Reading

if you want to shop

wen i was born lol

Avoid the Black Wytch Stout at the Hobgoblin :)

I wanted to go to the Reading Festival in 2002, but it was sold out so I ended up going to Leeds instead. I had quite an interesting experience at Leeds, so I wrote a little bit about it for my best and worst moments. It was published in the festival program the next year, but they told me that the week of the festival that I could go to Reading for free. There was no time to plan a flight without spending at least $1000 on a airfare. I asked them if I could use my free pass to Reading the next year, but I ended up not going that year either. Anyways, I have cousins in London I can stay with if I do decide to go to Reading some day. I just need to decide sooner since tickets tend to sell out and airfare is also pretty expensive.

I’ve lived in Reading for two and a half years now as a University student. It’s pretty awesome – lots of nightlife to suit almost everyone and if you need more, London’s nearby; restuarants a-plenty to suit most tastes and budgets; two malls in town; two cinemas, one large, modern and in town… and the Uni’s pretty good too. :)

i’ve lived in reading my whole life (13 years) and um well yes it’s reading. When i’ve moved it has been to other parts of reading. And also i noticed the other day that Reading has become half chav and half emo :D Um i don’t know what else to say apart from that…

Was staying there for a while. If you prefer something livelier, head to the town area – The Oracle. Otherwise, the Thames River Park is closeby. I particularly like this small old town called Pangbourne, where I go there constantly to scout for my antique find, in the few charity stores there.

I have family in Reading, so have visited a few times. The only good thing about Reading is that it’s near Oxford and London, and so you can leave as soon as you get there.

I spent a week or two in Reading in the early 1990s. English food is actually pretty good.

I enjoyed walking around the town, which has nice homes, trees, and gardens in the residential area, and places to eat and listen to music in the downtown part.

If you live in the former you can walk to the latter. The people I spoke to in Reading had spirit, were cheerful, and had that great British accent that is a treat for Americans to hear.

It seemed quiet but not boring.

I do remember being struck by the number of surveillance cameras downtown. I walked past quite a number of them just walking down the sidewalk downtown.

However, a few years later, ourdoor surveillance cameras becoming more common in the US – so I see them here too.

Though in the US, there seem to be greater numbers of them but they are mostly inside the shops and they are almost always somewhat hidden. Quick to observe yet shy to be seen. In Reading, back then at least, they were very much out in the open. Kind of like you were supposed to see them, not just the other way around.

Walking around in the neighborhood by the town is very relaxing. It seemed very tranquil. Beautiful on a nice day.

Walking around downtown Reading is fun too. The buildings are interesting and varied. Not just a bunch of boxy things. All the restaurants I visited in Reading were classy, charming and neat. The wait staffs were extremely cordial.

It’s a toilet. An awful place. Nothing to recommend it at all except that the M4 means you can get somewhere else fairly quickly. Unless you get in on of Reading’s frequent traffic jams. But there is quite a lot of high-tech employment there which is why I stayed so long. The town centre has the most demented one-way system I have ever experienced. The town has no character—almost none of the historic buildings remain, the local authority allowed them to be demolished to make way for ghastly modern malls. The only bit worth seeing is the ruins of the abbey, but it isn’t worth travelling far to see what little remains of that.