Building Story-verses

As everyone know there are so many stories written by so many wonderful authors.
It makes one wonder does people read stories as is or do they do more with them, like:

1. Read similar stories to gain different perspectives to an event, situation or character.
2. Build a pseudo-universe on selected stories. Start with one and trace others as an expansion after the initial story.
3. Read as plenty as one can on various events and choose to keep the best.
4. The creative-fun part of reading about an awesome show and writing universes for it.
5. Take it all in strides and be pleasant surprised if something unique comes up.

How do you guys / gals read and search for stories?

Enjoy!