I hate when people tell me something along the lines "reading is just so boring," "I hate reading," 'I just can't stand reading." If you say that, you're an idiot. Plain and simple. There's so much to be gained from reading.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KEMEBBwO6J8

Reading increases your intelligence, your memory, your vocabulary, your analytical abilities, your imagination, it's entertaining, it fights off dementia in old age, and most importantly you learn.

Don't dismiss fiction for learning aspects, though. Great novelists have so much to teach through their writing. Shakespeare, The Odyssey, the Iliad, the Argonautica, Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Antigone, Moby-Dick, etc. All of these can teach you incredible things.

You don't have to read the Classics or the Western "Greats," but it definitely wouldn't hurt.

My friend carries a copy of The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri with him almost everywhere he goes. He likes to flip through it before tests and exams because it gets him in his "genius beast mode" as he likes to refer to it haha. It works for him though! The kid is a 3.9 GPA student... Majoring in Polymer Science. Just sayin'.

It can help you get laid, it can help you find a way to get a raise, earn more friends...

So pick up a damn book. It'll improve your quality of life and make you a smarter and better individual in the process.

"If you go home with somebody and they don't have books, don't fuck 'em." -John Waters

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-Bedrock

"The society that separates scholars from its warriors will have its thinking done by cowards and its fighting done by fools." - Thucydides

Seize the day with love

Sometimes you succeed, and sometimes you learn.

I think it's a good idea to talk about books on this thread. Not just Pickup books (we've all read The Game, give it a rest), but books in general. I don't care if it's a children's book like Eragon or Harry Potter. AS LONG AS YOU'RE READING A BOOK!!

You can talk about a book you're in the middle of reading, plan on reading, or have already read. Doesn't matter, but do specify

I can start.

Right now I'm reading Lord of the Flies. It consistently makes the Top 100 in banned books (which really is the reason I wanted to read it. If it's banned, I get automatically interested haha) and has been proclaimed as one of the best books of the last 100 years.

It's very well written. It says very directly that human nature is violent. The boys in the group are stranded on an island and form a tribe. They demonstrate that they automatically fall into a wolf pack dynamic; there's an alpha male (Ralph) and he's the head of the tribe. The bigger boys are protective of the smaller, younger children. The group has "doers" (the choir) that are the go to guys for hunting, building, etc. And there are a few beta males, the story focuses on Piggy, the beta-est of the pack.

The book was reaaaaaaaaaally slow starting out and I almost put it down out of sheer boredom, but once you get over that barrier the book begins to pick up and get more intriguing.

_________________
-Bedrock

"The society that separates scholars from its warriors will have its thinking done by cowards and its fighting done by fools." - Thucydides

Seize the day with love

Sometimes you succeed, and sometimes you learn.

Just finished reading the dreams from my father by Barack Obama.

I have learnt so much from the book. Going to read Audacity of hope next.

I love knowledge.

Reading and acquiring books for my library has become a sort of addiction. Unfortunately, I have to go to work which really cuts into the time I have in a day where I can dive into a book and learn something.

Recently I've read:
The World Without Us- Alan Weisman
---Very interesting read. The Discovery Channel show 'Earth After People' was based on it I believe and it discusses what would happen to the planet if all the people should suddenly disappear overnight. I highly recommend it. Seems like it might be boring but I'm a bit of a science nerd and I couldn't put it down. Really puts things into perspective regarding how otherwise 'lame' plants can live in the harshest conditions and utterly destroy most evidence that we were ever here.

Where's My Jetpack - Daniel H. Wilson
---A humorous look at the SciFI technology the 50's and 60's promised us that never made it to become household items, yet still exist in one form or another.

Also been reading the Game of Thrones series by George R.R. Martin. Excellent bit of fiction and I highly recommend it.

Good to hear! Keep up the good work
Take notes of this man, everyone.
Having a personal library is awesome. Really shows a thirst for knowledge. I'll have to check out the World Without Us, sounds really interesting. Right up my alley kind of interesting. Science nerds are the best nerds, we do it right.

_________________
-Bedrock

"The society that separates scholars from its warriors will have its thinking done by cowards and its fighting done by fools." - Thucydides

Seize the day with love

Sometimes you succeed, and sometimes you learn.

Touche. Not only do they serve as awesome conversation starters/threads, but there's just so much to be learnt from books!

From experience, when it comes to girls, the classics work well because regardless if they've read them or not. It conveys that 1) You are intelligent and have content 2) You have both a mix of fun and seriousness. I'd recommend the Picture of Dorian Grey.

The same goes for authors like Ralph W. Emerson or Oscar Wilde.

At the same time, in light of recent trends, I've noticed that girls have gained a liking for the 50 Shades of Grey. Given that it's essentially erotica, this can serve as verbal escalation should you choose to use it as a thread.

Self-help books are pretty self explanatory. Be it NLP, body language reading, confidence building. Look out for people like Anthony Robins, Robert Kiyosaki, Tony Buzan (Check out speed reading, it'll be a great help)

I just finished reading "How I Lost My Virginity" by Richard Branson. It's an autobiography of his life, a rather easy, yet inspiring read. I may actually pick uo Lord of the Flies. Strangely, it isn't banned here in Singapore.

But for those die hard "I'm not going to read" people, invest in watching informative videos. There are tons of them everywhere. A good place would be TED. Don't forget YouTube as well. Subscribe to the channels that connect best with you, but keep a good mix of fun and content.

You can learn so much from reading books. I've learned so much from doing so, and I actually feel happier when I read (unless it's heavy subject matter or w/e)
I'm not so sure about that, the ones who are into that book are going to be the ones who don't have a clue about what they're doing, as it presents BDSM in perhaps the worst possible way. Still, I agree with you to a point, it's a great conversation topic.

Kudos for mentioning the TED talks!

50 Shades of Grey is an EXCELLENT conversational piece! Just throw in bits an pieces from the book and:

If the girl has read it, she'll start to smile, blush and start physically escalating -- I've noticed eyes dilate after mentioning this.

If she hasn't read it, you can tease her about how EVERYONE has read 50 Shades!

Awesome read, and all PUAs need to read that book. Plain awesome.

It goes into a secret fantasy that a LOT of women have (it's a bestseller, guys). And Christian Grey, though some might consider him "50 Shades of Fucked Up," he's an *awesome* guy to model for a PUA.

I only read esoteric books, which nobody else seems to have ever read. And in my experience, women only read romance novels and best sellers, which really makes me yawn. I like non-fiction, but it seems most of the rest of the world loves them some fiction.

Another thing worth mentioning is that you don't just have to read books. Reading web pages is just as enriching. I absolutely love wikipedia because I can read a brief synopsis of pretty much anything I could ever want to know. And if I want to learn more, I can just click on more links for further reading.

Reading is a form of self-education, but you can also enrich and educate yourself by listening to audio books or watching informational videos (as was previously mentioned). I've personally never liked holding books up to my face and turning pages, although Ereaders make things a little easier and more efficient.

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“Nothing is impossible, the word itself says 'I'm possible'!” ~Audrey Hepburn

I see.

The simple fact of the matter is that the best of the best nearly ALWAYS read books. That is, the best of the best who came from AFC to PUAville, that is.

I'd hate to live wherever TS is from, where people actually admit to hating reading. Even as an adolescent I knew that, even though I didn't read that much, it's an embarrassing thing to say you don't like reading.
Lately I'm forcing myself to read more fiction. Interesting style can often outweigh the subject. I've certainly experienced incredible amounts of inspiration and food-for-thought since venturing off the path of non-fiction and hard-knowledge.

Working in academics, at both the Elementary, Secondary, and Collegiate levels, it's very apparent (and unfortunate) that Americans don't like to read. Personally, I blame the teachers and the parents. If teachers (especially their English teachers....don't even get me started on the quality of English teachers) allowed students to read what they were interested in, whilst encouraging them to attempt other material for the sake of different writing style, complexity, depth, etc, I feel students wouldn't develop a distaste for reading at a young age and would look at it less as 'work' and more as a way to better themselves or seek entertainment. Not that I'm supporting the trash that is the Twilight saga, but fuck, at least it got a lot of young adults reading. Same goes for the Hunger Games. As far as the parents go, they should be setting examples by reading to their children while they're young and continuing to read while the child develops into their adult life.

Also, on a different note, for a nation of people who "hate to read" we sure spend a lot of time reading and writing text messages.

As far as books go:
Why Don't Penguins' Feet Freeze? - New Scientist: It's a collection of random questions with several scientific answers. Interesting little bathroom reader.

How to build your own spaceship - Piers Bizony: Not actually an instruction manual, but it goes into a lot of the complications regarding rocket science, the materials that are used, and private companies and how they went about competing to reach orbit. It can get a bit dry but if you're into space or science, I'd recommend it.

How I killed Pluto and why it had it coming - Mike Brown: Mike Brown is the man credited with causing the removal of Pluto as a planet from our solar system. This book tells the story of how he discovered a few large objects orbiting beyond Pluto and how those discoveries led to the reclassification of the object Pluto. Entertaining and not as 'sciency' as you might think.

FU, Penguin - Matthew Gasteier: Not much reading involved in this one. It's basically the author showing a picture of an adorable animal on one page, and then verbally assaulting it on the next. Colorful use of the English language for humors sake. Interesting bathroom reader.

Badass - Ben Thompson: There are two Badass books I believe. One discusses historical figures up to modern day and another is about mythological beings. Very humorous use of language and reasonably informative as well. These I recommend as I got a huge kick out of them.

Presently on the fifth Game of thrones book as well. If anyone hasn't picked these up you must!

I did a post like this in the lounge:

anyways

no more mr. nice guy, not a pua book, but should be mandatory reading

psycho cybernetics, not a pua book, but best inner game book ever...

the power of habit

how to win friends and influence people

Influence, the psychology of persuasion...

i did read 50 shades of grey the biggest waste of my time, not a pua book, but i got it to talk to women, since they all read it, i am about to get a refund for it..

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I can relate to hating to read books, back in Highschool. But now there are audio books! I do consume a lot of them and there are some great ones out there. I prefer podcasts, college lectures, videos and documentaries even better.


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