What are your reading habits?

[Veeza]

Okay - first time starting a thread!
Visited this forum for years but only recently started commenting (not sure why I waited so long?) I am interested in hearing about the reading habits of you all.

For me its always one book at a time and I read pretty quickly so will get through 1 every 2-3 days depending on work and family time. I do find I won't watch much TV though if I'm enjoying the book a lot so there will often by a break between books to catch up on new shows and tv I'm re-watching.

My preference is reading the dead tree form although due to the amount of books I go through I tend to buy more and more on Kindle now (storage space and cost) and save buying books in paper form for favourites or series. I do often go for hardback collections for series that mean a lot to me.
I am also happy to go the audio route, as I did recently with the Legacies trilogy and The Face of the Unknown as I had heard good reviews of the narrators work on ST novels. I enjoyed listening - it just takes so much longer!

Over to you...

 

[vvlcn]

I think I have at least 15 books started but none of them finished. I'm absolutely awful at sticking to one book and reading it, I rarely finish them because of it. I've got books from years back that have bookmarks in them from the last place I stopped reading. Give me a fanfic and I will spend every waking moment of my free time trying to finish it, though! I've gone through fanfics that are 100,000 words and much more in less than a day. Not sure why I'm like this!

 

[ryan123450]

I usually read one book at a time, but I go slow. I read for a bit each day but I only read two books per month. I have a scheduled pattern of different series and genres I go by, so I can slowly get through my different interests.

 

[F. King Daniel]

I used to read two dead-tree books at a time. Now I'm a lot busier, and mostly read ebooks on my phone, one at a time. I've always been a slow reader, if I'm enjoying a book I wanna take my time with it.

When something big comes along like Destiny, Eternal Tide or Coda, I'll read it in 1-3 days.

 

[thribs]

I usually start from page one and start at the top left and read the words one after each other. When I finish the reading the words on that page I start on the next one and start the process again.

 

[Markonian]

This is a weird one.
Besides Trek, I'm also reading an ongoing, fortnightly German Sci-Fi/Genre-Mix novel series that started in 2000, called Maddrax. Besides individual adventures, overarching storylines last 50-100 novels. That means oftentimes the two main characters don't appear. I'm cool with that.

But I find it really hard to motivate myself to read the novels when irredeemable bad guys are the protagonists. "Oh, Colonel Aran Kormak and Prof Dr Smythe are planning a nefarious coup again." It's not rational, but it sometimes means I'm lagging behind a dozen novels or so.

 

[Grendelsbayne]

I'm currently in the process of trying to read through all the books that have been sitting on my shelf unread for years. When I started this big push about two years ago, I had a little over 100 books to get through (not counting some various other books my wife brought home that I also wound up reading in that time). I'm almost down to 50 now (by the end of next month, if not before then). In total I read 30 books last year and I'm currently on track to read at least 30 by the end of this year.

Typically I read two books at a time, one upstairs one downstairs. I read the upstairs book every morning 20-30 minutes, depending on time pressure, as soon as I wake up. Usually that's 10-20 pages for my reading speed, 25-30 if its a really easy book. The downstairs book is more of a whenever I feel like it affair, so how fast it gets finished depends on how interesting the book is. I also have one other book I'm technically currently reading because my wife, a few Christmases ago, bought me the complete works of HP Lovecraft. Which is interesting enough to keep reading, but enough of a chore to not even hope to read the whole thing in one go. So sometimes I pull it off the shelf for 50-100 pages, then put it back on the shelf and grab something else.

As for digital, I'm not opposed to it, but I only read digital when its something specific I couldn't find any other way (or for comics, I read a lot of Marvel Unlimited). The last time was years ago.

 

[seigezunt]

I am usually reading several books at once, and most of those will be sporadic. I will usually try to focus on two or three to completion.

I usually consume in a combination of dead tree and ebook (depending on readability, availability in a specific format, and cheap-a-bility) and audio, either via legitimate recording or by exporting an ebook to Voice Dream Reader (not so great for novels, but fine for things like nonfiction).

Often I will try to get through a book faster by reading it with my eyeballs when I can, and reading it with my earballs when driving or doing chores.

I'm currently reading Herman Melville's Omoo that way, as a print book, and also as an audiobook. With older, public domain books I can rely on Librivox, which is free but which can be a crap shoot depending on the reader. Such was the case with Omoo, which has a terrible monotone reader in Librivox, so I shelled out the $16 in itunes to buy it.

I'm also currently reading the first volume of the Coda trilogy, and am now too far along to justify getting the audio or the ebook. I just finished the first Picard book, which I consumed mostly via audio and hardcover. I will probably read the next one as an ebook, which was recently on sale, and will hold off on on getting audio as I just got the latest Discovery novel on audio.

I also take out audiobooks from the library, but the availability is pretty spotty or the wait very long. I waited something like six moths to read the Handmaid's Tale sequel.

Sometimes it's a little tricky doing audio and text concurrently. Sometimes I lose my place or need to read a section over again because I fell asleep listening or wasn't paying enough attention.

 

[The Wormhole]

I read one book at a time. Depending on factors like a novel's length, my work schedule, how much free time I have and whether anything else is going on in my life, a book can typically take me as quickly as three days or as long as a week.

 

[Markonian]

Has anyone ended up reading more/less/differently during the lockdowns*?

I ended up reading less, because I didn't need escapism as much. But later made the effort to catch up.


* where applicable

 

[mastadge]

I read many books at once: I currently have more than 20 books checked out of the library. Which means sometimes long periods will go by without finishing a book and sometimes I'll finish multiple books within the span of a few days. I'm okay with not finishing a book if I lose interest or if I go down a different rabbit hole, but there are some books that for whatever reason I do feel compelled to get through even if I'm not loving them. If I have books of essays or short stories I try to read a selection per day, time permitting, but sometimes they get put aside temporarily if I get sucked into a larger or chewier work. I do try to maintain balance between genres and between authors, so while it's easy to find myself in a rut I do try to balance gender, race, nationality of author and read books from around the world, books in translation, books that will help me see the world through the eyes of people with experiences unlike mine.

In general I prefer paper books. My kindle is very convenient for travel, for accumulating potboilers that I don't need taking up shelf space or texts I'll return to, etc. Also very convenient for easing the wrist strain or eye strain from large books with small print. But I do appreciate the craft and formatting and layout decisions that go into a paper book which are completely lost in the ebook edition. I also find that my memory is better with the more tactile experience of paper books: it's much easier to flip through and find a passage based on how the book feels in my hands than it is to "page" through an e-edition looking for a passage if I can't recall a keyword to search for. On the organizational level, I am frustrated by how uncustomizable the kindle library is: you'd think directories and subdirectories would be a simple feature, or the ability to sort my books as I want to or easily customize reading lists. For comics I have found that I really like tablets -- no more details getting lost in the middle valley of a two-page spread, and I love the ability to zoom in on a panel to really appreciate the art.

 

[Greg Cox]

Has anyone ended up reading more/less/differently during the lockdowns*?

I ended up reading less, because I didn't need escapism as much. But later made the effort to catch up.


* where applicable

I started reading more, particularly nostalgic old favorites I hadn't read in years. It was comfort food during a stressful time, honestly.

 

[Veeza]

Has anyone ended up reading more/less/differently during the lockdowns*?

Sort of...my main reading time before all this was the train commute into Melbourne... however with working from home for the better part of the year I have not had that. I've kept up with my reading but at home it will be more read a book start to finish over a few days, then catch up to TV etc for a few days before reading another.

Part time back in the office from Monday thou so the train awaits again!

 

[The Wormhole]

Has anyone ended up reading more/less/differently during the lockdowns*?

The spring 2020 Lockdown, yes I read much less than usual. I think it was just the general depressing nature of the times generated a "case of the Mehs" (as I've seen others describe it) in me and as a result, and as a result, often I just didn't have motivation to do anything other than sloth in front of my computer. There were two other Lockdowns where I live, one in the fall of 2020 which I didn't really observe anyway (aside from one spike in the middle of November, the infection rate wasn't really that bad) so I continued living my life as normal and thus read at my normal rate. The third Lockdown in spring 2021 I did observe since the infection rates then were really out of hand. However, I was able to structure my free time with a routine which involved watching a movie and then reading, and ultimately resulted in my reading rate continuing more or less the same as usual.

 

[JD]

I read mostly one or two e-books at a time. I haven't been reading as much this last month since I got a new job, but I do read for a few minutes during my break. I'm trying to spend less time on the computer and more time reading and working on my story I've been writing, but I've been failing miserably at that.

 

[Desert Kris]

I mainly try and read one work of prose fiction at a time, whether a short story out of an anthology, or a novella or novel. With the novels, I try to cycle through interests, a sci-fi novel, then fantasy, then cosmic (Lovecraftian) horror, then a mystery or spy novel.

My loose goals are to hit two of the Ian Flemming James Bond novels, three Star Trek TOS books, two Stephen King novels, a Star Wars novel and a Malazan novel, among others, in a year. I've started Jemisin's Broken Earth trilogy, but I don't think I'm going to get to book two this year, so maybe early next year. I also moved forward with Baum's Oz books, so maybe I'll shoot for two or three in a year, given that I burned through two pretty quickly.

Then there are the impulse reads. The Historian is one of this year's impulse reads, alongside the Oz books. I want to make Diane Duane's first So You Want to be a Wizard book an impulse read, maybe next year.

Alongside prose fiction, I might dabble read a non-fiction book. Depending on if I like a non-fiction book more, I will start using a book mark, and plod along until I loose interest or eventually finish. Once in a blue moon I stumble on a non-fiction book that I'll plow through that book (Stephen King's On Writing, Biography of Doctor Who producer John-Nathan Turner, ect), this is very rare.

If the prose book is a really long book that will take me more than a month, I'll read some comics alongside it to get some story variety in my reading. Most of the time, comic reading will get the above single fiction focus.

During the pandemic, I altered my reading a bit. In between full-length novels, I would rotate between short story anthologies for a greater variety of short fiction. Just one story from each anthology in the rotation. Elric was in the rotation, a Doctor Who anthology, City of the Saved, Zothique, the Rocketeer anthology. This year Ian Flemming's For Your Eyes Only anthology was in the rotation, and a new three volume anthology called We All Hear Stories in the Dark.

I've actually gotten to the point where I had to write out lists so I don't forget the rotation. Sometimes I just veer off-pattern to escape the feeling of an entrapping reading schedule, and read something impulsively that has been neglected for too long, or jump ahead to something further down on the reading list.

 

[Rocky6]

I read every day. I started this habit sometime ago and have several hundred days in a row now...

I usually read 3-4 books at the time.
One non-fiction book (so I can learn something new, expand my knowledge or challange my thinking).
One fiction book on Kindle (usually Star Trek novels).
One fiction paper book - (usually a title which means a lot to me or I really enjoy.)
A Star Trek comic book on Kindle.

 

[JD]

I quit my job I mentioned in my last post, so I'll have more time for reading, for now at least.
I didn't talk much about what I read in my last post, so here's a bit more information. Most of what I read is e-books, but I do still have some paperbacks that are either not available as e-books or I got before I switched completely over to e-books.
For a while now I've been rotating between a tie in and then an original novel, with 1 to 3 comics between each novel. On the tie-in front I've mainly been reading Star Trek or Star Wars, with a few other things, like a movie novelization or something from another franchise added to the lineup occasionally. For original novels I've been mainly focusing on The Dresden Files and Kate Daniels series, but I've also read the first books in the Sigma Force and Desert Cursed series, so those are in the mix too. I just started reading The Eye of The World, the first book in The Wheel of Time series, so that's probably in there too now.

 

[David Weller]

1 ebook at a time. As I’m retired it only takes me 1 or 2 days to finish a book. According to the Kindle app I’ve read 207 titles so far this year.

I usually rotate between crime, historical, SF and fantasy. However, at the moment I’m trying to catch up on the Litverse before the final volume of Coda comes out at the end of the month.

 

[Veeza]

According to the Kindle app I’ve read 207 titles so far this year.

That is an awesome effort! I should hit 100ish this year but 207 is mammoth!!!