The title says it all really! Do you like reading stories or consuming media in general with characters in your field of work or expertise? Or are you the opposite and avoid them because they remind you of work or you've been burned before with inaccuracies or a secret third reason? Are books with your field/profession/hobby even out there??? (Extra curious to know this last one, to see if there's untapped potential somewhere or to think about what might make yours less explored as fictional story material.)

is there anyone who actually likes the movie better then the book? The only one i liked better was the summer i turned pretty. Otherwise i feel they always screw it up so muchhhh. Either poor casting or they take out key details or really hilarious parts. I still need to watch where the crawdads sing, the boy in the stripped pajamas, daisy jones and the six, and probably a lot more but i dont know if its worth my time.

Sometimes I feel absolutely insane. Right now I am reading five books. Two of them are buddy reads with my best friend. we are reading an ARC together and her monthly rec from me because i wanted to experience it with her, one is an ARC I’m about to be late on, one is my monthly rec from my bestie, and one is an audio book i listen to during my commute. I dont have a problem keeping them straight or anything. I just feel a little bit ridiculous reading this many at one time. Where are all my people who read multiple books at once and what are you reading?

Kind of random but ties into reading I swear.

I have a coworker who confuses me to no end. He spends massive amounts of time watching, walking about, listening to others talk about, and betting on pro football 🏈. I asked him if he was excited for the draft tonight, something I only know about because he spent an entire lunch talking about it and theorizing who will take which players. His response is "I don't care" and then something like "I'm only looking forward to laughing at dumb gm decisions".

He obviously cares about this, and enjoys it but won't admit it for whatever reason. There seems to be a fear of seeming to care about stuff, and it isn't limited to this guy.

That said I don't see this in the book community as much. If I run into a reader in the wild they usually are excited to share (the acception being a woman I work with who left it vague, who I think is reading romance).

Do you see it with readers or not? Why do you think readers are more/less willing to be seen as enjoying things they enjoy?

I was going to post this in the Jack Reacher forum but it is pretty empty over there. I’m at the library with my partner and they want to start reading those books but not sure if you need to read them in order or if they are relatively self contained. Any help would be appreciated. I’m also googling. They almost never show interest in reading hence the emergency.

Edit: thank you all for your help I really appreciate the advice. My partner has decided to start with the first one and see how they like it.