I get frustrated with books.

What are your personal experiences? Do books also frustrates you as well? Or is reading books enjoyment for you?
Any tips for me?

What are your favorite genres of literature?

I have read that Aspergers are no good at fiction?

Apart from reading Victorian novels to my wife, I rarely read any books from start to end. Non-fiction always seems too drawn out, and I often wish they'd just written a summary as a pamphlet to just give me the gist of their thesis, so as to save time. I sometimes read reviews of such books if they provide such a summary. I read the occasional fiction book a long time ago, and enjoyed those, though there were many fiction books I couldn't follow.

I remember trying to read P.G.Wodehouse's "Full Moon" - in those days my brain often couldn't focus on fiction narratives and I was often left frustrated and worried I might have some kind of brain damage, but that particular time I stumbled on the idea of writing down the names of the characters and mapping out their relationships to each other. I was very glad to find that it worked very well, and I was soon enjoying the book. It also pointed me to one of the reasons I had trouble with fiction - if there are many characters, I can't absorb the details of who is who or remember their names if I just try to read it at anything like a normal pace, but once I've forced my brain to actively process the information, I can follow the book easily.

So after that I knew what to do. Though strangely enough, I then didn't bother to read many other novels. I suppose I always had more interesting things to do, and it always seemed such a lonely pastime. Later on I discovered the pleasure of reading fiction to partners and eventually to my son. At last there was a social dimension, and apart from reading stories to children I suppose many people these days never bother, and I've always liked the idea of doing things the mainstream doesn't do. It also gave me the chance to develop the skill of doing the job well, honing up my intonation and giving my brain a bit of practice. I was pretty much the best kid at school for reading aloud when I was a small child, and it's been good fun to become more advanced and take on Victorian novels with their numerous subordinate clauses and deliciously quaint, intelligent and clear way of expressing themselves. And I didn't even need to be able to follow the plot, though I discovered I could actually follow it rather better when I was reading aloud.

I also like the way novels describe human feelings so much. I'm lucky enough to be able to understand feelings reasonably easily when they're written down like that, certainly it's easier for me than watching a film where I have more trouble figuring them out from pictures, and that goes for the plot too. And I can take a book at whatever speed I like, and navigate back and forth more easily than with a video (it's impossible with live television and cinema of course). As for the feelings, I think they've helped me learn more about those in general.

I've never been in a book club (where the members each read something and then present a summary of it and what they made of it), but I think it's an excellent idea. Again it's slightly unusual, and it would probably be a good way of finding thoughtful people who like to do something intelligent together that doesn't involve buying anything or cow-towing to a leader.

I read a lot, but I prefer non-fiction to fiction. I am particularly fond of history and scientific topics.

And the fictional works I *do* enjoy tend to focus on very tangible subjects (science fiction, crime etc.) rather than emotional and relational ones (like romance and family dramas). Alas, many of the most celebrated works of fiction tend to fall in the latter category.

I suspect this is a somewhat common feature for many on the spectrum due to alexithymia (the inability to identify and describe emotions).

I read a lot!
I've had my periods of just non-fiction, but I've always enjojed fiction as well.
I don't usually have a problem with family ties - who is the cousin etc - but in some books there are too many people, I can't keep track of what name corresponds to which person.

/Mats