Reading Habits
Sep. 20th, 2009 11:53 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
talkstowolvesDuring Book Blogger Appreciation Week, many bloggers participated in a meme detailing their reading habits and to-read stacks. Perhaps because I'm odd, I find this sort of minutiae fascinating: a glimpse of readers all across the world in their nooks and cafes, along with voyeuristic photos of assorted bookshelves and tottering heaps of hardbacks and paperbacks. It was fabulous. I, of course, want to participate, so you'll find my rainy Sunday morning contribution below.
Do you snack while you read? If so, favorite reading snack?
I don't have any particular snacking habit while reading. Besides, I read all the time. Sometimes I read when I'm eating a meal. Sometimes I read while I have a bit of chocolate or drink my tea.
Do you tend to mark your books as you read, or does the idea of writing in books horrify you?
The thought of marking in books once horrified me long ago, but I've become more liberal about it (especially since many fine annotations and cultural observations have come to us from people many years gone marking in books). I tend not to mark in the books I read for pleasure, but the ones I read academically get written in right quick.
How do you keep your place while reading a book? Bookmark? Dog-ears? Laying the book flat open?
I'm really good about not forgetting where I stopped reading, so I hardly need to use a marker at all. Sometimes I like to use a pretty bookmark, though. I disapprove of dog-earing a book as it damages the pages, but I won't say I've never done it. Seeing a book laying flat open makes me hiss unless it's a hardback. Protect those paperback spines, people!
Fiction, Non-fiction, or both?
Yes, please.
Hard copy or audiobooks?
I haven't really ever met an audiobook that I could get into, but I've been thinking about trying them on my long drives to school or maybe just turning off the television and knitting one day with an audiobook on. However, what would I choose between hard copies and audiobooks? Hard copy every time.
Are you a person who tends to read to the end of chapters, or are you able to put a book down at any point?
It really depends. I like to read in discrete units, but sometimes the book has grabbed me so much that I have to get through the main action of a part before I can put it down - and that may be in the middle of a chapter. Or, I might be not really committed to the story and so find it easy to put down anytime, current chapter finished or not.
If you come across an unfamiliar word, do you stop to look it up right away?
No. If I can't figure out its meaning through context, which I usually can, I make a mental note to look it up later.
What are you currently reading?
I'm currently reading The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole, The Tragedy of King Richard III by William Shakespeare (Oxford edition), and War for the Oaks by Emma Bull.
What is the last book you bought?
The last book I bought was On the Prowl, an anthology featuring Patricia Briggs and others, with a gift card to Barnes & Noble my father gave me. I needed it because apparently Briggs' Cry Wolf starts immediately where the short story in On the Prowl leaves off.
Are you the type of person that only reads one book at a time or can you read more than one at a time?
When I'm reading exclusively for pleasure, I like to read only one book at a time, though I've also been known to break from a novel for a day and read a graphic novel in one sitting. As someone who's studying for her Masters in English Literature, however, it's completely impossible for me to be reading only one book at a time these days. So now I've accustomed myself with reading up to four at once.
Do you have a favorite time of day and/or place to read?
I read all the time. I read in the mornings with my tea, I read in my breaks between classes, I read in bed before sleeping. I have been known to read at the dinner table and at stop lights. I've been known to read the whole night through. And the whole day, of course.
Do you prefer series books or stand alone books?
I prefer any kind of books, as long as they're worth reading. (And even some that aren't, for the LOLs, as the kids say.)
Is there a specific book or author that you find yourself recommending over and over?
Neil Gaiman. Terry Pratchett. Seanan McGuire.
Coraline, Good Omens, Rosemary and Rue, Santa Olivia.
How do you organize your books? (By genre, title, author’s last name, etc.?)
Right now, my books are organized by the genius method of "that's where I put them." I've occasionally tried to organize them alphabetically, but I don't really like that. I prefer a genre-organized division, which gets really exciting when you have interstitial items that don't fit in any one place: you get to have sections that just bleed into each other or counter-intuitive groupings that may shock observers in the same way as a Zen koan.
And here's a shot of part of my to-read stacks:
In case you can't make them out, the partial to-read stacks above include: The Starry Rift by James Tiptree Jr, Henry Iv Part One by William Shakespeare, Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr, Here There Be Dragons by James Owen, Red Dragon by James Owen, The Two Gentlemen of Verona by William Shakespeare, Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (Norton Edition), Hamlet by William Shakespeare, Aurora Leigh by Elizabeth Barrette Browning, Red Riding Hood for All Ages: A Fairy Tale Icon in Cross-Cultural Contexts by Sandra L. Beckett, Warm Worlds and Otherwise by James Tiptree Jr, The Girl Who Was Plugged In by James Tiptree Jr, Jingo by Terry Pratchett, Moving Pictures by Terry Pratchett, Deerskin by Robin McKinley, Black Powder War by Naomi Novik, Throne of Jade by Naomi Novik, Beauty by Sheri S. Tepper, Lightwing by Tara K. Harper, On the Prowl featuring Patricia Briggs & others, Cry Wolf by Patricia Briggs, Wintersmith by Terry Pratchett, Flora Segunda by Ysabeau S. Wilce, Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clark, Dracula by Bram Stoker (Norton Edition), White As Snow by Tanith Lee, The Faery Reel: Tales from the Twilight Realm ed. by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling, Selected Poetry by Alexander Pope, The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner by James Hogg, The Italian by Ann Radcliffe, The Monk by Matthew Lewis, Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte, Homeless Moon's second chapbook, Demon Lovers and Other Difficulties by Nicole Kornher-Stace, The Admonishments of Kherishdar by M.C.A. Hogarth, The Wave in the Mind by Ursula K. Le Guin, Clockwork Phoenix 2 ed. by Mike Allen, Fables: The Dark Ages by Bill Willingham, Beowulf: The Script Book by Neil Gaiman & Roger Avary, Kushiel's Scion by Jacqueline Carey, The Orphan's Tales: In the Cities of Coin and Spice by Catherynne M. Valente, Mirror, Mirror on the Wall: Women Writers Explore Their Favorite Fairy Tales ed. by Kate Bernheimer, The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco, The Canterbury Tales by Chaucer, The Prince by Niccolò Machiavelli, Celtic Myths and Legends by Peter Berresford Ellis, Steampunk ed. by Ann VanderMeer and Jeff VanderMeer (not pictured), A Halloween Reader ed. by Lesley Pratt Bannatyne (not pictured), Nightwatch by Sergei Lukyanenko (not pictured), Shadows Over Baker Street: New Tales of Terror! ed. by Michael Reaves and John Pelan (not pictured), Women of the Night ed. by Martin H. Greenberg (not pictured)... and on and on...
I hope some of you will choose to share your answers and shelves as well! Like I said, I really do find this sort of thing interesting.
Do you snack while you read? If so, favorite reading snack?
I don't have any particular snacking habit while reading. Besides, I read all the time. Sometimes I read when I'm eating a meal. Sometimes I read while I have a bit of chocolate or drink my tea.
Do you tend to mark your books as you read, or does the idea of writing in books horrify you?
The thought of marking in books once horrified me long ago, but I've become more liberal about it (especially since many fine annotations and cultural observations have come to us from people many years gone marking in books). I tend not to mark in the books I read for pleasure, but the ones I read academically get written in right quick.
How do you keep your place while reading a book? Bookmark? Dog-ears? Laying the book flat open?
I'm really good about not forgetting where I stopped reading, so I hardly need to use a marker at all. Sometimes I like to use a pretty bookmark, though. I disapprove of dog-earing a book as it damages the pages, but I won't say I've never done it. Seeing a book laying flat open makes me hiss unless it's a hardback. Protect those paperback spines, people!
Fiction, Non-fiction, or both?
Yes, please.
Hard copy or audiobooks?
I haven't really ever met an audiobook that I could get into, but I've been thinking about trying them on my long drives to school or maybe just turning off the television and knitting one day with an audiobook on. However, what would I choose between hard copies and audiobooks? Hard copy every time.
Are you a person who tends to read to the end of chapters, or are you able to put a book down at any point?
It really depends. I like to read in discrete units, but sometimes the book has grabbed me so much that I have to get through the main action of a part before I can put it down - and that may be in the middle of a chapter. Or, I might be not really committed to the story and so find it easy to put down anytime, current chapter finished or not.
If you come across an unfamiliar word, do you stop to look it up right away?
No. If I can't figure out its meaning through context, which I usually can, I make a mental note to look it up later.
What are you currently reading?
I'm currently reading The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole, The Tragedy of King Richard III by William Shakespeare (Oxford edition), and War for the Oaks by Emma Bull.
What is the last book you bought?
The last book I bought was On the Prowl, an anthology featuring Patricia Briggs and others, with a gift card to Barnes & Noble my father gave me. I needed it because apparently Briggs' Cry Wolf starts immediately where the short story in On the Prowl leaves off.
Are you the type of person that only reads one book at a time or can you read more than one at a time?
When I'm reading exclusively for pleasure, I like to read only one book at a time, though I've also been known to break from a novel for a day and read a graphic novel in one sitting. As someone who's studying for her Masters in English Literature, however, it's completely impossible for me to be reading only one book at a time these days. So now I've accustomed myself with reading up to four at once.
Do you have a favorite time of day and/or place to read?
I read all the time. I read in the mornings with my tea, I read in my breaks between classes, I read in bed before sleeping. I have been known to read at the dinner table and at stop lights. I've been known to read the whole night through. And the whole day, of course.
Do you prefer series books or stand alone books?
I prefer any kind of books, as long as they're worth reading. (And even some that aren't, for the LOLs, as the kids say.)
Is there a specific book or author that you find yourself recommending over and over?
Neil Gaiman. Terry Pratchett. Seanan McGuire.
Coraline, Good Omens, Rosemary and Rue, Santa Olivia.
How do you organize your books? (By genre, title, author’s last name, etc.?)
Right now, my books are organized by the genius method of "that's where I put them." I've occasionally tried to organize them alphabetically, but I don't really like that. I prefer a genre-organized division, which gets really exciting when you have interstitial items that don't fit in any one place: you get to have sections that just bleed into each other or counter-intuitive groupings that may shock observers in the same way as a Zen koan.
And here's a shot of part of my to-read stacks:
In case you can't make them out, the partial to-read stacks above include: The Starry Rift by James Tiptree Jr, Henry Iv Part One by William Shakespeare, Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr, Here There Be Dragons by James Owen, Red Dragon by James Owen, The Two Gentlemen of Verona by William Shakespeare, Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (Norton Edition), Hamlet by William Shakespeare, Aurora Leigh by Elizabeth Barrette Browning, Red Riding Hood for All Ages: A Fairy Tale Icon in Cross-Cultural Contexts by Sandra L. Beckett, Warm Worlds and Otherwise by James Tiptree Jr, The Girl Who Was Plugged In by James Tiptree Jr, Jingo by Terry Pratchett, Moving Pictures by Terry Pratchett, Deerskin by Robin McKinley, Black Powder War by Naomi Novik, Throne of Jade by Naomi Novik, Beauty by Sheri S. Tepper, Lightwing by Tara K. Harper, On the Prowl featuring Patricia Briggs & others, Cry Wolf by Patricia Briggs, Wintersmith by Terry Pratchett, Flora Segunda by Ysabeau S. Wilce, Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clark, Dracula by Bram Stoker (Norton Edition), White As Snow by Tanith Lee, The Faery Reel: Tales from the Twilight Realm ed. by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling, Selected Poetry by Alexander Pope, The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner by James Hogg, The Italian by Ann Radcliffe, The Monk by Matthew Lewis, Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte, Homeless Moon's second chapbook, Demon Lovers and Other Difficulties by Nicole Kornher-Stace, The Admonishments of Kherishdar by M.C.A. Hogarth, The Wave in the Mind by Ursula K. Le Guin, Clockwork Phoenix 2 ed. by Mike Allen, Fables: The Dark Ages by Bill Willingham, Beowulf: The Script Book by Neil Gaiman & Roger Avary, Kushiel's Scion by Jacqueline Carey, The Orphan's Tales: In the Cities of Coin and Spice by Catherynne M. Valente, Mirror, Mirror on the Wall: Women Writers Explore Their Favorite Fairy Tales ed. by Kate Bernheimer, The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco, The Canterbury Tales by Chaucer, The Prince by Niccolò Machiavelli, Celtic Myths and Legends by Peter Berresford Ellis, Steampunk ed. by Ann VanderMeer and Jeff VanderMeer (not pictured), A Halloween Reader ed. by Lesley Pratt Bannatyne (not pictured), Nightwatch by Sergei Lukyanenko (not pictured), Shadows Over Baker Street: New Tales of Terror! ed. by Michael Reaves and John Pelan (not pictured), Women of the Night ed. by Martin H. Greenberg (not pictured)... and on and on...
I hope some of you will choose to share your answers and shelves as well! Like I said, I really do find this sort of thing interesting.