What are your reading habits?

[westendlass]

Originally Posted by Margaret Pilkington

that is strange as a full charge lasts something in the region of 6 weeks on mine.
Perhaps he did not check that it was fully charged before he went away.
I have just discarded about 14 large bags of books......to the charity shop.
I felt like I was killing off old friends.
I still have lots of books though....there were some I just could not part with.

It wasn't the battery Margaret, it completely conked out, served him right for sneering at my 'old fashioned' books.

[Margaret Pilkington]

Originally Posted by pompeylass

I try and stick to a regime of 'one book in, one book out', but it's not easy.

I'm into audiobooks now; they take up no space as they're in the PC. But there's a draw-back with them. They tend to send me to sleep.

I've found a cure for this by doing an electronic jigsaw puzzle in my desk-top PC at the same time. One half of the brain is taken up with the jigsaw, the other half is coping with the person reading the story. Works great.

You must have an iron will to stick to that rule. I admire you for it.
I do pass many of my books on and periodically send them back to the charity shop...where many of them came from anyway.
If I have particularly enjoyed a book and think I will re-read it I buy it on Kindle...that way it takes up no room space.
I cannot go to sleep without having at least half an hour of a read.......I have never tried audio books, but I think I would prefer to read.

[pompeylass]

No, Margaret! We don't have an iron will. My husband keeps cheating.

[Restless]

i prefer audiobooks. But they aren't new

[Eric]

There is a problem with the question "What are your reading habits?" What we read and enjoy reading is not a habit; and there is little personal about it. Language itself is, primarily, a survival advantage. Those of our remote ancestors who developed language had an advantage over those who didn't. Hunting and gathering were more efficient with language. Trial and error in the choice of what was safe to eat and what was not did work, sort of. But if one's extended family or clan could, through language, teach the young what was nourishing and what was poison, the survival rate of the adept was always higher. Eventually reading developed as social groups became tribes and then nations. Oral communication and oral transmission of "history" was rendered ineffective. Stuff developed ... Once you have, for example, the Lascaux cave paintings, the I-Phone is inevitable.

It's also worth considering that whenever we read, we change what is written and intended to be understood. I believe it was Terry Eagleton (a Brit at Cambridge) who wrote "Every reading is a re-writing." If six of us were given the same Penguin version of "Emma" (I chose that because I have a big, fat, lovable cat of that name) none of us would read the same "book."

The word "book" is not as easy to define as we first assume. We know it exists as an artifact ... but if a book has, say, a million readers, it has a million different forms.

Sorry about all this ... but language and reading are much more complex than most people realize.

[Margaret Pilkington]

I agree that we all have our own perception of whatever book we choose to read....and that this perception has everything to do with the things we have experienced in our own lives.
When I read, I see the story in my head. That is why I like to read the book before I see the film of it.....I always think my version is better than that being shown on the big screen.

[Eric]

Originally Posted by Margaret Pilkington

I always think my version is better than that being shown on the big screen.

Me too ... I think it's much better when you do the creativity yourself, rather than have some clown in Hollywood do it for you. And the special effects one can create in the imagination are way better ... and weirder. I think I might have to do some more reading on the imagination. I believe it's more important than we think Maybe it's one of the things that defines us as human. And it's tied in with the play that kids (used to) involve themselves in. And play too ... without a Play Station and Health and Safety Regs.

But the second half of the Grey Cup final has just started ... Calgary Stampeders ahead of the Hamilton Tiger Cats 17 to 10. I'll get back to thinking tomorrow.

[Lost in Cornwall]

I read just about anything although I particularly enjoy history, both fiction and non fiction. I started using a Kindle earlier this year because I don't get rid of books and space was becoming a serious issue. My wife, who has dyslexia, got one about this time last year and finds it much easier to read than books because she can alter the font size, contrast etc.

[Turtle]

I tried audiobooks, and found that the reader's voice got in the way of my understanding of the words. It's a stranger's voice, reading words that my own 'voice in my head' would read (no I don't move my lips as I read hah hah.) Maybe it wasn't a fair trial though, as it was an audiobook of one of my favourite series. But I suspect it would be that way with any book, for me.

[Margaret Pilkington]

My Kindle will 'rad' to me...but I find the voice robotic and without any feeling.
I prefer to read......if I wanted to listen to someone reading to me I would tune in to 'book at Bedtime'(if it is still going)

[pompeylass]

I used the word 'habit' in the same context as 'eating habits', and 'shopping habits'.

The actual act of reading is not a habit, it's a pastime, and a great teacher. I'm merely trying to draw out from the members of the forum what they're personal preferences are.

How, where and who they like to read can be habit-forming, such as 'Accyman' likes a good old-fashioned book to read, and 'Cashman' only reads when he goes on holiday.

The way I see it, these are all habits that people could move away from.