Books

Reading Habits… er… Quirks?

23 January, 2013

readinghabits

So, one thing that every reader in the world will be able to admit to, is having particular things they do when reading. For some, these habits will be normal things – like refusing to dog-ear pages, but for others, like myself, you will find yourself doing rather odd things when you read. Today, I am here to reveal all those weird, quirky, crazy habits that I get up to when I settle down to read.

  1. Using Anything As A Bookmark; In all honesty, since blogging and winning a few piles of swag, this has gotten better but sometimes I still manage to find myself without an actual bookmark and it is these times when really anything will do. Mostly I end up using receits or old tickets but I have been known to use an old sweet wrapper before now…
  2. Reading To The End of A Chapter; This is something that I don’t actually have a chance to do so much anymore due to reading at any spare moment on my phone or because of running out of lunch break time, but I also feel uneasy when I close a book without finishing the current chapter I’m reading. It’s almost like I’m stuck in the book world if I don’t finish it!
  3. Book Jacket Be Gone!; If I’m reading a hardback book, the very first thing I do before opening the pages is remove the jacket. I simply don’t like reading with it curled around the book – I am mostly worried about the damage but I also don’t like the feel of it so much. Of course, the only exception to this is with library books because taking the jacket off and on again isn’t exactly easy – and I should know as I cover them!
  4. Music Is Loud; Some people need to read in complete silence, some become so pulled in by the words that it doesn’t matter at all, but for me, I have to listen to music when I read and a lot of the time it also HAS to be loud. Like, I’m going deaf kind of loud. I find that the louder the music, the easier I can ignore it and simply concentrate on the words in the book. Yes, I realise this makes no sense whatsoever.
  5. Tea!; Not so much a habit as just a love. Reading and drinking tea is something I try to do all the time. I feel relaxed from tea and so adding a book to that equation is just pure genius.
  6. Simply Stare & Admire; Whether in the bookshop, at work in the library, or standing in my own room, I love to spend a few minutes staring at the shelves and just admiring books in all their glory. The knowledge that these little objects may contain words that will rip my heart to pieces before mending it again is just pure amazing, how could one NOT admire them for this ability? Besides… they’re so pretty.
  7. Piles, Piles, Piles.; I like to think that I’m one of those really organised people that has all her books on the bookshelf ALL the time. But I’m not. And I probably never will be. Instead I have random piles around the room. Books that have recently arrived. Books I’ve recently finished. Books I wish to read soon. Books I have to read soon (ARCs, etc). Books I’m currently reading. So you know… just a few…
  8. Notes Are No-No; Some people go pencil crazy in their books with underlines and comments and highlights and questions but I simply cannot stand the pages to be dismayed in this way. It really gets under my skin and so I just refuse to keep pens and pencils near any of my books. If I have a note about a book, it will go in my notebook but never in the book itself. I just can’t stomach it, you know?
  9. First Chapter Starts; If I get a new book that I’m really looking forward to or just find really interesting, I often find myself sitting there and reading the first chapter straight away. I may not read that book for another few months, if not longer, but I will almost always read that first chapter from the first moment the book is in my hands. I couldn’t answer why I do this, but I do know that it ends up meaning I read an awful lot of books at once… technically
  10. Sniff. Sniff. Sniff.; Yeap, that’s right, my final “quirk” is that I’m a book sniffer! It’s not just when I recieve a book though, it’s also while I’m reading it. I’ll just suddenly get the urge to pause, will pull the book closer to me and just SNIFF it with all I have. I love that smell of new books, it’s just so… stunning. There really is no better way to describe it.

There we have it. Some very odd reading habits that I have! I bet it was probably more than you ever wanted to know about me but then, why are you following my blog :P. I really enjoyed writing this post and was amused I managed to make it to ten without admitting some of my really awkward habits like changing positions every ten minutes while reading because I’m a fidget bum. I mean *cough*… what?

Anyway!

What are some of your reading habits? Do you share any with me? Or am I just a freak of nature? Let me know all!

Faye

26 Comments

  • Claire @ Project to be Read
    23 January, 2013 at 10:38 am Reply

    I thought I was the only person who took the dustjacket off of hardcovers. I’m so worried it’ll get damaged, or that when I’m reading in bed I’ll end up dropping the book on my face leaving the jacket in my hands (which has happened more than once!). Other than that I’m totally with you on absolutely everything apart from the music (any noise and I can’t concentrate on the book) and the first chapter which I only look at when a book makes my ‘read it soon’ pile :)

  • Mel@thedailyprophecy
    23 January, 2013 at 2:34 pm Reply

    I recognize a lot of your habits! I used to use random things as bookmarks, but I’ve bought some magnetic ones a while ago and I try to carry them around with me. I like to listen to music while reading, because I can’t stand silence. It always makes me nervous and it’s harder to concentrate on the book. So, I know that it’s a weird reason, but I know what you mean!
    Simply stare & admire is something I love to do and it can give me some strange looks. Books are just something.. special. They are pretty on the outside, but the words they contain (L) they can mean so much to me at the end.
    Are there serious people who underline words in their books? *looks horrified* Oh no! I even try to read my books as closed as possible to avoid cracked spines :p I want to keep them pretty and new looking.

    • Faye (Daydreaming_Star)
      25 January, 2013 at 8:50 am Reply

      My mum has some of those, do they really work well? Just curious! Oh and I know what you mean about silence, I’m exactly the same way!
      Yeah, I try to be like that but once I get into a story, it’s like I have to be closer to the words! Lol

      • Mel@thedailyprophecy
        25 January, 2013 at 5:10 pm Reply

        They work great! I have this thing: I always need to bring a book with me. It doesn’t matter where I’m going to – it doesn’t matter if I know that I don’t have the time to read it, I have to bring a book with me. Normal bookmarks tend to slip out of the pages, but these things are awesome. I just clip them on the pages (and I made sure that they don’t damage the pages by trying it out on a notebook) and they stick there all day :)

  • Alexa Y.
    23 January, 2013 at 4:05 pm Reply

    I love this post! I think it’s awesome that you shared some of your quirks with us. I definitely share a few of them – using anything as a bookmark, piling up books, taking book jackets off hardcovers.

  • Nikki @ Foil the Plot
    23 January, 2013 at 6:01 pm Reply

    I think that’s a really cool thing to share, Faye! I’m totally with you on the taking book jackets off, no notes, staring/admiring and reading until the end of the chapter. I think I have very OCD tendencies so many of these go hand-in-hand with all of that.

    So I’ll share a new weirdo habit that I have. I like reading the last few sentences of a given book (hard copy only, usually) right before I even start reading it. I know! I know! I just can’t help it. It took every ounce of restraint that I had not to do that with The Hunger Games series. I just can’t help it! It’s a terrible compulsion, perhaps because I’m masochistic. Or just weird. The jury’s still out on that one.

    • Faye (Daydreaming_Star)
      25 January, 2013 at 8:58 am Reply

      Yeah, I can understand the OCDness of it. Being an avid reader it’s hard not to be obssessive about the books we read :p i get all like stomach tightening when I see someone treat books badly and am very reluctant to share my books with others!

      As for your habit, I’m the complete opposite, I hate spoilers and usually avoid the last page like it’s the plague!! Lol.

  • Jessi @ Auntie Spinelli Reads
    23 January, 2013 at 6:52 pm Reply

    #3 & 8 are big ones for me! I hate it when my dust covers get wrinkled, torn, or otherwise damaged…so I always, always take them off. Plus they annoy the crap out of me! And I absolutely HATE seeing marks and dog-eared pages in a book. If the cover is beaten up it’s no biggie, just means the book was loved. But to me it’s desecration when people write in a book! That’s what my handy dandy notebook is for :)

    Oh and I love the smell of new books!

  • Hollie @ Music, Books and Tea
    23 January, 2013 at 7:41 pm Reply

    I do so many of these too! Tea is practically a necessity for me now, ha! I have several piles of books scattered around my house, which drives everyone crazy, but I simply don’t have the time to organise them onto bookshelves (because I’m too busy reading, haha!) I always try reading to the end of a chapter too, it’s easier to put down a book and go do something else if I’m at the end of a chapter. I have a tendency to use my mobile as a bookmark when I haven’t got anything else to hand, which can be problematic when I need my phone for something but don’t want to lose the page that I’m on!

  • Laura
    23 January, 2013 at 10:41 pm Reply

    I have several quirks, the wierdest being that i have to lie down whilst reading, i find it near impossible to read sat up. I used to always read the last page first but i hated doing it (even though i found it hard to resist) so i managed to stop :)

    Most people seem to use random things as bookmarks. I never use anything. I have a magical ability to open a book to the exact page i was last on :P

    I hate books to be marked or damaged so i read them carefully to not damage the spine, i never considered taking the dust jacket off though.

    My other thing that i am wierdly obbsessed about is my bookshelves. I reorganize them about once a year and use the wierdest methods. As a result i know exactly where to find every single book i own :P

    • Faye (Daydreaming_Star)
      25 January, 2013 at 9:27 am Reply

      You are a legend. How can you not need a bookmark? That is awesome! I bow down to you Laura! Haha.

      As for the bookshelves, mine are just ordered by height and read/not read. Totally lame but I’m a sucker for making sure my shelves look pretty!!

  • Vicky Hooper
    23 January, 2013 at 11:41 pm Reply

    Haha, this is an awesome post! :-) I do so many of these too. Especially the bookmark thing, and the reading the first chapter thing.

    But I don’t just read the first chapter… I often stick a bookmark in it too, and then leave it! Which means I need about a gazillion bookmarks. I’ve used receipts, tickets, yep sweet wrappers, bits of ribbon, pieces of scrap paper, shop advantage cards, even clean tissues if there’s nothing else to hand! *blush*

    But my favourite bookmark, which is lace made by my grandmother, is always in whatever book I’m properly reading and enjoying the most at the time.

    Okay, here’s probably my weirdest habit: sometimes when I’m reading the left page, I can’t help my eyes flicking to the right page and reading one line, seeing what’s going to happen about twenty seconds before I get to that bit anyway. Why?! I have no idea…

    • Faye (Daydreaming_Star)
      28 January, 2013 at 9:05 am Reply

      Ahaa. That is crazy! But don’t worry, I have used clean tissues before! If it’s the only thing around… lol

      Yay for one special one :) I’d struggle with that as I read more than one book at a time! Lol.

      I do that on occasion but I hate it! It’s like I gave myself a spoiler! But it just happens sometimes!

  • Clover
    24 January, 2013 at 10:55 am Reply

    Oh I’m with you on the bookmarks! Sweet wrappers, receipts, train tickets. Money on occasion! Usually scraps of paper, envelopes. If I’m feeling organised, I’ll use a blank notecard in order to jot down some notes for my eventual review..

  • Melissa's Midnight Musings
    26 January, 2013 at 2:07 am Reply

    I have to admit, Faye, I don’t quite understand the “louder the music the better I can ignore it” but, that’s most likely because I’m a person that has to have complete (or as near to it as I can get) silence to read.

    I like to drink tea when reading, green tea is my fave.

    I have a couple of different bookmarks I use, but most of the time, I don’t really need a bookmark.

    You are also not alone in sniffing books. I do it too. :)

    I don’t know if it’s just me, (I hope not) but a lot of the time I talk out loud about something I liked or didn’t like in a story when reading.

    • Faye (Daydreaming_Star)
      28 January, 2013 at 9:16 am Reply

      Haha, I hate silence. It’s why I hate exams because I struggle to concentrate when it’s silent :(

      Tea is awesome!

      Wish I had that ability but it probably is harder as I read so many books at one time! Lol

      Aha. I sometimes may gasp and be like hell no or hell yes! But don’t really talk.

  • Caitlin
    27 January, 2013 at 10:28 pm Reply

    You know, I never used to need a bookmark, I could always remember the page I was on last. BUT since getting my kindle which REMEMBERS FOR ME I’ve lost the ability to remember my own page number. How depressing. So now I have to use bookmarks. But usually I just use a train ticket or occasionally, a spoon. I never have an *actual* bookmark. I really enjoyed reading this, really interesting!

    Cait x

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *