If on pain of death, you had to give up either reading or writing...

Writing. Even apart from reading books, I couldn't imagine my main source of news being TV--and having to go back to talking on the phone instead of texting, email, or keeping in touch on Facebook.

Plus, like you say, no one could stop us from making up stories in our heads.

I need peace to read fiction which I don't really have much at the moment. I could read a book at work in the old days when I manned the phone at a quiet
call centre but now I'm busy busy busy. I'm also not the type of reader that falls onto a book on a long journey as I prefer to take in the world, watch people going about their business, and spew it out in my own stories.

Writing though, I'm constantly chipping away, adding and editing my manuscript between the precious long slogs where the bulk of it gets written.

If I had to sacrifice one, it's reading every time.

Reading. No contest.

Writing. As long as other people are doing it, and doing it well, I need them more than they need me.

It's impossible to write without reading. Therefore, I call bullshit. I'm doing both.

*drops mic*

Reading. I've read enough books already where I can think back fondly on all of them. I haven't written enough yet, however. So I'd have to finish that path.

I can't not write. It's not a matter of feeling like the world needs my words, it's just a mental health thing. So I'd have to give up reading, which would be horrible, but I'd survive it.

Writing. Or maybe I'd take death. I don't know.

Death.

Death, for sure.

Well, writing involves reading what I write... if I couldn't read what I'd written, I'd be even worse at it than I am.

Though if I had to give up writing, I suppose I could go back to sucking at art - another form of storytelling. Reading's my man escape from reality these days, so it would be tough to quit.

Writing, without a doubt.

Writing is hard, but reading? Reading is a joy.

lizmonster said:

I can't not write. It's not a matter of feeling like the world needs my words, it's just a mental health thing. So I'd have to give up reading, which would be horrible, but I'd survive it.

Click to expand...

+1
That whole choice experience and the sadness over having to give up reading would probably make my writing better anyway

I don't really get why some of you choose death. I mean, I get that it's a statement and that you can't imagine life without either, but if you die, you can neither read another book again nor write another word, so isn't that like a lose-lose option?

My blurb on Facebook says if the world ended and my kindle died, I'd be razing the library instead of CostCo. Reading, reading, reading, reading, reading. Maybe if I was more prolific, I'd miss writing.

It's a serious question! I have certain friends who, when you ask, "Would you rather be deaf or blind?" without hesitation say blind because music is so important to them. I would never pick being blind. But everyone's got the thing that makes them get out of bed in the morning.....

Reading hands down. If I ever gave up writing I think I would die. When my depression kicks in and I lose my ability to write anything it makes me feel worse, but when I start to write again, I find myself loving life once more. Writing is the only thing in my life I don't think I could ever give up. I feel lost without it. There are weeks, sometimes months, that I go without reading anything, but I write something everyday if not once a week.

I have to choose?! Well, ok, if I really had to, probably would give up reading. I can't live without my writing.

I agree with reading. I could always see if they had audiobooks but writing is therapeutic and it is also something I can't live without.

i choose death. if i'm a ghost, i won't have to care about reading or writing. i'll be too busy playing poltergeist and flickering all the lights like i'm nosferatu.

It's only pain of death? Not death?

Pfft, I choose both.

Pain of death is nothing.

I'd give up writing. As much as I love it when I do it, I haven't been doing it for close to two years now. Writing challenges me to think critically and make new connections, but reading is the source of new inputs and inspirations. I wouldn't find writing as fulfilling if I wasn't reading too.

I can't imagining giving up either, but if I had to choose, I'd keep writing.

If I gave up writing I'd be out of a job. If I gave up reading, my job would be really really hard. I suppose I could use text to speech to get the information I need though. And I'd still be able to interview people. I guess that even without being able to read, I'd still be able to do my job. Therefore I'd have to give up reading.

Hard choice to make. I have several unfinished manuscripts and it would be a shame not to finish them. On the other hand, I have 1600 unread books on my Kindle and a whole bookcase of unread tree books. I guess I'd have to give up the writing. But only on pain of death.