Aspie Women and Reading

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Yes, I love to read.

As a teenager my greatest interest was Latin/the classics, so I liked to read grammar books and translate Latin texts. I still love Latin literature and language.

One of my other major interests is politics and (political) philosophy, so I like non fiction books about politics, memoirs of politicians and journalists, philosophy books, etc.

Because of difficulty understanding NT people and to help myself, I like a self help book or coaching book as well. At school I couldn't make friends, but learned some strategies about networking/social skills from books. I also read books about happiness, the brain, career, attitude to life - so that this might help me survive on the wrong planet!

I am not much of a novel reader, but I do enjoy children's books. Often because there is adventure, interesting/nice people with fantasy, but no romance and adult problems. Nice to see that there are more people who feel that way. I like Harry Potter and also Dutch children's books (my mother language).

I also like drama texts (Greek, Roman, Dutch, English tragedies and classic drama), to read and to listen to in theatre. They come straight to the point - mere dialogue or monologue instead of long descriptions in which you have to find the clue yourself.... I like that.

I LOVE to read. I have a real problem with fiction, though - I can't stand modern fiction at all. I like ancient history (Tacitus is one of my favorites), science, politics. I'm almost finished "The Emergency State" about the creation of the military industrial complex. The last one I finished was "Where did the Towers Go?" - an alternate theory about the destruction of the twin towers. And I just started "Earth into Property."
Both my children are the same - the only problem my daughter's teachers have with her is that she sometimes reads in class when it gets boring. My son loves Dickens. Right now he's reading "In Cold Blood."

YEEEEES I LOVE TO READ!
I am also hyperlexic, when I was 7 yo peers were learning how to read and I was Reading 400 pages books. Even now I still read like 3 times faster than average person and I like to spell things in a diferente manner, for instance: hyperlexic - H C Y I P X E E R L. I am also very good at learning languages (love languages I speak 4, make many mistakes but anyway learn them much faster) and grammar, Contrary to popular belief I am also good at maths and I did understand what I was Reading.

I love (almost) all kind of books, children's, fantasy, english classics, brazilian classics and non-fiction about anything interesting. Last ones I read were Series of Unfortunate Events (reread for 7th time or so), Gensler's Introduction to Logic, Your Child Self-Steem (no, I don't have a child, but that one is interesting to analyze), Não é errado falar assim (about brazilian vernacular language), Bridget Jones, Life of Pi and Siddartha. I wish I could read more books, but they are quite expensive (in here fiction around 20 dollars and non-fiction around 70 dollars) and I needed more time.

The types I don't usually like: horror (I am sensitive), sci-fi (boring), poetry (too subjective), romantic (love me or I will kill myself type)
I also don't like books that are dumb or too dramatic or illogical... Like a person that creates a fantasy world with certain rules and breaks those rules along the way, or characters that are plain, or clichê/not developed themes. I like to read books that are interesting and unpredictable and original and books that make me think and understand human nature and that adds something to my personal growth, not something dumb (I don't want to write the names of dumb books here because someone likes them)

I also overanalyze the plots and characters. If there are sexist or racista or homophobic or prejudiced (and so on) messages I don't read them. If there are revolutionary concepts and interesting things to analyze I read them. People mock children's book but actually in books like Series of Unfortunate Events, Harry Potter, Animorphs there are lots of things to analyze and analyze the author. When I say I overanalyze things I mean it. I have bookworm friends but they don't analyze things like I do, I notice lots of things they don't notice, all the small details, like why the author wrote that sentence like that, and I make crazy associations with non-fiction things I read like philosophy, politics, sociology etc. Basically what I do when I am Reading is analyzing, others read just for fun but I can't not notice or not analyze or not think too much about it.

I would like to add that I reread thousands of times the books I like. Maybe it has to do with Aspergers, I don't know.
Books are not only scapism but also the perfect activity for some time alone or for learning. When I am reading a book and get obssessed about it I even read it when I am walking on the streets. But I can't let my mother know because she doesn't let me do it.

Books about body language, psychology, behaviour, personality, societies, culture and conversations have been tons of help in my life. I recommend this kind of Reading for any aspie.

[quote="Latinist"]Yes, I love to read.

As a teenager my greatest interest was Latin/the classics, so I liked to read grammar books and translate Latin texts. I still love Latin literature and language. \[quote]


I took latin for three years in high school loved it


I also love to read ever since I was a little kid. I have so many books I don't know where to put them all so been starting to buy ebooks especially in topics related to aspergers because is less obvious what I'm reading.

I love the library I could spend hours just looking at different books. Actually the longest job I ever kept was working at a library for a year and a half in highschool until my depression/ anxiety got so bad I couldn't stand to be alone with my thought but for the first while loved it, I got to the point (forget now) that if someone asked me where a book was I could give them the approximate number because I had shelved so many books I knew which numbers corresponded with which topics in the library. One day my dad got out a book from the library and jokingly said so what's the number of this book, and I rattled it off. Surprised him, mind you that's only because I had shelved the book a couple weeks earlier. But guess aspie brain in there remembering numbers on books.

I read mostly non fiction books, a lot of self help stuff, stuff on psychology and social justice, a lot on Autism, it's interesting because even before I thought I might have undiagnosed autism I was obsessed with reading about autism, I have even worked with younger kids with autism and loved it , and think it was because I could relate to them, and I worked well with them because I understood what they were going through more then an NT person. I even took one post grad course in Autism and behavioural sciences got like a 94%.

When I was a kid my favourite books were the Chronicles of Narnia series. I loved those worlds and almost wished I was in Narnia myself.

Right now I am reading Safety Skills for Asperger's women .... love this book I can relate to basically all of it and the tips are really good and helpful. Before that I read AsperGirl, also a great book could relate to 90% of the stuff in the book.

Reading is definitely my favorite thing! Similar to what other members have said, if nothing else is available, I will read shampoo bottles or cleaning product labels. When I was young, my mother worked in a school office, so when I had to wait for her after school, I would read all the educational pamphlets in the waiting area on saying no to drugs and such. I was probably the only one who ever read those things, and honestly I am the last person that needs to be told to be more cautious . In middle school I was obsessed with the Guardians of Ga'hoole and the Red Wall series. When I discovered the possibility that I might be an Apsie, I started reading voraciously in that vein. My favorite Books on Aspergers would be Aspergirls by Rudy Simon and Aspergers and Anxiety by Nick Dubin. Another one would be A Field Guide to Earthlings by Ian Ford. It was a really interesting book, it gave me a lot to think about. Additionally, I really like the classic authors such as the Brontë sisters , Dostoyevsky, and Dickens. I also really like books on nature, such as natural history, botany, deep sea life, and wilderness survival. My current favorite is mushrooms demystified by David Arora. I love the Chronicles of Narnia series and Lord of the Rings as well. The best thing I ever got was an e-reader, so I could have all my comfort books with me whenever I need them!

After reading so many answers I totally don't get it why many specialists insist in saying aspies don't have imagination and reading for us is just rote memorization not understanding and that we don't like fiction books.

I used to read a lot as a kid.
I think I am a slow reader but take my eReader or a book around with me (to work, when I was working, and now to the course I am taking). I like Christian fiction books by Karen Kingsbury, the Harry Potter series (never read it when it was popular, was actually catsitting for someone and started reading them--I'm really slow with that series because I am reading too many other books at once!)

I love reading. I always had since I was two years old. I read a few books, like Alice in Wonderland, The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner, and Aspergirls.