# What is your split between reading and watching science fiction and fantasy?



## asp3 (Sep 14, 2021)

How much of your science fiction and fantasy intake is reading versus watching.  If you wish you can split out listening as a separate input or include it as reading for books on tape.

I'd say I'm reading 95% and watching about 5%.  Most movies and TV in the science fiction and fantasy categories don't really interest me.


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## G.T. (Sep 14, 2021)

I find I watch more Science Fiction and read more Fantasy. It used to be 90% reading and 10% watching, now its the other way around. I need to get back into reading more again.


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## CupofJoe (Sep 14, 2021)

If you are talking time involved, then it could be as high as 90% Watching [almost all sci-fi] and 10% Reading.
But if you are talking engagement, then its more like 90% Reading [equally split between Crime and Fantasy] and 10% Watching.
I tend to have the TV on while doing other things and so I use my TiVo to hoover up all the old Star Trek, Stargate, B5 and like shows it can find so there is always something to glance at.


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## BAYLOR (Sep 15, 2021)

Far more reading then watching .


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## Vince W (Sep 15, 2021)

I read more than I watch of either although there are spurts where I watch a bit more if there is something very good available.


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## JunkMonkey (Sep 15, 2021)

If you include comics ( which I do) in 'reading' then 50/50.


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## Wayne Mack (Sep 15, 2021)

The numbers are biased towards reading. A 13 episode season of 1/2 hour shows would be 6 1/2 hours. An hour program would be 13 hours. I don't think I could finish a typical 80K novel in 6 1/2 hours, and certainly could not finish an epic fantasy in 13 hours. So, one novel would trump one TV season. Looking at availability, there are probably two orders of magnitude more SF/F books available than TV shows or movies.


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## JunkMonkey (Sep 15, 2021)

JunkMonkey said:


> If you include comics ( which I do) in 'reading' then 50/50.




Thinking about this, is a film with subtitles a 'reading' or a 'watching'?


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## Rodders (Sep 15, 2021)

I only really get to read for a couple of hours each day when i'm on the train. 

I've tried to cut out TV when I get in from work and have started listening to Audiobooks. My sleep quality has improved considerably. 

I'll binge watch TV over the weekend, or days off though. 

Probably 50%TV, 25% games, 20% reading and 5% on audio books.


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## asp3 (Sep 15, 2021)

JunkMonkey said:


> Thinking about this, is a film with subtitles a 'reading' or a 'watching'?



I'd call it watching as one is getting a lot from the visuals in addition to any dialogue and/or narration.


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## JunkMonkey (Sep 15, 2021)

asp3 said:


> I'd call it watching as one is getting a lot from the visuals in addition to any dialogue and/or narration.



You could say the same about comics.

EDIT:  Chris Marker's _La Jetée_, a film made almost entirely from stills with subtitles, must sit right on the borderline between a 'read' and a 'watch'.


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## asp3 (Sep 15, 2021)

JunkMonkey said:


> You could say the same about comics.
> 
> EDIT:  Chris Marker's _La Jetée_, a film made almost entirely from stills with subtitles, must sit right on the borderline between a 'read' and a 'watch'.



In most cases one still needs to take an active role in progressing to the next portion of the story with a book or a comic.  In most cases one just needs to sit back and watch a movie even if it has subtitles.  Sometimes on stops a movie with subtitles if they're going by too quickly, but one doesn't need to do that for the story to progress.

La Jetee does have one section of motion which is very important to the story.  The pacing and duration of the images and text in La Jetee is very important to the story itself.  You would not get the same feeling for the movie if you just read the text.


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## Elckerlyc (Sep 15, 2021)

There aren't all that many SFF TV-series or movies going around. And compared with the huge number of books that see the light every year the material to watch actually shrinks to a dismissively small percentage. If you furthermore skip all the repetitious, monotonous material the TV and Movie world produces these days, or simply because vampires, undead, zombies and superhero's are not your thing, it's even shrinking down to something nameless on a quantum level.
Just look around on this forum and observe how often and how many people are doing re-watches, which wouldn't happen so often if there was an abundance of fresh and high-quality material to watch.
My TBR is about 50 at the moment (though, admittedly, I don't read much these days), but my TBW is 1. There is little new material to watch (though, admittedly, I am very picky  ) while I excitedly wait for series like Foundation (which I probably can't watch until it gets released on DVD), Middle Earth (once on DVD) and Wheel of Time (once on DVD) or the releases of new seasons, which seem to take ages these days.
But curiously I do watch more than read Fantasy.


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## Guttersnipe (Sep 15, 2021)

Reading: 75% fantasy
Watching: 70% sci-fi


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## JunkMonkey (Sep 16, 2021)

asp3 said:


> In most cases one still needs to take an active role in progressing to the next portion of the story with a book or a comic.  In most cases one just needs to sit back and watch a movie even if it has subtitles.  Sometimes on stops a movie with subtitles if they're going by too quickly, but one doesn't need to do that for the story to progress.
> 
> La Jetee does have one section of motion which is very important to the story.  The pacing and duration of the images and text in La Jetee is very important to the story itself.  You would not get the same feeling for the movie if you just read the text.



So listening to an audiobook is more akin to watching a film in that you are not in control of the speed at which the text is read (one of the reasons I don't like the things.)



Elckerlyc said:


> but my TBW is 1.


!!!!!

You lucky bugger! I have about 300+ DVDs and BluRays backed up in my TBW pile.


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## asp3 (Sep 16, 2021)

JunkMonkey said:


> So listening to an audiobook is more akin to watching a film in that you are not in control of the speed at which the text is read (one of the reasons I don't like the things.)



Which I why I suggested listing listening as a separate portion.  However I find it more akin to reading than watching.

Graphic novels and comics are also an interesting media where one has to move through them like one reads a book, but they provide the images related to the story rather than having them created in one's mind's eye.  I do consider them reading more than watching though.

So in the end maybe my proposed separation of activities is a false dichotomy and should be reframed.


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## psikeyhackr (Nov 22, 2021)

JunkMonkey said:


> So listening to an audiobook is more akin to watching a film in that you are not in control of the speed at which the text is read (one of the reasons I don't like the things.)
> 
> 
> !!!!!
> ...


I use Smart Audiobook and almost always speed up the playback.

Smart AudioBook Player (Android)


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## The Big Peat (Nov 22, 2021)

Probably 80/20 in fantasy's favour for reading, and it was higher before discovering Avatar: The Last Airbender.


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## Foxbat (Nov 22, 2021)

Definitely leaning more towards reading than watching. However, I’m really beginning to struggle with the smaller print in older paperbacks so I think my eyes would probably prefer it to be the other way around.


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## psikeyhackr (Apr 4, 2022)

psikeyhackr said:


> I use Smart Audiobook and almost always speed up the playback.
> 
> Smart AudioBook Player (Android)



Now I use AIReader that does text to speech more than Smart Audiobook Player

I didn't answer the original question. Alzheimer's again.

I would say 10 to 1 in favor of science fiction though it is probably more than that but I am too lazy to try to be more accurate. Count books and try to remember which ones I never finished. 
No way!


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## Rodders (Apr 4, 2022)

I'm glad to be watching a little more SF as i've gone back to some older shows that i haven't seen.

Currently watching Blake's 7 and enjoying it a lot. Afterwards, i'd like to watch The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy (which i have seen, but not in a while) the Day of the Triffids and Space 1999. Kinda bored with modern TV.


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## Zach777 (Apr 4, 2022)

More reading than writing for both. As for watching, now that I think about it, it's closer than I thought. I would have said I've seen more sci-fi, but I can also think of a bunch of fantasy movies and TV shows I've watched.


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## BAYLOR (Apr 7, 2022)

Rodders said:


> I'm glad to be watching a little more SF as i've gone back to some older shows that i haven't seen.
> 
> Currently watching Blake's 7 and enjoying it a lot. Afterwards, i'd like to watch The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy (which i have seen, but not in a while) the Day of the Triffids and Space 1999. Kinda bored with modern TV.



*Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea  .  *I have the whole series on dvd . This is actually a fun and entertaining series to watch .


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## The Big Peat (Apr 7, 2022)

Interesting that my life has changed so much since the first iteration of this thread. I was totally a 50-50 guy for the first few months of this year - reading went a little awry, tried to get into a few fantasy things on TV.

As for Sci-Fi... watching, then rewatching, Cowboy Bebop probably puts me at 80-20 for watching Sci-Fi to reading it.


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## psikeyhackr (Apr 7, 2022)

BAYLOR said:


> *Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea  .  *I have the whole series on dvd . This is actually a fun and entertaining series to watch .


The inspiration for sparking and exploding control consoles on Star Trek. I saw the movie at the theater with my father.


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## Bick (Apr 15, 2022)

My split is 98% reading SFF, to 2% watching it.


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## Swank (Apr 15, 2022)

I'm about 80%/30% books vs watching.


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## Erythr (Apr 16, 2022)

My split is currently 70% reading compared to 30% watching with respect to science fiction. Whereas in fantasy it is 60% watching while 40% reading. Personal Opinion: I really feel like the sci-fi pool of ideas for movies and TV shows is pretty shallow (AI, time-traveling, Entering Video games, and science monsters) when compared to fantasy movies and TV shows which have a very wide range of themes. And it is exactly the opposite when it comes to books. More creative concepts for sci-fi while less for fantasy.


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## Bick (Apr 16, 2022)

Swank said:


> I'm about 80%/30% books vs watching.


Do you get someone to pitch in for the extra 10% ?


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## Rodders (Apr 16, 2022)

Watching by proxy?


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## Swank (Apr 16, 2022)

Bick said:


> Do you get someone to pitch in for the extra 10% ?


No. I always give 110%.


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## bretbernhoft (Apr 19, 2022)

I'm about 25% reading and 75% watching. Given that I stream a lot of video game playthroughs on YouTube, most of which are science fiction and/or fantasy uploads. But without YouTube videos considered, I'm about 40% reading, and 60% watching.


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## paranoid marvin (Apr 25, 2022)

Given that we only used to have 4 channels, and mostly there was no scifi on (apart from the SW/ST movies at Christmas) it was nearly all reading. Nowadays with access to loads of new (and loads of old) tv series and all pretty much all the movies on demand it's gone much more in the opposite direction. Which is a shame to some extent.


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## chongjasmine (May 8, 2022)

Since somewhere early this year, I gave up on watching shows. So, for me my spilt is now 99% reading over watching.


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## Rodders (May 8, 2022)

I would love to give up TV and read at home. TV is so quick and easy, i swear it should be classified as an addiction.


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## psikeyhackr (May 8, 2022)

Rodders said:


> I would love to give up TV and read at home. TV is so quick and easy, i swear it should be classified as an addition.


I am starting to think that audiobooks are almost as bad.  It is getting to the point that I can't drive without a book playing. Maybe I should see a shrink.


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## Rodders (May 8, 2022)

I don’t think that’s as bad as telly, at least there is still play with imagination with an audio book.


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