Bookworms: How Do You Read So Many Books?

[Fbone]

Originally Posted by issybird

Not living in the Yankees' market means almost no opportunity to watch them play absent a pricey cable package which is against my religion. Even when they play the locals, it's mostly carried by a cable channel which is not part of my as-basic-as-you-can-get lineup - which I have only because it comes to the same as internet only.

But you've got me. If I won the lottery, I'd probably stump up for the necessary during the baseball season.

I have to spring for the MLB package in order to watch the Cubs. Money well spent.

Forgot to add that my reading time naturally decreases during baseball season. I don't read much to start with and can reach zero pages at times.

[cfrizz]

Here is my habit. Monday - Friday I read while I commute to work, I read at lunch, I read on my way home. Once home, once I shower and change for the night I eat dinner, go online and catch up with all my websites including this one, then read until bedtime 9:30 - 10:00.

Weekends I either am on my pc with websites until caught up, then I read either books or fanfiction all weekend long.

Monday comes...see up top.

[Hemmi]

I'm just not a very social person. I have to be social at work all day, when I leave I want to come home and cook dinner and get online and watch tv and read. Which is what I do.

I do very little housekeeping during the week. On the weekend, I do some housework in between reading. I will read most of the weekend in between the cleaning and shopping and laundry. I read while I watch tv. I read on my lunch break at work. I always have an ereader with me and any spare moment I'll be reading.

[graycyn]

A reader is always with me. Run the car through an auto-wash, read. Long line in the grocery store, read. Wait in a doctor's office, read. Eat meals, read. Before sleep, read.

Now, I don't read constantly, but I love reading and some things have gone by the wayside. Television, for instance. I used to watch certain shows regularly, as they got canceled, I elected not to bother finding replacements. I don't spend much time in front of the TV. I've always generally enjoyed reading more, unless a show is very good. I've been known to read during commercials.

I do read fairly quickly, but am not a speed reader. I like to stop and savor a great sentence for a moment or two, for instance.

I don't do social media, that saves a ton of time right there....

Anyway, I generally get through 1-4 books weekly, depending on length. Some weeks I read less, others more, it varies, I don't have any number goals. It helps that I'm retired, but of course there is housework and yard work and cats to take care of.


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[gravity_]

hmm.. not that I read that many, I wish I had the time to do so! But I can say that I read a decent amount for sure. The thing with me is that I get a book that interests me and ones I start I feel like I cannot live without knowing what is happening next. That's what works for me best Finding the genre that will make your head spin!

[tempest@de]

I love reading, always have, so I read has a hobby but I also read to pass the time, I always have the ereader or the phone so If I have to wait for something (an appointment, a transport, in a cue) I read, it’s so much better to pass that time doing something that I enjoy then standing there waiting for the time to pass. I read fairly fast and the ereaders, eBooks and audiobooks allowed me to expand my reading habit, in the last 5 years I went from an average of 1 book a week to 6, so much easier to pack the books when I travel.

It’s frequent that the first thing I do each day is read and also the last thing at night. I read at night before sleeping, which can vary from a few minutes to several hours if the book is particular good, and when I wake up to early to get up I just grab the book and read until its time to get up.

I watch tv, but usually I record the shows that I like so I can fast forward the commercials, but when I’m seeing something that’s not recorded I also read during the commercials. I read when I eat alone, I read while I wait for the food to cook, I listen to audiobooks when doing chores around the house and when I’m walking somewhere, I read at work when I don’t have anything to do, I hate to just be, I have to be doing something at all the times, but the best reading time is when I have several free hours on the weekend and I can read all I want just because that exactly what I want to do, unfortunately there have been very few days like that lately.

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by issybird

Not living in the Yankees' market means almost no opportunity to watch them play absent a pricey cable package which is against my religion. ...

You might want to check to see if you're in the Yankees "market area" on MLB.com and (if not) wait for a special. Last year, somewhere in the middle of May (I think) they sold the rest of the year for $10 and, since I'm out of the Cardinals marketing area, I was able to watch all their games (if I wanted to, though it was lousy year for it). So, about 2/3 of the season for $10. I live in the DFW area and Houston (4 or 5 hours away) is considered in my "home market area." It's worse for my dad, he lives ten-twelve hours away from St. Louis (in Arkansas) but he's considered to be in their "home market" -- as are the Texas teams.

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by Dazrin

You can also get a fairly cheap ($20/yr) audio only subscription at any time to listen to any team too if you want (no blackouts). Again, good for out of market teams that wouldn't otherwise be on the radio.

The other advantage of that is that you can pick your announcer (home or away). When Vin Scully was still with the Dodgers (and I still lived in California), I would listen to him announce games (even though I hated the Dodgers) – even if the game was on national television. Vin Scully was the best there ever was, no one else even came close.

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by DNSB

As a cure for insomnia?

No, that would be soccer ... or hockey ... or the Olympics.

[milady133]

Originally Posted by FizzyWater

I can't believe I'm the first to say this....but you can get a lot of reading done if you're an indifferent housekeeper.

Being only me and my boyfriend, I can get away with that. I also read while doing house chores... It takes a lot more time to get them done, but if I'm hooked with a book, I don't care.

[SleepyBob]

A quick google claims that Americans watch an average of 4+ hours of television a day. So if you swap out reading for watching TV, it's probably not to hard to get through a book every day or two.

Every baseball or football game that a sports fan watches equates to a book that a reader can read, more or less. So I don't think it's surprising at all that people who like to read manage more than two books a week.

[azayn]

I can speed read but often like to take my time, especially if it's poetry or an author who has a way with words like Murakami. The downside is I can't get through the other books in my pile as quickly.

Reading articles is another thing that's slowed me down. Ever since I discovered how to convert my Pocket articles to an epub digest, it's cut into the time I spend reading books on my reader.

[Deskisamess]

I read whenever I have a spare few minutes, when waiting in line anywhere, waiting while cooking, on hold or waiting for someone, in the bathroom, etc. I always have my iPhone with me, so always have something to read easily at hand.

I read at least 45 minutes to an hour before bed, many times longer. When watching sometime on tv in real time, I read during the commercials. Sometimes I read while watching baseball during breaks in the game.

I pick up my Oasis multiple times every day, which is one reason the battery is used up so quickly, the constant waking with the light all the way up.

This is how I read most of my lighter fiction. If I'm reading a bio or other non-fiction, I don't read in such short spurts. For those books I usually read with more attention and focus.

[BookCat]

I seem to have a much slower reading speed than most (between 160-200 wpm). I can read faster than this but lose the sense of 'being there' and high comprehension that slower reading gives me. When I speed-read as a student (I did a Lit degree), I wasn't reading for pleasure but to pick out certain aspects, such as the effect of weather on character, or the depiction of women etc.

At the moment I'm reading Frenchman's Creek by Daphne du Maurier. Although I'm spending about two hours a day reading, it's going to take roughly four days: I'm getting through an average of 25% of the book per day. A quick look at the paperback on Amazon tells me it's the equivalent of 270 pages (I'm reading the kindle version). So I'm reading abut 70 pages a day.

I'm trying to keep in mind that MR and booktube are composed of voracious readers, whereas the general population read very little (I'm not sure what the statistic is for the UK.) I can't remember the last time I saw a queue of people all glued to ereaders or paperbacks; everyone seems to be looking at mobile phones ... or are they reading novels on them?

I found this article, but I think it's being optimistic:
https://www.theguardian.com/books/20...ver-read-books

[Rich_D]

When I was reading that much, I would have multiple books going at the same time and I had more time available. I commuted via mass transit, 90 minutes a day, plus another 45 minutes for lunch and two 15 minute breaks. That normally accounted for 2 or 3 books a week, plus I would read another book for a couple hours a night while my wife watched tv and I'd read a 3rd book for 30 minutes or so when I went to bed. This was before e-readers, so I was at my public library every Sat morning checking out 4 or 5 books for the week.

Now I listen to audio books on my commute and have a shorter lunch break, I still read before bed and a couple nights a week, so I go through about 1 or 2 books a week.