Not only was Grimma the best reader among the nomes, she had an amazing ability to understand what she was reading. (Dig)
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Mau was good at reading important things. He could read the sea, the weather, the tracks of animals, tattoos and the night sky. (N)
... I taught myself how to write by reading as many books as I could carry home from the library. (DCC)
‘Politicians only read books they have written, or those of colleagues they suspect might have mentioned them in their text.’ (JD)
‘If you could read I’d send you a postcard, if I could write.’ (BOS)
She read the way a cat eats: furtively, daring anyone to notice. (UA)
'… I don't think it was for reading. It was for having written …' (CCODD)
'Of course I can read it,’ he said. ‘I know what every word means.’
‘Well, then?’ said Masklin. Gurder looked embarrassed. ‘It’s what every sentence means that's giving me trouble,’ he said. (Dig) 'You’re at home with the writin’ and readin’,’ grumbled Jackrum. ‘You can’t trust the people who do that stuff. They mess around with the world, and it turns out everything you know is wrong.' (MR)
'Why can’t women be Stationeri, then?’ said Grimma.
‘It’s a well-known fact that women can’t read,’ said Gurder. ‘It’s not their fault, of course. Apparently their brains get too hot. With the strain, you know.' (Truck) 'It's a bad case o’ the thinkin’ he’s caught, missus. When a man starts messin’ wi’the readin’ and the writin’ then he’ll come doon with a dose o’ the thinkin’soon enough. I’ll fetch some o’ the lads and we’ll hold his heid under water until he stops doin’ it, ‘tis the only cure. It can kill a man, the thinkin’.' (HFS)
It was widely believed that, if Detritus could be taught to read and write sufficiently to sit down and do an intelligence test, he’d prove to be slightly less intelligent than the chair. (MP)
'But I read where she was the most beautiful –’
‘Ah well,’ said the sergeant. ‘If you’re going to go around reading -’ ‘The thing is,’ said Rincewind quickly, ‘it’s what they call dramatic necessity. No-one’s going to be interested in a war fought over a, a quite pleasant lady, moderately attractive in a good light. Are they?’ Eric was nearly in tears. ‘But it said her face launched a thousand ships -’ ‘That’s what you call metaphor,’said Rincewind. ‘Lying,’ the sergeant explained, kindly. (E) Rocky was supplying some sports news, and while it was unreadable to William he put it in on the basis that anyone keen on sport probably couldn’t read. (TT)
Every day, Commander Vimes of the City Watch would be home at six o’clock sharp to read to Young Sam, who was one year old.
Six o’clock, no matter what… or who… or why… because some things are important. (WMC) The Librarian was, of course, very much in favour of reading in general, but readers in particular got on his nerves. There was something, well, sacrilegious about the way they kept taking books off the shelves and wearing out the words by reading them. (MA)
... a good bookshop is just a genteel Black Hole that knows how to read. (GG)
And he read Principles of Accounting all morning, but just to make it interesting, he put lots of dragons in it. (W)
... the Patrician was against printing, because if people knew too much it would only bother them. (J)
'I can read and write,’ said Evil Harry. ‘Sorry. Part of the job. Etiquette, too. You’ve got to be polite to people when you march them out on the plank over the shark tank... it makes it more evil.' (LH)
The school-hole was under the floor of the old shed with 'Canteen' on the door. It was Grimma's personal world. She'd invented schools for children, on the basis that since reading and writing were quite difficult it was best to get them over early. (Dig)
Hex had mastered the secret of osmotic reading, normally only every attempted by students. (DW)
There were lessons later on. These were going a lot better now she’d got rid of the reading books about bouncy balls and dogs called Spot. She’d got Gawain on to the military campaigns of General Tacticus, which were suitably bloodthirsty but, more importantly, considered too difficult for a child. As a result his vocabulary was doubling every week and he could already use words like ‘disembowelled’ in everyday conversation. After all, what was the point of teaching children to be children? They were naturally good at it. (H)
It wasn’t that he was illiterate, but Fred Colon did need a bit of a think and a run-up to tackle anything much longer than a list and he tended to get lost in any word that had more than three syllables. He was, in fact, functionally literate. That is, he thought of reading and writing like he thought about boots – you needed them, but they weren’t supposed to be fun, and you got suspicious about people who got a kick out of them. (FE)
‘But you read a lot of books, I’m thinking. Hard to have faith, ain’t it, when you’ve read too many books?' (CJ)
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