I can remember being so bored that I read the labels off cans and boxes to have something to do. A news paper was read to tatters, the crossword carefully recopied so others could do it, 40 year old magazines were passed around and the few paperbacks were held together by tape. If you dared breathe a hint of how the story ended you were subject to being taken outside and being gently shown the error of your ways.
I guess things have changed.
You and I were in before the internet. I would have killed to have had FR when I was sitting on a ship cutting squares.