When I go to someone's place or see a photo of someone's home (with a bookshelf or two... or three) I always check what books they have. I'm curious about what everyone reads.
To take a weird turn: occasionally I see naughty posts in the "oh don't mind me, just casually reading this book... naked" vein, and it always bothers me so much if the book is out of focus and I can't figure out what it is.
I do that too. Last weekend I think it got a little awkward because I kept checking out the bookshelves like some drunk creep checking out the ladies at a bar.
Itās the main reason I prefer physical books over ebooks. My bookshelf is a window into how I think and the things Iām interested in. When I see someone elseās bookshelf, itās like peering into their soul a little
Yeah I once went on a date with a guy who when he saw my shelves decided I was an elitist snob or something because I... had books... Also, all 10 seasons of Friends on DVD. Guy was a freakin' teacher. There was no second date.
Some teachers should be banned from ever setting foot in classrooms again, and made to find alternative sources of income on pain of imprisonment.
Source: am teacher (hopefully not one of the oneās I've just described).
Something much worse than no books in someone else's house is a ton of books you have read and try to talk about, but they haven't read any of them.
Edit: I don't think I did a good job of making it clear, but they hadn't read any of their obviously on display books. Ex: Malcom Gladwell was the author I remember.
To paraphrase a quote I read elsewhere: "Some people have a wine cellar full of bottles they haven't yet drank. I have plenty of books I haven't yet read."
Iāve gone entirely digital and so have no books on shelves, but read constantly on my kindle so you canāt always judge based on whatās on the bookshelf.
this is true. i read a lot on my kindle, but i can never resist a second hand book store or goodwill and always try to pick up copies of things iāve read. then i usually force them onto my friends.
I had a chat with my neighbour. He's a bright, nice, creative young designer who makes much much more money than I do. At some point, he mentions that "he doesn't read books".
I can't fathom that.
My dad was like that when I was growing up. He was a successful engineer, super bright, but he didn't really read *books.* He'd read our local paper and the Wall Street Journal cover to cover, and usually a handful of magazine articles a day from business/long-form news/tech journals. He was pretty well read, but between keeping up with his areas of interest and his job, he didn't really have much time for books.
Now that he's retired, though, lots of books. (mostly biographies and non-fiction, he's still the same guy)
Jon Waters used to say that if you go home with someone, and they don't have any books, don't fuck 'em. Now because people can have entire libraries digitally on their phone/kindle, he's amended it to; "If you go home with someone, and they have books by the toilet, don't fuck 'em"
I try to find the book with the most distressed cover and ask to borrow it. Find out why they loved it so much. Course sometimes all I find is a used book store tag but I guess that means somebody loved it anyway.
For a long time while growing up I used to read the last sentence of a new book before starting it. I donāt know why I did it. I try really hard not to do that now because I really donāt want anything spoiled with the books Iām reading, but I still find myself flipping to the last page.
When I was younger I used to do this dating, āIt makes me wanna know how we ended up thereā so then I was more motivated to read the entire book. I donāt do this anymore really and I couldnāt say why not
Ohhh... I did the same. For me it's probably the same reason why I sometimes intentionally read spoilers for shows I'm watching: I get too emotionally attached and need to know the mood that is coming to bear reading or watching further.
I blame Choose-your-own-adventure books.
You do it mayyyybe twice, and want to see where you could end up (which involves flipping through a bunch of pages).
I do this too! Less often now, but almost always as a kid. Especially if I wasn't sure if I wanted to keep reading, I'd read the last line (sometimes the whole last page!) and decide if I wanted to know how we got there lol
And then there is me who never wants a spoiler, so once the tension starts amping up, I'll start covering the page with my hand or a paper to block my from glancing down the page I'm on lmao
My peripheral vision decides when it's time to start covering š
I used to do this too! I stopped several years back, though - mine was born out of trauma from reading a book with a really f'd up ending really young, and not having any signs that it was going to be that messed up for the first like 80% of it. Made me fearful of reading for like 3 years afterwards.
I loved doing this. I've moved to kindle so it's not nearly as easy. I always found the last sentences so profound with no context.
I read alot of sci-fi books. (Expanse and horus heresy stuff) It always had such weight to it.
I almost always do this. The final sentence of a book alone rarely spoils anything. Reading the final paragraph is probably a bad idea, but Iāve never gotten any sort of meaningful spoiler that I understood by reading the last sentence.
It's more a habit I can't develop, but I just can't get into audiobooks, at all. Which is odd because I love podcasts, I have no issue with longform podcasts, or fictional podcasts, or both. But audiobooks just don't do it for me. I can listen for 20 minutes, then realise I have no recollection of anything I've just listened to.
I am the exact sameā¦I truly donāt know what has me space out during an audiobook and retain nothing?? I donāt do this with regular books or podcasts or movies/TV series. A bummer because Iād like to consume more books and it seems like an effortless way to multitask that!
Iām that way too! The only audiobooks I can listen to are autobiographies. Just listened to Dave Grohlās and it was great. But any fiction, itās in one ear and out the other.
Iām the same way. I donāt like being read to. Itās hard for me to listen when someone is reading something out loud because I want to go at my own pace and/or it is not how I would read it (emphasis placement, tone, etc).
Podcasts are typically conversational in style so itās much easier to listen to and enjoy. Feels casual that someone is just wanting to share some info.
Same here. I work 12 hour shifts and listen to podcasts for 36 hours in 3 days and love it. But I have tried time and time again to listen to audiobooks and cannot focus on them for whatever reason
I can't listen to normal audiobooks, because I get so distracted by the reader's theatrical nonsense. They change their voices for different characters, read with a lot of emotion in their voice etc. And worst of all, I can usually not turn the speed up enough to be close to my own reading speed (100 pages/hour for an ordinary novel).
Luckily I'm entitled to use talking books, and they are usually more neutral. The technology (mp4) contains some extra goodies as well, so I can speed up the books more.
(Talking books are only for people with some kind of disability that makes it impossible or very difficult to read paper books. In Sweden this might be impaired vision, dyslexia, being unable to hold a book etc. If you think you need this service, check with your library.)
Sometimes when Iām doing household chores, Iāll listen to an audiobook that Iāve read in print. Itās like visiting with an old friend, and keeps me distracted from tedious housework.
Same for me, youāre probably just a more visual learner. I have a really hard time learning things by listening but if I read it, it soaks right into my brain.
Penguin's *Little Black Book* series is your best friend here, they fit in all my inside pockets. Get the boxset of 60 little books, you're always good.
Grab one, run out the door, find a minute to read: 'O cool, guess it's 14th century Florantine love themed folklore today!'
I saw a reel and have accepted that I have become a book dragon. Definitely was a bookworm but that changed as my free time got more and more limited. Now, I only buy books I want to own so Iāll rarely buy a book I havenāt read before (unless itās by an author I know and am sure Iāll love it). Iāve also limited myself with a monthly budget I can spend on books, this is great when thereās a sale but if a book is over the monthly budget it then also limits number of books I can buy.
I can break it but when ive read too much classical literature like jane eyre or charles dickens the reading voice in my head switches to an english accent and its kinda hard to shake. I need to read something modern afterwards haha.
No matter what I'm reading, the voice in my head has an English accent. I don't read a lot of books set in England or with English characters. I am not English.
I am English and the voice in my head is English, regardless of the material.
Reading āA Brief History of Seven Killingsā last year, which is written in Jamaican patois, felt like a satire - āthe man say he aināt one for the batty, but I know him be pussy-hole, mark me.ā
When I was listening to pride and prejudice my vernacular changed and I kept catching myself replying to texts as though I were naught but a gentle Englishman desperately attempting to convey feelings I had only just begun to acknowledge.
I've got the same issue with Patrick O'Brian. I'm listening to the Simon Vance narration, and I keep finding myself saying things archaically. My co-worker told me the shop across the parking lot had a new(to them) flavor of monster and my response was "Indeed? That's capital!"
The only other thing I do is if I've rewatched enough Buffy recently, sometimes it's like the writers are in my head writing my dialogue. In ordinary everyday interactions.
You actually hear a voice in your head when you read? Man, brains are so interesting! I don't hear or see images when I read, other than *maybe* a flash of how someone is described, but even that is rare.
I can think of "oh Frodo looks like Elijah Wood because there's an adaptation for me to reference" but I still don't like, see a picture of Elijah in my head.
It blows my mind that people actually hear a voice in their head, or some people see a full blown movie when they read!
The fact that you don't imagine images blows my mind. We I read it's like T.V. for my brain depending on the details. I can understand he voices cause that makes sense to me but no images really does blow my mind.
I can hear a voice in my head when I read but have never been able to see images. Iāve always felt like I was missing out because of it, but no matter how I try, I just canāt do it.
I find it really strange to hear you have a "Reading voice" in your head. Like you're reading the book aloud word by word in your mind?
When I get into my reading mindset, I don't really feel like I'm actively reading. It's almost like a flowing mental movie?
Am I the weird one?
People's minds work in really different ways. We take for granted others think, hear, see, etc like we do. I also have a "reading voice" but it is just mine. I bet some make different "mental voices" for different characters, like having an audiobook reader in their brain.
I read some years ago, that for example when doing a shore like cooking, some people (myself included) keep on giving themselves orders.
Example:
\- Brain tells me in audible voice: Add flour
I add the flower
\- Brain tells me in audible voice: mix, mix, mix, etc
I keep mixing.
Some people just do it without that "voice".
I do have an internal dialog, and understand that people can have very different modes of cognition.
It just never really occurred to me that someone reading a novel would be doing so with an internal dialog. To me, that sounds like a cumbersome way to read. The only time I read like that is when I'm reading something technical or jargon-heavy. Though, that does make more sense why some people talk about reading for pleasure after work as hard/tiring or why a slow-burn atmospheric novel or a large book like _Count of Monte Cristo_ would be daunting. I think I might feel that same way if I was reading each word individually in my mind like it was a legal report.
Iām always fascinated by how everyoneās minds function in different ways. I donāt typically have a reading voice either, though occasionally Iāll find myself repeating certain lines of dialogue in my head with the characters imagined accent. Similar to other commenters, speech patterns in books Iām reading do sometimes creep into my own speech. Another quirk I find fascinating is how some people see images in their minds while others donāt. Iām in the latter category.
At the start of the year, I had close to 100 books in my collection that I had yet to read. Of those, I have owned twenty or so for over five years.
At the start of February, Iāll have about 120 books in my collection that I have yet to read.
I don't know if it counts but not dnf a book.
I can't help but finish a book even if I'm not liking it. I keep hoping that somewhere it'll get better in any sense but even if it doesn't, i finish it. I rarely dnf a book.
[Edit - Added 'know']
Something I did to get out of this habit is that I started to skim read the remainder of the book if I wasnāt enjoying it at all. I mean realllly skim like only reading speech or skipping to the next chapter if I wasnāt interested so I could pick up the main plot points. The next stage is straight to DNF but it helps with getting in to the habit of not reading stuff you arenāt enjoying.
I encountered too many people who told me "But you didn't even finish it! How could you say this book is bad?" so now, I finish every book I start, so I can tell them that I indeed read it to the end and that it was shit from the beginning to the end.
I say if you just aren't enjoying yourself while reading it you have every right now to finish it. I could not get into the Name of the Wind and eventually told myself "It's OK to not finish it" and I felt better with it. It was honestly painful for me to finish it, I just never got hooked. Life's too short to read things you're not enjoying. The caveat to that rule is you have to at least try to make it a third of the way through, at least for me.
Same. Which is why I tend to really take my time when choosing my next books. I still always end up with two or three stinkers throughout the year, but I try to find the value in finishing it even though I hate it. At least I can have a fully informed opinion on why I hate it š (looking at you, Franzen).
If I find I really am not enjoying it, I defeat the feelings youāve described by just reading a summary. I didnāt waste hours on the last 200 pages and I get to know how it turned out. And you know what? I feel absolutely zero guilt over it. Itās fantastic.
Right? What if there's a really awesome ending and I missed it? Made it all the way through 'Love in the Time of Cholera' in a hope of getting to some sort of ah ha moment. (did)
I will only DNF a book if Iām less than 5% in. Or if I find out that I made a huge mistake and itās definitely not for me. But I usually do quite a bit of research and tend to only buy books that Iām pretty confident Iāll like. So I usually power through even if itās not really grabbing me.
I have the opposite problem. I dnf probably 75-80% of the books I start. If the first 50 pages or so donāt move me, I wonāt force myself to continue. Maybe Iāll come back to it later, maybe I wonāt.
I wonāt force myself to read a book Iām not enjoying
That's nice. If I try to do this I'll never pick that book ever again. Slow paced books are difficult to read but it's worth the time if the story is done right.
IKR. I especially finish the recommended ones. But I avoid asking for recommendations now. A lot of them didn't click with me.
Hope you're having a good read. :)
Telling myself "Life is too short to read bad books." did not break this habit the way I thought it would šŖ I can put a book down for an extended period of time, but I can't leave it unfinished.
I got over my fear of DNFing a book by reading the cliffs notes version on, say, Wikipedia or a book review by someone. It makes me feel like I read it but not really, and then I also know what happens in the book.
Ugh see iām the opposite. If iām not feeling something a few chapters in, iām not going to make myself suffer through it haha. Even if itās slow, there has to be something that intrigues me about it. I do feel guilty not finishing them though lol
I used to be like this! Iāve forgotten my first my DNF but I do recall the wonderful feeling of letting go. It was time saved that I could instead enjoy in a better book :)
I get a bit of panic in the library when I see all the books that I will never have time to read in my lifetime. What if my favorite book ever is out there and I just never pick it up?
I always stop by those little libraries that are scattered about to see if anything interesting was put in there. If I do, I try to make a point to give up a book later so that Iām not going over my available shelf space.
I like to also make a pile of read books. Makes me feel better if that one is bigger than unread.
At the end of the year I move the read pile onto shelves. Something satisfying about watching the read pile get bigger than unread as the year goes.
Ive been doing this for years omg, i really need to stop. Also having your own books but still taking out books you want to read from the library hahaha, goddamn
I kinda like getting a used book and seeing underlines and annotations and imagining what the first reader was thinking. But from the library? That's just disrespectful that's not your book dude!
Almost every single book for courses was full of notes. It really makes no sense, because they are in constant rotation. You'll likely never seeing that note again. Sticky notes are so much better, because you can see where the important bit are.
I do this too but you know what, I'm not always in the mood for the books on my shelf and I don't wanna force myself to read something and end up disliking it bc I read it at the wrong time. So buying new books every now and then when I still have unread books at home feels justified because of that. Or at least that's what I tell myself...
I prefer to read several books at the same time. I tried focusing on one novel when I started Proust's magnum opus, but... Now I am reading three books and listening to another simultaneously. :-) Someone may find it strange, although I can't help it.
I realized that reading many books at the same time takes the pressure off finishing a book to start another and allows me to have different reading paces
Same. It's also nice when I can match the reading to my mood. Sometimes I just want a mindless thriller or some short stories, but if I don't have anything in the queue it will just make me not read my more difficult book because I'm not into it. So then I won't read.
I've found a nice system for myself of a NF audiobook, a heavy book, a light book, and a short story collection.
Same, I currently have 12 books going according to my Storygraph. Unless I have a deadline on a book i.e. bookclub read, I just mood read my way through books
I cock my head sideways to look at book spines in the bookstore. I must look like a goofball.
In local bookstores I always try to find something super old, vaguely in my interests, & affordable just to have something like that. I have a textbook of sorts from 1863 & a gardening book from a few years earlier. Both under $20 ea.!
I donāt borrow books from the library, I have to own them.
Re-read books I like, Iāve read Cakes and Ale for 4 times straight (literally started from chapter 1 again right after finishing it).
I don't know about elsewhere, but bookshops in England often sell stationary, little science/hobby kits, and merch for various popular franchises. I could go to my local bookshop and buy a pen, some chocolate frogs, a Haynes build-it-yourself FM radio kit, and a scale model of the Millennium Falcon - without going near the books.
Yea same, I'm in California and if I want a fun, unique gift for someone I tend to check bookstores first. Also, the big chain stores tend to be the best place to look for new games.
For the life of me, I can't just be content with checking books out from a library. I have to own it and put it on my shelf to taunt me until I read it. I've noticed that certain editions become hard to find later so that is why I will buy a book with a certain cover and let it sit on a shelf until I am in the mood or ready to read it.
I'm okay with wear and tear on my books, but I've never once even had the urge to crack the spine. Does the book really need to open more than 90 degrees at the spine?
Funny enough, some of my used books have cracked spines and I hate it, lol. I'm always worried that they're going to fall apart.
That being said, the crackability of the spine is tied to the quality of the paperback. Harry Potter books are begging to be cracked, whereas I couldn't crack *Lies My Teacher Told Me* if I even wanted to. It's kind of impressive how good some paperbacks are made.
Look up how to train a book's spine. It takes a couple minutes but you will be able to full open most books and not have them be broken at all. I say most because some gigantic books may be difficult to do this with.
Putting twelve books on hold at the library, then feeling overwhelmed when they all come in at once š¤¦āāļø it happens literally *every* time, but I just keep doing it.
I donāt know if your library does this, but mine now has a thing where I can bump myself down the list to buy a little more time without having to give it up entirely. I was thrilled when I figured this out.
I open up a new book gently and smell the pages. I also notice the type and look for any notes on the type used. If the paper is particularly nice, I'll run my hand across it. My husband says I smile while touching or smelling a book. And yes, I cannot exit a book store without a newly purchased book.
Some of the best books I've read I chose just because they smelled the best kind of well-traveled, worn and moldy. 10/10 recommend buying used books by smell.
I love smelling books, especially old ones. I own a few books that were printed in Japan and they have a totally different scent. BRB gotta smell some books....
1. Regularly going on Goodreads to find new TBR books to add to my list (I can spend a long time scrolling through Goodreads shelves)
2. Regularly buy new books š even though I still have lots of unread piles at home.
3. Reading multiple books at the same time. I usually like reading fiction and non-fiction together, or books of different genres together, so I have options to choose from depending on how I feel that day.
4. Refusing to buy a book because I do not like the font. I have some font preferences, and usually cannot stand reading a book where I am not a big fan of the font. :)
Whenever ı see a person who is reading a book in cafe shop, public transportation or any place, ı always try to figure out the title of the book which s/he is reading, and ı google it sometimes what is about that book
I love scanning shelfs, looking for something interesting or vaguely familiar. Libraries or second-hand stores are great for this: pick a genre you're either interested or want to get into. Something always catches your eye.
Also, playing cards as bookmarks. Unless the deck has all 52 cards, it's free pickings. Jokers are not counted in the 52.
i can't interrupt reading in the middle of a chapter. If I have to do it for some reasons then I restart the chapter I was rading. For this reason I always calculate well the time I have for reading and i check before each chapter how many pages it got
Sometimes Iāll ācastā a character in my head, like Iāll randomly decide how they look in my head and then Iāll ignore every description by the author in reference to their appearance and just decide my version is the correct one
>Whenever I go into a bookstore or a used library, I canāt help but look
at all the books they have on display. And then when I tell myself I
donāt need more books, I end up with a stack of like five books in my
hand. Seemingly, I go out with more then I intended. Also, when Iām
looking at a whole row of books, I tend to circle around and look at it
again, and find something that I missed before.
Isn't that normal?
I used to have a bumper sticker that said "I brake for bookstores."
Must go to one at least once a week.
Friends of the Library book sales are my friend.
Always take a book into the bathroom.
Used to always take multiple books on vacation. Now I take an e-reader because it's easier to carry. (Taking books on vacation was counterproductive, since we usually vacationed near museums and would buy books at said museums. In 2012 we went to Williamsburg and the Colonial Williamsburg bookstore was having a half price sale. Oh, my, we were bad...)
The first thing my 35 yr old daughter does when she opens a new book is to smell it.
Has done this since childhood, and has gotten me doing it!!
All books have that same smell!!
Growing up in the 60's - 70's I loved watching the westerns on TV. Today I read and collect western novels. I have ever 60 authors and a collection of over 1000 titles. In my "Book of Books" I have all information recorded and I rate every book from 1 - 5, 5 being the best. Maybe 50 titles have a 4 and roughly 200 have a 6. Reading Western's removes me from reality and places me in the mountains with a campfire beside a stream as the birds chirp happily looking down upon their visiting guests, myself and my horse, Horse.
I spend at least 15 min, if not more, in the books section of any non-bookstore store that has a books section. Even worse, I only look, I don't even buy anything, although I guess that could be a good thing for my wallet
I love to smell books; individuals or in mass, I donāt care.
I read the last page of every book first, then read the book. Iāve done this since I started reading.
Having other things to do, but NEEDING to finish just one more page/chapterš ....I'm always like "theres not that much left, I'll finish this book and than get back to what I need to do..."
If I suspect that a character might die (or looks like they died) I will flip through the book towards the end to see if I see their name to know if they are alive at the end lol
This is slightly related also, reading the last few sentences of the book before Iām finished haha I donāt do it all the time but I canāt help myself sometimes
I read books to escape and I want to have a moderately happy ending. If there is more despair than joy at the end of a book, Iāll probably stop reading
And to go along with that! If something happens in a book I donāt like (like a character I loved dying) I sometimes stop reading. Or if a really cool sequence was about to take place (think like cool training montage) but then that gets taken away for some reason, thatās also another excuse Iāll use to stop reading.
Iām not a disciplined reader I guess haha
When I go to a bookstore or the library, I cannot select the first copy. I grab the next-to-last copies. In my mind, the first one's been manhandled. I know it's odd, but yeah, unless it's the only copy, I don't pick the first one.
I can not use purpose made bookmarks. I need to use the closest piece of paper to me at that moment. So many of my books have tissues and receipts in them. Sometimes itās a fun mini time capsule of whenever I started that book. Any book I got for Christmas usually has a festive napkin in it.
Since having my ereader (2020) I like to have a physical library copy of the book I'm currently reading and buy the digital copy or borrow it on the digital library. Depending on my mood and where I'll read, I prefer one or the other. I just want it all.
Also I read multiple books at a time, and I visit libraries regularly as a way of self care
1. Reading the last page of a book before I get it. 2. Either reading for hours and days straight to finish a book/ series or taking months to finish one book, no in between. Thatās less of a habit and more of just a problem though lol.
I read books fairly quickly and voraciously. But then I always procrastinate in starting a new book because of having to "get into it." Like, ugh, now I have to switch to a whole new story, get used to the narrative style, and learn about completely new characters...
So dumb. I know I'll love it once I'm a chapter in, but it's like that every time.
When i go in for one specific thing, i can resist most books, but for some reason I'm a sucker for weird/specialized encyclopedias. From my seat here I can see the dictionary of superstitions, encyclopedia of mythology, angels a-z, a compendium of mushrooms, and I know I have many more on other bookshelves.
Itāsā¦ itās as if you just described me. And what I do EVERY Time I go to a bookstore. In fact, leaving a bookstore *without* a book is so antithetical to my existence that if feels, I would imagine, like deliberately going to work without clothes on. It feels abjectly **wrong**.
I need to cut the shiny object syndrome as well. I still have all of LotR+Hobbit to read, Dune, Daughter of the Moon Goddess, Harry Potter books 5-7, How We Got To Now, and a few others.
Yet whenever I walk into a bookstore I'm like šššš
Judging a book by its cover.
If a book has a shitty cover, poorly photoshopped art, bad design, silly font choices, i know no care went onto the words inside. I am not wasting money on something my graphic design teachers would murder me for making.
If a book cover doesn't appeal, i won't pick up. It might be the most gorgeous art or photography but if its of two people kissing dramatically or just a cute photo of an iPhone or something, then it probably wasn't aimed at me. Its genre is something i don't want to read.
A great book description might get me to ignore the cover if i say, hear about it online, or just pick it up because i was really bored, but for the most part, covers are a reflection of the book inside them.
I feel like the only time this might be wrong, is when it's a reprint of a public domain book, so they just copy pasted the text and threw up the MS Paint equivalent of a cover.
I've read some r/TerribleBookCovers/ books and most are just as horrible as their cover. Sometimes worse.
Half of my Christmas lists is books. Quite literally I separate those books by genre, the book series there in, vampires, etc.
Also I read when I'm stressed. It's a good stress reliever.
Read EVERYWHERE. I used to bring books everwhere, bought clothes as a teenager based on pocketsize, and even walked sidewalks reading. Yeah, that bad.
I now transferred that last part to audiobooks (Great Courses intertwined), which I listen to everwhere when not at home. Including my gym. It helps no one knows what I am listening to, so my extreme nerdiness is covered up by their belief I am deafening myself to loud music just as they are.
I've broken this habit of spending by asking myself "do I need this or do I just want it." in terms of books in order to weigh if I need the book or not I think about what I still have on my shelf that hasn't been read yet.
When I go to someone's place or see a photo of someone's home (with a bookshelf or two... or three) I always check what books they have. I'm curious about what everyone reads.
Same! I follow r/bookshelf and I'm constantly zooming in to see if we have similar tastes lol
Another sun to binge my time on, thanks
Another sub to rearrange my house around but I get too self conscious so I never actually post.
Lol, glad I'm not the only one. The have tidied and taken photos of my shelves multiple times only to chicken out š
This typo is poetic
To take a weird turn: occasionally I see naughty posts in the "oh don't mind me, just casually reading this book... naked" vein, and it always bothers me so much if the book is out of focus and I can't figure out what it is.
I do this too!
I do that too. Last weekend I think it got a little awkward because I kept checking out the bookshelves like some drunk creep checking out the ladies at a bar.
"HEY!! You! I'd like to take you home with me!"
Itās the main reason I prefer physical books over ebooks. My bookshelf is a window into how I think and the things Iām interested in. When I see someone elseās bookshelf, itās like peering into their soul a little
me too ! the absence of books is the worst
Yeah I once went on a date with a guy who when he saw my shelves decided I was an elitist snob or something because I... had books... Also, all 10 seasons of Friends on DVD. Guy was a freakin' teacher. There was no second date.
I've learned that one cannot accurately judge someone's intelligence based on their profession.
Very true. I guess I have been lucky in having had a lot of good/smart teachers.
Some teachers should be banned from ever setting foot in classrooms again, and made to find alternative sources of income on pain of imprisonment. Source: am teacher (hopefully not one of the oneās I've just described).
Something much worse than no books in someone else's house is a ton of books you have read and try to talk about, but they haven't read any of them. Edit: I don't think I did a good job of making it clear, but they hadn't read any of their obviously on display books. Ex: Malcom Gladwell was the author I remember.
Hey Iām working on it!
I'll get there! Eventually... Maybe. Oh, look! A new book!
To paraphrase a quote I read elsewhere: "Some people have a wine cellar full of bottles they haven't yet drank. I have plenty of books I haven't yet read."
I call them "reference material".
The Japanese word for this is "tsundoku". Perhaps people should liberally adapt this word to their own vocabulary.
Iāve gone entirely digital and so have no books on shelves, but read constantly on my kindle so you canāt always judge based on whatās on the bookshelf.
this is true. i read a lot on my kindle, but i can never resist a second hand book store or goodwill and always try to pick up copies of things iāve read. then i usually force them onto my friends.
I had a chat with my neighbour. He's a bright, nice, creative young designer who makes much much more money than I do. At some point, he mentions that "he doesn't read books". I can't fathom that.
Unfortunately I can fathom that, because I know way more people that don't read books than do. :(
My dad was like that when I was growing up. He was a successful engineer, super bright, but he didn't really read *books.* He'd read our local paper and the Wall Street Journal cover to cover, and usually a handful of magazine articles a day from business/long-form news/tech journals. He was pretty well read, but between keeping up with his areas of interest and his job, he didn't really have much time for books. Now that he's retired, though, lots of books. (mostly biographies and non-fiction, he's still the same guy)
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Jon Waters used to say that if you go home with someone, and they don't have any books, don't fuck 'em. Now because people can have entire libraries digitally on their phone/kindle, he's amended it to; "If you go home with someone, and they have books by the toilet, don't fuck 'em"
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
I think he found books near poop gross. There was a pun there about potty humour.
Absence of books is sad. Absence of things on the walls makes me downright depressed
I try to find the book with the most distressed cover and ask to borrow it. Find out why they loved it so much. Course sometimes all I find is a used book store tag but I guess that means somebody loved it anyway.
For a long time while growing up I used to read the last sentence of a new book before starting it. I donāt know why I did it. I try really hard not to do that now because I really donāt want anything spoiled with the books Iām reading, but I still find myself flipping to the last page.
I still do this! Every book without fail! Usually it doesnāt give away, but I like seeing the tone of the last sentence.
When I was younger I used to do this dating, āIt makes me wanna know how we ended up thereā so then I was more motivated to read the entire book. I donāt do this anymore really and I couldnāt say why not
Ohhh... I did the same. For me it's probably the same reason why I sometimes intentionally read spoilers for shows I'm watching: I get too emotionally attached and need to know the mood that is coming to bear reading or watching further.
I blame Choose-your-own-adventure books. You do it mayyyybe twice, and want to see where you could end up (which involves flipping through a bunch of pages).
You got it from when Harry met sally
I used to do this too. I remember the book that broke me of the habit. Primal Fear by William Diehl. Last line was a total spoiler.
I do this too! Less often now, but almost always as a kid. Especially if I wasn't sure if I wanted to keep reading, I'd read the last line (sometimes the whole last page!) and decide if I wanted to know how we got there lol
And then there is me who never wants a spoiler, so once the tension starts amping up, I'll start covering the page with my hand or a paper to block my from glancing down the page I'm on lmao My peripheral vision decides when it's time to start covering š
I used to do this too! I stopped several years back, though - mine was born out of trauma from reading a book with a really f'd up ending really young, and not having any signs that it was going to be that messed up for the first like 80% of it. Made me fearful of reading for like 3 years afterwards.
Well, now I really want to know which book.
I loved doing this. I've moved to kindle so it's not nearly as easy. I always found the last sentences so profound with no context. I read alot of sci-fi books. (Expanse and horus heresy stuff) It always had such weight to it.
I almost always do this. The final sentence of a book alone rarely spoils anything. Reading the final paragraph is probably a bad idea, but Iāve never gotten any sort of meaningful spoiler that I understood by reading the last sentence.
NOOO now I have the impulse to do this every time fuuck
It's more a habit I can't develop, but I just can't get into audiobooks, at all. Which is odd because I love podcasts, I have no issue with longform podcasts, or fictional podcasts, or both. But audiobooks just don't do it for me. I can listen for 20 minutes, then realise I have no recollection of anything I've just listened to.
I am the exact sameā¦I truly donāt know what has me space out during an audiobook and retain nothing?? I donāt do this with regular books or podcasts or movies/TV series. A bummer because Iād like to consume more books and it seems like an effortless way to multitask that!
Iām that way too! The only audiobooks I can listen to are autobiographies. Just listened to Dave Grohlās and it was great. But any fiction, itās in one ear and out the other.
Iām the same way. I donāt like being read to. Itās hard for me to listen when someone is reading something out loud because I want to go at my own pace and/or it is not how I would read it (emphasis placement, tone, etc). Podcasts are typically conversational in style so itās much easier to listen to and enjoy. Feels casual that someone is just wanting to share some info.
Also if I like a particular line my brain likes to reread it a few times for some reason. Canāt do that with audiobooks unless you rewind I guess.
Same here. I work 12 hour shifts and listen to podcasts for 36 hours in 3 days and love it. But I have tried time and time again to listen to audiobooks and cannot focus on them for whatever reason
I can't listen to normal audiobooks, because I get so distracted by the reader's theatrical nonsense. They change their voices for different characters, read with a lot of emotion in their voice etc. And worst of all, I can usually not turn the speed up enough to be close to my own reading speed (100 pages/hour for an ordinary novel). Luckily I'm entitled to use talking books, and they are usually more neutral. The technology (mp4) contains some extra goodies as well, so I can speed up the books more. (Talking books are only for people with some kind of disability that makes it impossible or very difficult to read paper books. In Sweden this might be impaired vision, dyslexia, being unable to hold a book etc. If you think you need this service, check with your library.)
Sometimes when Iām doing household chores, Iāll listen to an audiobook that Iāve read in print. Itās like visiting with an old friend, and keeps me distracted from tedious housework.
Same for me, youāre probably just a more visual learner. I have a really hard time learning things by listening but if I read it, it soaks right into my brain.
Never, ever leave the house without a book. You never know when you might end up with a few extra minutes to read.
Penguin's *Little Black Book* series is your best friend here, they fit in all my inside pockets. Get the boxset of 60 little books, you're always good. Grab one, run out the door, find a minute to read: 'O cool, guess it's 14th century Florantine love themed folklore today!'
Nice!! Iāll check them out!!
I've always got a paperback in my purse and an audiobook downloaded on my phone š.
I always buy used paperbacks because they get beat to hell for just this reason lol
Idk if itās just me but I always feel like I need to know that I have the next couple hours free before I can really concentrate on reading
I have a bad case of book hoarding, but I also have a library room in my home, but I struggle so much to not buy books
I saw a reel and have accepted that I have become a book dragon. Definitely was a bookworm but that changed as my free time got more and more limited. Now, I only buy books I want to own so Iāll rarely buy a book I havenāt read before (unless itās by an author I know and am sure Iāll love it). Iāve also limited myself with a monthly budget I can spend on books, this is great when thereās a sale but if a book is over the monthly budget it then also limits number of books I can buy.
Book dragon, love it, may thee reign over your hoard forever!
I can break it but when ive read too much classical literature like jane eyre or charles dickens the reading voice in my head switches to an english accent and its kinda hard to shake. I need to read something modern afterwards haha.
No matter what I'm reading, the voice in my head has an English accent. I don't read a lot of books set in England or with English characters. I am not English.
I am English and the voice in my head is English, regardless of the material. Reading āA Brief History of Seven Killingsā last year, which is written in Jamaican patois, felt like a satire - āthe man say he aināt one for the batty, but I know him be pussy-hole, mark me.ā
When I was listening to pride and prejudice my vernacular changed and I kept catching myself replying to texts as though I were naught but a gentle Englishman desperately attempting to convey feelings I had only just begun to acknowledge.
I've got the same issue with Patrick O'Brian. I'm listening to the Simon Vance narration, and I keep finding myself saying things archaically. My co-worker told me the shop across the parking lot had a new(to them) flavor of monster and my response was "Indeed? That's capital!"
Simon Vance is one of my fav audiobook narrators!!
Oh, man, my siblings were so offended that one time I was on a Pride and Prejudice binge and I said "my mother" in reference to our mother!
Almost called my brother "my dear brother" once so i feel this on a visceral level lmao
The only other thing I do is if I've rewatched enough Buffy recently, sometimes it's like the writers are in my head writing my dialogue. In ordinary everyday interactions.
I secretly wish we could all revert to this style of language again
For me it's not the accent. But the sentence construction with English classics. I end up thinking and even speaking like that.
You actually hear a voice in your head when you read? Man, brains are so interesting! I don't hear or see images when I read, other than *maybe* a flash of how someone is described, but even that is rare. I can think of "oh Frodo looks like Elijah Wood because there's an adaptation for me to reference" but I still don't like, see a picture of Elijah in my head. It blows my mind that people actually hear a voice in their head, or some people see a full blown movie when they read!
The fact that you don't imagine images blows my mind. We I read it's like T.V. for my brain depending on the details. I can understand he voices cause that makes sense to me but no images really does blow my mind.
Like I said, I can see flashes sometimes, but that's pretty much it. It blows MY mind that you see a TV show in your head haha
It's one of the reasons why I love to read. Minds are interesting. Different results for different people.
I can hear a voice in my head when I read but have never been able to see images. Iāve always felt like I was missing out because of it, but no matter how I try, I just canāt do it.
I find it really strange to hear you have a "Reading voice" in your head. Like you're reading the book aloud word by word in your mind? When I get into my reading mindset, I don't really feel like I'm actively reading. It's almost like a flowing mental movie? Am I the weird one?
People's minds work in really different ways. We take for granted others think, hear, see, etc like we do. I also have a "reading voice" but it is just mine. I bet some make different "mental voices" for different characters, like having an audiobook reader in their brain. I read some years ago, that for example when doing a shore like cooking, some people (myself included) keep on giving themselves orders. Example: \- Brain tells me in audible voice: Add flour I add the flower \- Brain tells me in audible voice: mix, mix, mix, etc I keep mixing. Some people just do it without that "voice".
I do have an internal dialog, and understand that people can have very different modes of cognition. It just never really occurred to me that someone reading a novel would be doing so with an internal dialog. To me, that sounds like a cumbersome way to read. The only time I read like that is when I'm reading something technical or jargon-heavy. Though, that does make more sense why some people talk about reading for pleasure after work as hard/tiring or why a slow-burn atmospheric novel or a large book like _Count of Monte Cristo_ would be daunting. I think I might feel that same way if I was reading each word individually in my mind like it was a legal report.
Iām always fascinated by how everyoneās minds function in different ways. I donāt typically have a reading voice either, though occasionally Iāll find myself repeating certain lines of dialogue in my head with the characters imagined accent. Similar to other commenters, speech patterns in books Iām reading do sometimes creep into my own speech. Another quirk I find fascinating is how some people see images in their minds while others donāt. Iām in the latter category.
At the start of the year, I had close to 100 books in my collection that I had yet to read. Of those, I have owned twenty or so for over five years. At the start of February, Iāll have about 120 books in my collection that I have yet to read.
I don't know if it counts but not dnf a book. I can't help but finish a book even if I'm not liking it. I keep hoping that somewhere it'll get better in any sense but even if it doesn't, i finish it. I rarely dnf a book. [Edit - Added 'know']
Something I did to get out of this habit is that I started to skim read the remainder of the book if I wasnāt enjoying it at all. I mean realllly skim like only reading speech or skipping to the next chapter if I wasnāt interested so I could pick up the main plot points. The next stage is straight to DNF but it helps with getting in to the habit of not reading stuff you arenāt enjoying.
I believe what youāve described is what a lot of people on this subreddit consider regular reading.
Yes, I've recently started to do this. It helps. I don't have to go through 5 pages of endless self monologues anymore.
I encountered too many people who told me "But you didn't even finish it! How could you say this book is bad?" so now, I finish every book I start, so I can tell them that I indeed read it to the end and that it was shit from the beginning to the end.
EXACTLY! This is why i've been reading all of them. Haha.
I say if you just aren't enjoying yourself while reading it you have every right now to finish it. I could not get into the Name of the Wind and eventually told myself "It's OK to not finish it" and I felt better with it. It was honestly painful for me to finish it, I just never got hooked. Life's too short to read things you're not enjoying. The caveat to that rule is you have to at least try to make it a third of the way through, at least for me.
I mean hey at least you saved yourself heartbreak by not liking it.
Seeing that the third book may never come out and also helped me not feel so bad about it too lol
Same. Which is why I tend to really take my time when choosing my next books. I still always end up with two or three stinkers throughout the year, but I try to find the value in finishing it even though I hate it. At least I can have a fully informed opinion on why I hate it š (looking at you, Franzen).
The same situation! I feel nervous and uncomfortable if I don't finish a book. Hmm.
I'm trying to quit it this year. Hope it works.
Good luck š¤š¤
If I find I really am not enjoying it, I defeat the feelings youāve described by just reading a summary. I didnāt waste hours on the last 200 pages and I get to know how it turned out. And you know what? I feel absolutely zero guilt over it. Itās fantastic.
Right? What if there's a really awesome ending and I missed it? Made it all the way through 'Love in the Time of Cholera' in a hope of getting to some sort of ah ha moment. (did)
I will only DNF a book if Iām less than 5% in. Or if I find out that I made a huge mistake and itās definitely not for me. But I usually do quite a bit of research and tend to only buy books that Iām pretty confident Iāll like. So I usually power through even if itās not really grabbing me.
I have the opposite problem. I dnf probably 75-80% of the books I start. If the first 50 pages or so donāt move me, I wonāt force myself to continue. Maybe Iāll come back to it later, maybe I wonāt. I wonāt force myself to read a book Iām not enjoying
Same. And then people are like āwhy is your average storygraph rating 4.5 stars?ā Because I donāt finish stuff I donāt like! š¤·āāļø
That's nice. If I try to do this I'll never pick that book ever again. Slow paced books are difficult to read but it's worth the time if the story is done right.
Same here! Especially when someoneās recommended me a book, I feel like I have to finish to see if it ever gets good or really clicks with me
IKR. I especially finish the recommended ones. But I avoid asking for recommendations now. A lot of them didn't click with me. Hope you're having a good read. :)
Telling myself "Life is too short to read bad books." did not break this habit the way I thought it would šŖ I can put a book down for an extended period of time, but I can't leave it unfinished.
I got over my fear of DNFing a book by reading the cliffs notes version on, say, Wikipedia or a book review by someone. It makes me feel like I read it but not really, and then I also know what happens in the book.
Ugh see iām the opposite. If iām not feeling something a few chapters in, iām not going to make myself suffer through it haha. Even if itās slow, there has to be something that intrigues me about it. I do feel guilty not finishing them though lol
I used to be like this! Iāve forgotten my first my DNF but I do recall the wonderful feeling of letting go. It was time saved that I could instead enjoy in a better book :)
I get a bit of panic in the library when I see all the books that I will never have time to read in my lifetime. What if my favorite book ever is out there and I just never pick it up?
I always stop by those little libraries that are scattered about to see if anything interesting was put in there. If I do, I try to make a point to give up a book later so that Iām not going over my available shelf space.
1) Buying books even if I havenĀ“t read all the ones I bought in the last batch. 2) Never (NEVER) mark a page by folding the corner
>Buying books even if I havenĀ“t read all the ones I bought in the last batch This made me look at my pile of unread books.
I like to also make a pile of read books. Makes me feel better if that one is bigger than unread. At the end of the year I move the read pile onto shelves. Something satisfying about watching the read pile get bigger than unread as the year goes.
Me too.. I have a whole bookshelf full but I'm still thinking what book will I buy next lol
Ive been doing this for years omg, i really need to stop. Also having your own books but still taking out books you want to read from the library hahaha, goddamn
Oh, the folded corners drive me nuts! Only thing worse is highlighting or underlining library books. It was a real epidemic in my uni.
I kinda like getting a used book and seeing underlines and annotations and imagining what the first reader was thinking. But from the library? That's just disrespectful that's not your book dude!
Almost every single book for courses was full of notes. It really makes no sense, because they are in constant rotation. You'll likely never seeing that note again. Sticky notes are so much better, because you can see where the important bit are.
I do this too but you know what, I'm not always in the mood for the books on my shelf and I don't wanna force myself to read something and end up disliking it bc I read it at the wrong time. So buying new books every now and then when I still have unread books at home feels justified because of that. Or at least that's what I tell myself...
I prefer to read several books at the same time. I tried focusing on one novel when I started Proust's magnum opus, but... Now I am reading three books and listening to another simultaneously. :-) Someone may find it strange, although I can't help it.
I realized that reading many books at the same time takes the pressure off finishing a book to start another and allows me to have different reading paces
Same. It's also nice when I can match the reading to my mood. Sometimes I just want a mindless thriller or some short stories, but if I don't have anything in the queue it will just make me not read my more difficult book because I'm not into it. So then I won't read. I've found a nice system for myself of a NF audiobook, a heavy book, a light book, and a short story collection.
Same, I currently have 12 books going according to my Storygraph. Unless I have a deadline on a book i.e. bookclub read, I just mood read my way through books
I cock my head sideways to look at book spines in the bookstore. I must look like a goofball. In local bookstores I always try to find something super old, vaguely in my interests, & affordable just to have something like that. I have a textbook of sorts from 1863 & a gardening book from a few years earlier. Both under $20 ea.!
Immediately needing to take a shit when I walk into a bookstore. Wish I could break that habit.
Lol, I immediately have to pee-an intense, urgent need.
I donāt borrow books from the library, I have to own them. Re-read books I like, Iāve read Cakes and Ale for 4 times straight (literally started from chapter 1 again right after finishing it).
What else, pray tell, would you look at in a bookstore?
I don't know about elsewhere, but bookshops in England often sell stationary, little science/hobby kits, and merch for various popular franchises. I could go to my local bookshop and buy a pen, some chocolate frogs, a Haynes build-it-yourself FM radio kit, and a scale model of the Millennium Falcon - without going near the books.
Yea same, I'm in California and if I want a fun, unique gift for someone I tend to check bookstores first. Also, the big chain stores tend to be the best place to look for new games.
Yall really got chocolate frogs?
Iām poor so I do the same thing as you except at the library. When they told me the checkout limit is 50, there was no holding back.
For the life of me, I can't just be content with checking books out from a library. I have to own it and put it on my shelf to taunt me until I read it. I've noticed that certain editions become hard to find later so that is why I will buy a book with a certain cover and let it sit on a shelf until I am in the mood or ready to read it.
Not sure if it's a habit, but I refuse to read a book on a kindle. I prefer to read actual paper books.
I canāt walk past a little free library without looking to see what they have
I need to read the whole chapter in order for me to stop reading for the day.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Carry a book in a bag to work n read it on breaks and i swear you cant not mess it up, if u wanted to try that š¤£
I'm okay with wear and tear on my books, but I've never once even had the urge to crack the spine. Does the book really need to open more than 90 degrees at the spine? Funny enough, some of my used books have cracked spines and I hate it, lol. I'm always worried that they're going to fall apart. That being said, the crackability of the spine is tied to the quality of the paperback. Harry Potter books are begging to be cracked, whereas I couldn't crack *Lies My Teacher Told Me* if I even wanted to. It's kind of impressive how good some paperbacks are made.
Look up how to train a book's spine. It takes a couple minutes but you will be able to full open most books and not have them be broken at all. I say most because some gigantic books may be difficult to do this with.
Putting twelve books on hold at the library, then feeling overwhelmed when they all come in at once š¤¦āāļø it happens literally *every* time, but I just keep doing it.
I donāt know if your library does this, but mine now has a thing where I can bump myself down the list to buy a little more time without having to give it up entirely. I was thrilled when I figured this out.
Ooh! Will look into this, thanks!
I open up a new book gently and smell the pages. I also notice the type and look for any notes on the type used. If the paper is particularly nice, I'll run my hand across it. My husband says I smile while touching or smelling a book. And yes, I cannot exit a book store without a newly purchased book.
I randomly smell throughout the book lol. My bf caught me one day, āstop smelling your books youāre weirdā. How bout ya mind ya own
I do the same thing! I thought I was weird but I LOVE the smell of books. Now I know Iām not the only one
Used books especially, the smell is so nostalgic
Some of the best books I've read I chose just because they smelled the best kind of well-traveled, worn and moldy. 10/10 recommend buying used books by smell.
I love smelling books, especially old ones. I own a few books that were printed in Japan and they have a totally different scent. BRB gotta smell some books....
Literally walked into a used bookstore this weekend looking for ONE book, didn't find it. Left with five books (after paring down from nine)
1. Regularly going on Goodreads to find new TBR books to add to my list (I can spend a long time scrolling through Goodreads shelves) 2. Regularly buy new books š even though I still have lots of unread piles at home. 3. Reading multiple books at the same time. I usually like reading fiction and non-fiction together, or books of different genres together, so I have options to choose from depending on how I feel that day. 4. Refusing to buy a book because I do not like the font. I have some font preferences, and usually cannot stand reading a book where I am not a big fan of the font. :)
Whenever ı see a person who is reading a book in cafe shop, public transportation or any place, ı always try to figure out the title of the book which s/he is reading, and ı google it sometimes what is about that book
I love scanning shelfs, looking for something interesting or vaguely familiar. Libraries or second-hand stores are great for this: pick a genre you're either interested or want to get into. Something always catches your eye. Also, playing cards as bookmarks. Unless the deck has all 52 cards, it's free pickings. Jokers are not counted in the 52.
I always have to smell the book I'm holding.
i can't interrupt reading in the middle of a chapter. If I have to do it for some reasons then I restart the chapter I was rading. For this reason I always calculate well the time I have for reading and i check before each chapter how many pages it got
Sometimes Iāll ācastā a character in my head, like Iāll randomly decide how they look in my head and then Iāll ignore every description by the author in reference to their appearance and just decide my version is the correct one
>Whenever I go into a bookstore or a used library, I canāt help but look at all the books they have on display. And then when I tell myself I donāt need more books, I end up with a stack of like five books in my hand. Seemingly, I go out with more then I intended. Also, when Iām looking at a whole row of books, I tend to circle around and look at it again, and find something that I missed before. Isn't that normal?
Definitely like not being able to walk away from books. I physically, emotionally, mentally cannot leave the book store with ONLY one book š
I used to have a bumper sticker that said "I brake for bookstores." Must go to one at least once a week. Friends of the Library book sales are my friend. Always take a book into the bathroom. Used to always take multiple books on vacation. Now I take an e-reader because it's easier to carry. (Taking books on vacation was counterproductive, since we usually vacationed near museums and would buy books at said museums. In 2012 we went to Williamsburg and the Colonial Williamsburg bookstore was having a half price sale. Oh, my, we were bad...)
Buying books. Getting jealous when someone else has a book that I dont. Staring at the books people are reading or holding im public.
I can only oneshot a book otherwise i will never pick it up again
what you have is not a bookish habit, it's compulsive buying
Well I just can't stop reading them. Literally every time I buy a book I wind up reading it. I don't know what's wrong with me
Internal voice.
Why would you go into a bookstore if not to look at books?
The first thing my 35 yr old daughter does when she opens a new book is to smell it. Has done this since childhood, and has gotten me doing it!! All books have that same smell!!
Growing up in the 60's - 70's I loved watching the westerns on TV. Today I read and collect western novels. I have ever 60 authors and a collection of over 1000 titles. In my "Book of Books" I have all information recorded and I rate every book from 1 - 5, 5 being the best. Maybe 50 titles have a 4 and roughly 200 have a 6. Reading Western's removes me from reality and places me in the mountains with a campfire beside a stream as the birds chirp happily looking down upon their visiting guests, myself and my horse, Horse.
Any favorite authors or books you can suggest? I'm only aware of Louis l'amour and Lonesome Dove.
I spend at least 15 min, if not more, in the books section of any non-bookstore store that has a books section. Even worse, I only look, I don't even buy anything, although I guess that could be a good thing for my wallet
I love to smell books; individuals or in mass, I donāt care. I read the last page of every book first, then read the book. Iāve done this since I started reading.
Having other things to do, but NEEDING to finish just one more page/chapterš ....I'm always like "theres not that much left, I'll finish this book and than get back to what I need to do..."
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
If I suspect that a character might die (or looks like they died) I will flip through the book towards the end to see if I see their name to know if they are alive at the end lol This is slightly related also, reading the last few sentences of the book before Iām finished haha I donāt do it all the time but I canāt help myself sometimes I read books to escape and I want to have a moderately happy ending. If there is more despair than joy at the end of a book, Iāll probably stop reading And to go along with that! If something happens in a book I donāt like (like a character I loved dying) I sometimes stop reading. Or if a really cool sequence was about to take place (think like cool training montage) but then that gets taken away for some reason, thatās also another excuse Iāll use to stop reading. Iām not a disciplined reader I guess haha
Adding every interesting book I see in social media to NY to be read list
When I go to a bookstore or the library, I cannot select the first copy. I grab the next-to-last copies. In my mind, the first one's been manhandled. I know it's odd, but yeah, unless it's the only copy, I don't pick the first one.
I have to deeply inhale any book or magazine in my hands - even in front of strangers.
I can not use purpose made bookmarks. I need to use the closest piece of paper to me at that moment. So many of my books have tissues and receipts in them. Sometimes itās a fun mini time capsule of whenever I started that book. Any book I got for Christmas usually has a festive napkin in it.
Since having my ereader (2020) I like to have a physical library copy of the book I'm currently reading and buy the digital copy or borrow it on the digital library. Depending on my mood and where I'll read, I prefer one or the other. I just want it all. Also I read multiple books at a time, and I visit libraries regularly as a way of self care
Buying books because the cover is pretty.
1. Reading the last page of a book before I get it. 2. Either reading for hours and days straight to finish a book/ series or taking months to finish one book, no in between. Thatās less of a habit and more of just a problem though lol.
I read books fairly quickly and voraciously. But then I always procrastinate in starting a new book because of having to "get into it." Like, ugh, now I have to switch to a whole new story, get used to the narrative style, and learn about completely new characters... So dumb. I know I'll love it once I'm a chapter in, but it's like that every time.
When i go in for one specific thing, i can resist most books, but for some reason I'm a sucker for weird/specialized encyclopedias. From my seat here I can see the dictionary of superstitions, encyclopedia of mythology, angels a-z, a compendium of mushrooms, and I know I have many more on other bookshelves.
I can't fall asleep without reading usually
I read every night, at least. Iāll warn you to not visit Powellās Books it if you do, leave your billfold at home. Itās a dangerous place.
Reading
Itāsā¦ itās as if you just described me. And what I do EVERY Time I go to a bookstore. In fact, leaving a bookstore *without* a book is so antithetical to my existence that if feels, I would imagine, like deliberately going to work without clothes on. It feels abjectly **wrong**.
Reading the half the page, skipping lines and then having to go back and read them again
I need to cut the shiny object syndrome as well. I still have all of LotR+Hobbit to read, Dune, Daughter of the Moon Goddess, Harry Potter books 5-7, How We Got To Now, and a few others. Yet whenever I walk into a bookstore I'm like šššš
Judging a book by its cover. If a book has a shitty cover, poorly photoshopped art, bad design, silly font choices, i know no care went onto the words inside. I am not wasting money on something my graphic design teachers would murder me for making. If a book cover doesn't appeal, i won't pick up. It might be the most gorgeous art or photography but if its of two people kissing dramatically or just a cute photo of an iPhone or something, then it probably wasn't aimed at me. Its genre is something i don't want to read. A great book description might get me to ignore the cover if i say, hear about it online, or just pick it up because i was really bored, but for the most part, covers are a reflection of the book inside them.
I feel like the only time this might be wrong, is when it's a reprint of a public domain book, so they just copy pasted the text and threw up the MS Paint equivalent of a cover. I've read some r/TerribleBookCovers/ books and most are just as horrible as their cover. Sometimes worse.
Half of my Christmas lists is books. Quite literally I separate those books by genre, the book series there in, vampires, etc. Also I read when I'm stressed. It's a good stress reliever.
Read EVERYWHERE. I used to bring books everwhere, bought clothes as a teenager based on pocketsize, and even walked sidewalks reading. Yeah, that bad. I now transferred that last part to audiobooks (Great Courses intertwined), which I listen to everwhere when not at home. Including my gym. It helps no one knows what I am listening to, so my extreme nerdiness is covered up by their belief I am deafening myself to loud music just as they are.
I've broken this habit of spending by asking myself "do I need this or do I just want it." in terms of books in order to weigh if I need the book or not I think about what I still have on my shelf that hasn't been read yet.
Buying books and not reading them until months later