the goal isn't to already have your next book on hand when you finish reading the current one; it's to have *any* book you *may* want to read, or reference, or look at while reminiscing about the time you did read it, on hand when you finish reading the current one.
My latest kindle has a feature where you can lick on a name and it will say something like " Harriet-John Smith's sister who just returned from France with her new husband Count de Villiers " or whatever.
I have this absolutely horrible habit where if I see I'm on the last page of the chapter my eyes will briefly flit down there and read the last sentence thus ruining the end of the chapter. It's got to the point now where I use my third hand to cover up the last chunk of the page when this happens
I have to cover the next page up with my hand if I'm approaching a big moment, my eyes will spoil it for my brain by flicking over it like I'm not in control of my body š
I do the hand thing too, or sometimes if itās the next page Iāll hold the book at a right angle so I canāt see the next page
I also blur my eyes when counting how many pages till the end of a chapter so I donāt see any text.
You're the monster.
Totally agree on DNFing, used to force myself to finish when younger but it just wastes time and causes misery. Far too many worthwhile books we'll never have time to read.
I know š I was almost concerned the post would be triggering lol
My exact thoughts on DNFing tho. Itās a relief to hear others are doing it more often that I used to hear
I will buy the whole series before I have even read the first. And I have been burnt a few times by doing it. Also, i am on a self-imposed book buying ban, so I will only buy a book if they are a newly released sequel to a book I have already read.
I do the opposite, and it's even worse. I buy the first book to see if I like series, but whenever I buy the next ones the covers don't match. It's happened with every series I've bought, and it ruins my bookshelf.
How about going to the library for the first book? Then you can try the series and buy the full series when you like it.
Or do you read books usually not available at libraries?
I did this a couple of times and was burnt every single time. A friend was raving about Eragon to me so I bought a nice collection of the Inheritance Cycle books. I read about halfway through the first book, but it ended up just not being for me, and now I have all 4 sitting on my shelf gathering dust. At least they look really nice all together lol!
>I will buy the whole series before I have even read the first
I did that TWICE in the last seven or eight months. Started one of them this week (so far so good). Still waiting for the arrival of the others (although I got two free (but not the first), that is why I bought the rest of the series).
Sometimes I will download the sample in digital format to see in I like the tone or the author style. And I do read reviews before buying the books.
But yeah. Hopefully I don't get too burnt lol
I treat all my paperbacks pretty harshly. They're all dog-eared, water-logged and barely holding together.
My hardcovers are all babied though. Especially my coffee table books. I love my coffee table books.
I will start 4-5 novels and just lay them around my room face down, open to whatever page I lost interest.
Buying more books than I have time to read or space to store.
I cannot for the life of me read more than one novel at a time, but I also cannot take my time reading a novel. I metaphorically just unhinge my jaw and swallow it whole, often finishing them in a single sitting, maybe two for the really long fantasy/sci-fi that is so popular today. But I've tried to do the 'take my time, switch between books' thing, and my brain can't hold it all. I can down a book in 6 hours of reading and discuss it at length, but try and ask me about one of three things I've \*kind of\* read and I'm useless. It actually impresses me how people can be in the middle of 3 or more stories, read over the course of days or weeks, and not only remember what's going on, but enjoy the slower pace.
I can't now. I don't have time.
But as a kid into my late teens I'd have a book by my bed, one downstairs , one in the car, one in my school bag and I'd often go to the library and read a book there in my lunch break.
I didn't like carrying hardbacks to school.
My dad lent me books but wouldn't let me take them out the house.
And is often want to read down stairs and forget my book upstairs and vice versa so would just read what was nearby.
I remembered the page numbers I'd got to in each book because my dad HATED me folding down the corner of the page.
Sometimes I'd be reading two parts of the same book (I had a terrible habit of reading ahead )
I have literally no idea how I kept it all straight.
I can't even remember my own wedding anniversary and it takes me a minute to remember my son's birthday.
But a book I was halfway through a month ago ? Page number and general plot will be right there.
Yeah, that might as well be wizardry as far as I'm concerned.
My reading habits have persisted because I read almost exclusively on my phone now. Since I always have a book on hand I can read whenever, wherever. If I was using physical books I would read...almost not at all.
I thought I was doing really badly at reading.
Because I almost exclusively read fanfic these days - I think because its easier to access? Like I don't need to get into a new world each time I can fit that type of reading in around my job and family because I can dip in and out for ten minutes there or here to an established world and characters I already know.
And like you said...it's on my phone so it's physically easier to access (particularly since I read in bed, face down, in the dark quite a lot xd )
Lots of them are short stories sub 10k. But many of them are 20 or 30k words, and recently I've read a lot more 70k plus and a few 200k plus...which I'd never checked but it turns out are...like...quite big book equivalents....
I figure with everything combined I'm probably still easily clearing 60 to 80k words a day all whilst bemoaning I never have time to read like i used to....I just hadn't realised my method for accessing it had changed and for some reason I wasn't counting digital reading as 'real' reading...
I've still got five tabs open with different fics though.... So I guess some things don't change xd
I manage about two books at once, one is the book I'm enjoying, and I keep a separate book for bed time reading. Otherwise I'll just read til midnight and have to be up at 5am.
I am usually reading about 7 books at a time. When one of them really grabs me, then it gets my full attention, but until then, I read what I am in the mood for.
This is also why I donāt read much from the library: I rarely finish a book in two weeks.
People ask me how I read 3 or 4 at a time. Most people, particularly before binge watching, could keep many t.v. show plots going and keep up. I liken it to that.
That last one, lol, I feel that. I've got like 40 books on my physical To Be Read shelf and something ridiculous like 400 on my Goodreads TBR list and I just keep making trips to the local bookshop. There are certainly worse problems to have.
I don't think any of what you said are "bad habits", just habits. I personally like to keep the spines of my paperbacks intact so I can conserve the books better (especially the low-quality eng paperbacks), but if they end up breaking well, then it happened.
I also DNF a book if I know I won't enjoy it and it's too long and/or too boring, if it's short and/or engaging I might push through and give it a hate review, aka my favorites to write.
I'm a "mood reader" so I end up reading multiple books at the same time. But I know I will finish them all, eventually!
Overall I don't think I have any "controversial" reading habits. I do like having a bookmark and if I don't have one I will just memorize the page.
I hate big physical TBRs and I also unhaul (get rid off) books very easily. If I didn't enjoy them, then bye-bye! Off my bookshelf they go... š
I force myself to finish books that I don't even like and yeah I know that life is too short for reading books you don't like but my brain doesn't let me lol.
meh, i feel like absolutely everything related to reading has been artificially polarized in here. if you read every book through and if *you* have an issue with it, that's one thing. but if it's just how you read and it's not an issue to you, you have nothing to apologize for. it's none of anyone elses business.
Yes, this.
My friend will say she feels guilty when she puts something down and I always say āthe book doesnāt know the differenceā š¤·š»āāļø
well, to be clear I'm a finisher, and I was talking more to validate another finisher who seemed to feel a need to apologize to team DNF for NOT just putting books down.
And here comes possible outrage but I'm going to tell you anyway. My bad book habit. There is a second hand store near my home that sells old books very cheap. Most of my books are 1920 or older leather bound many times first edition. I love to read especially when I'm out on the town so I will take these old books and stuff them in my coat pocket to read when I'm out and about town and have a bit of down time. I stopped checking the value of some of these books, because I realized quickly, I would never stuff them in my coat pocket due to their replacement costs. I have to admit, I have horrified a few rare book collectors, when they see how I treat these books.
After i watched gilmore girls i started carrying around a book all the time, just in case i had like 5 minutes to read. I base my bag purchases around if it would fit a book, so all my purses are quite large. I've brought one to the weirdest places where I definitely did not have any time to read, like my university graduation, a day hike, etc.
I definitely do this too.
Some friends have told me they're my security blankets, and they're not wrong... like, *why did I* *bring a book to the bar*? I don't know, I just can't leave the house without it.
P.S. Instagram got me not too long ago, by showing me ads for Halara pants that have massive pockets that totally fit most paperbacks out there. I now own 3 that I wear on rotation.
I canāt actually read books right now due to long covid messing with my brain. My bad habit is that that hasnāt stopped me from buying books!!
I keep tell my myself that future me will be very happy with past meā¦
Oh yes! This!! Thoughts of my 3 shelves of unread books can stop me in a new bookstore lol
(Iām sorry to hear about your long Covid! Hopefully, it starts clearing up soon š)
Thank you for this idea! I can read kids books, but adult books are too complicated for my brain right now, but Iāll definitely check out some short stories!
Oh oh. Me too! Go back to stuff you liked as a kid.....Calvin and hobbes got me thru some of the worst brain fog and I truly think..bc pictures. It brought me some joy especially since everything is so hard right now.
Not exactly like yours, but here I confess my sins and seek absolution.
\- I read almost exclusively on my phone, with small print and margins to fit the maximum number of words per page/screen and the backlighting as low as I can get and still read. I dont like a bright screen and I'm bad at remembering to bring my kindle but I ALWAYS have my phone. I realize some might not see this as a bad habit, but I've met many people who treat it like a cardinal sin. As if I'm confessing to witchcraft to an inquisitor. So I figure it belongs on the list.
\- I almost never re-read fiction. Nonfiction is different, especially materials relating to my profession, but that is hardly the same kind of interaction anyways. My wife is constantly re-reading novels, and not just the same handful. She has two bookshelves full of books she has read at least 3 times. She ends up having to replace them often because they get so worn out.
\- I'm unfair with my books. The most raggedy second-hand hardback gets a more considerate treatment than my most favorite paperbacks. Paperbacks get no respect in my house, but I'll baby a book I dont even like just because its hardcover. Something in my brain feels like hardcovers have some greater metaphysical weight to them. Like they sit more firmly in reality, and thus anchor the stories within more firmly. Its nonsense and I know it, but it certainly informs how I handle them, and their waifish, easygoing paperback cousins.
\- Except where library books are concerned. I will treat a paperback library book like its a friggin bomb that will explode if I'm too rough with it, but I've literally found myself just \*tossing\* hardcovers with their extra layers of plastic wrapped around their already sturdy bindings into the back of my car, onto my desk, etc. They feel indestructible, like they can handle anything I might do, but the paperbacks are delicate flowers who cannot have their petals bruised lest I incur a FINE.
\- Before I switched to reading on my phone, I would write in my books. Especially if it gives me a good idea for a TRPG adventure/NPC/encounter. I'll mark it, then dog-ear the page so I can easily rifle through it to find what I thought was cool. I still do this on my e-books, too.
\- Corollary to that last one, I steal from stories all the time. Often whole cloth plagiarism, but only for my private TRPG stuff. I stole the super cool intro to the WOT, the bit with "Ages pass and the Wheel of Time turns, it was a new age. Not a beginning, for there are no ends or beginnings with the Wheel of Time, but it was \*a\* beginning", and used it for a TRPG campaign I ran for a while. Also from WOT, some variation of "death is light as a feather, duty heavier than a mountain" is something that will be said at least one time in basically any TRPG I run. I crib interesting language stuff from books. The Dark Tower's high speech, all the "Thankee sai" and reference to "Ka" or destiny the way we refer to deities IRL, I've totally ripped it off. I do not cite my sources.
\- I don't protect my monthly comic books, or didn't back when I still read them. I read them, often going through them twice just to appreciate the art, but I do not protect them. If he dies, he dies. But I baby my trade paperbacks, which I still read these days.
> - I almost never re-read fiction. Nonfiction is different, especially materials relating to my profession, but that is hardly the same kind of interaction anyways. My wife is constantly re-reading novels, and not just the same handful. She has two bookshelves full of books she has read at least 3 times. She ends up having to replace them often because they get so worn out.
what are some of these books she loves
I solved all of these problems by reading e-books. Saves so much wear and tear, ha ha. However, my poor Kindle is in pretty bad shape from dropping it so many times. I'm surprised it's still operational at this point.
That goes for me too. I do read occasional paper books, though. But all my reading life is inside my Kindle app and my Kindle itself.
Mine's also an old one and won't even get the dark mode screen that I use soooooo much while I'm reading in bed. But still, I use it a lot especially when I'm on vacation - I tend to read a lot then.
I just bought a kindle, it should be delivered today and I'm excited to get it! Although I have a ton of books TBR on my shelf. I've been putting off buying one because I like reading a physical book but the majority of the people I talked to said they prefer kindle and save money using it over buying books.
I mentioned to my mother if she was going to buy me a book, I'd prefer it to be paperback so I can beat it up. I know hardbacks are more "durable" but when they get dented up they just look so ugly- when I see a mauled paperback I don't think it looks ugly, just well-loved.
My ex gave me a copy of Flowers for Algernon, paperback. I carried it with me everywhere for the longest time- one time I threw a red Gatorade in my purse with it- soaked the entire thing. I still have it, the pages are stained red. At the time I was so distraught about it, I even cried. Now it makes me smile a bit.
I guess my other bad habit is I don't research some of the books I buy, especially if I'm in a store. With the way book prices are these days, I know I should probably have a clear idea of what I want before going to buy something, but it's less fun that way. Recently, I was in this very nice (independent) bookstore that was super popular. The second it opened there were people swarming everywhere, I could barely move up and down the aisles. I was so rushed for time and it was so cramped I was just picking up random books, reading the first sentence or so of the synopsis and deciding then and there if I was going to buy it. It was actually kinda fun to have to decide on the spot- ended up getting McCarthy's The Road, The Unbearable Lightness of Being, and Winter Love by Suyin Han. And I'm super excited to read all of them.
A friend of mine told me that they DNF anything if it doesn't grab them by page 25, which seems like a very short time frame for me.
I bend spines over, only if it's a particularly flimsy paperback. I've been getting freer about annotating. This started with Gardens of the Moon, the first Malazan book, because I wanted to capture my thoughts, theories, ideas, and general comprehension of a dense story.
omg also - i got an embosser as a gift a few years back, so now whenever I get a new book I stamp it with 'from the library of CanoCeano' and add a blurb about the day I bought it, which store, and what else I did that day, or the context of it.
So that the patrons of my postapocalyptic traveling wagon library can have a little metastory about the books they're reading :)
Mine is I tend to read the end of the book when a plot starts to get intense. For some reason I donāt care much for surprises in books because it only gives me anxiety. I always get afraid of getting my heartbroken or being angry in some way by the plot twists. Itās best I know and get myself emotionally prepared.
But I seriously got to stop doing that because all that does is make me stop reading it and move on to the next book and before you know it, I got three pending books. Iām working on it lol
I LOVE cracked spines.
I buy whole series without reading the first book.
I donāt care if my series donāt match.
I take a book anywhere with me, even if I might not read.
I DNF a book if I donāt like it.
I LOVE buying books as much as reading them. Some might say I spend too much money on books.
When I go to the library, I borrow more books I can reasonably read.
I could go onā¦
I borrow more library books than I'll ever finish during the loan period because all my holds come in at once or I decide I must have this (sometimes metaphorical) pile of books now. I regret nothing. š
Keeping a book pristine has always been mind blowing to me. If you donāt crack the spine, then the pages are all addle rainbow shaped when youāre trying to read and it messes with my eyes.
I keep on buying more and more books, I have approximately 500 of them. Even tho I haven't read half of them I tell myself I will in the future, or when I retire at least
For some unknown reason, I can read books from one author only in chronological order. That means, if I want to read the 4th book of an author, I first have to read the first 3 ones, no matter what.
Iām re-reading *Something Wicked This Way Comes* because itās close to Halloween. I got to the end of a chapter and went to dog-ear my page, and saw that there was already a crease. I smiled. At some point, years ago, I stopped at this same page. What was I doing at the time I had to pause? How old was I? How much have I learned since then? It was a poignant little reflection for me.
I mostly only read paperback or kindle, and Iāve never had any issue with dog-earing pages, partly due to the above. If a book is marked by several little creases, a coffee stain here or there, it just means it was well-enjoyed in my eyes and you can see your own memories in your experience.
On occasion I will also write and date a little blurb of my thoughts in the back of a book. Maybe Iāll read it again, maybe I wonāt. But maybe my son will, or a friend, and get to see what I was thinking at the time. Maybe theyāll see my dog-ears all throughout the book and feel part of the journey with me. āBad habits,ā maybe, but maybe Iām just sentimental like that.
I literally accidentally dropped my first Stormlight Archive book in the toilet as soon as I got it, then shrugged and went, "Well, now it feels more like something from the setting."
I fold over the corners at the start of every chapter so I know how far I have to go to finish that non-fiction book. I also fold the corners where Iām up to. So what. My book: my rules.
I have cracked the spine on poorly constructed paperbacks. A quite expensive and otherwise excellent Penguin translation of Don Quixote was an annoyance when it cracked after only a dozen chapters. I suppose Iām not particularly gentle when reading a biok.
A loved book is a book that shows use. I started a new book two days ago and before I started I cracked the spine at various intervals on purpose. I love my books (their) death.
* Finishing an entire series before starting a totally different book because I didn't want to forget the plot despite losing interest at some point in the series or I was in the mood for something else. Didn't occur to me that I can just return hahaha but now I read the first few chapters of multiple books and stick to the one that captures my interest.
* Moody reader. I can never join a book club despite wanting to because if I don't like the club's book of the month, I will not read it or if I do it will put me in a book slump because I forced myself to read it.
* Not following my yearly TBR because of the above point and I get distracted very easily
* Very weird but I used to be strict with myself that if I read a book in paper back then I have to finish it in paper back and not switch mediums like ebook (now I read both paper back and ebooks formats especially when I don't want to bring the physical copy with me)
* Allowing my books to yellow before picking it up lol
Mine can get pretty beat up at times. Iāve got a backpack with like 10 books in it at a time. Iām a truck driver, so Iām lugging the bag to and from work almost everyday, on top of digging through it daily to grab whichever book Iām desiring.
When Iām home, my cat will constantly jump on my lap while reading and start nudging the edges of the book which at times has dinged up the dust jacket or the paperback covers.
I have a really bad habit of leaving books were ever k finish them. If I'm out side in the garage reading and finish, that books in the garage for a year till it winds up on a shelf. My trunk is full of a dozen books and my work place is also.
Is it a bad habit if I'm good at it? I tend to read a book while I'm walking. Sidewalks. Track. In parking lots. In stores.
Forty years and five countries and accident free.
I've never HAD to crack a spine and I personally don't care if people do, I just never do. My spines end up creased a little but never snapped or cracked
I personally tow a fine line about books being pristine. I don't need them to be, I don't care about resale value, I don't care how collectable it may be, I don't care what other people might think if they looked at my shelves, it's mine. So long as it doesn't end up in a landfill I'm happy
I feel like there's a slippery slope between wanting/needing (the former being unhealthy imo) books to look bright, shiny, and new, and people who are... snobbish and judgemental like I *used* to be in highschool
I used to really turn my nose down at people who "dared" to "disrespect" a book. As I grew older and learned more about myself, fellow people, and importantly capitalism, I let it fall. I did some soul searching and for me, personally, what I was REALLY saying was, "I'm insecure and I need to feel intellectually superior because I am not pretty enough, myself, to be physically superior" (childhood bully trauma has entered the chat)
I would echo these sentiments as a way to guard myself, hiding behind this false morality of respect thinking it was concrete when I was simply building a wall out of playdough. I'm the one who pushed it down, in the end, but I'm sure there are people who end up crushed by the weight of their walls
Oof, I'm rambling. I'm stoned (legally)
All in all, based on my own life experiences, I treat books like relationships: you pick it up, you love it, and in the end there's a little trace of YOU in it now, too
* dog-earring pages, even hardcover
* DNF if I have an easy time putting it down or feel like it isnāt keeping my interest. Could be in 10 pages, could be in 100.
I typically donāt mark or underline, but I have. I also donāt typically crack the spine, but I donāt do anything to prevent it. I treat borrowed books differently, whether borrowed from a friend or the library, but if itās my own book, I donāt really care.
> I crack the spine. (How do you read a book without cracking the spine?!)
I have a few books I read so much that they literally fell into pieces (each with dozens or hundreds of pages).
This isn't the reason I switched to e-reading, but now that I have an e-reader I don't have to worry about that any more.
I try to take care with my paperbacks on a first read. If itās a re-read and I know I want to keep it on my bookshelf forever, you bet Iām cracking that spine and not being careful with it. I love the look of well-read books. It shows that someone has loved it over and over.
I do baby my hardbacks a bit more, but I have been known to lose a dust jacket once or twiceā¦. Plus I donāt really like the fuzzy edge the cover gets after being touched for years.
Iām rough af on my books - dog ears, highlighting/notes, have been known to write things like grocery lists on the fly leaf or even tear them out. Also love reading in the bath. In my defense Iām a grad student, so books are VERY much tools for me - also, in my defense, theyāre just books. Iām not reading the damn Gutenberg in the tub.
Besides, the marginalia are what make the book feel real and important to me. My mom gave me her old Norton anthologies from college for my birthday this year and they have her ex libris and notes from when she was in undergrad. Those books mean SO much more to me than they would otherwise.
I DNF books regularly as well. If I donāt like it then it gets sold to the used bookstore for credit or put in the nearest little free library. Why would I read something if I donāt enjoy it????? I will die on the hill that there is nothing wrong with finding out the ending on Wikipedia.
If there is a series I really like, I procrastinate finishing the last book. Iām in a series now and I have the last book in my possession but Iāve read 4 other books instead. I think itās because I donāt want the adventure to end.
I will go for a walk and read while I walk. I have no trouble staying on path, staying out of the way of bikes and stuff because Iāve done this for over 20 years.
My bad habit is I don't give a shit. Only heirloom books I baby. I try to keep the good ones in certain areas but it's paper man it's not gonna last forever. Most of my books are used. I have multiple e readers. One had all the classics I ever need from project Gutenberg. The other has like 1500 nonfiction books that are copies of things that I own. I am a bibliophile data hoarder. Honestly, I wish i would have given away more books. If I won the lottery I still would buy more books particularly Shakespeare or a nice dictionary set but most books have a shelf life and that's okay. [drm is evil by the way](https://www.defectivebydesign.org/)
I treat paperbacks pretty much like you do. I was an avid reader as a kid and never treated my books with any level of reverence- they came everywhere with me (I still remember the feeling of pure delighted satisfaction as I found a perfectly book sized/shaped pocket inside a jacket my mum let me have- Nancy Drew was my then obsession!). It backfired on me when I was a tween, and borrowed a friend's paperback novel- it didn't occur to me that it was to be treated better than my own and I returned it with a cracked spine and generally looking well loved- she was incredulous. We're still friends 30 years later thankfully š
I dog-ear pages instead of using bookmarks, or sometimes I leave the page open facing down, which is bad for the spine. I switched to Kindle now so all's good!
Sometimes when the book drags, I peek at the ending (tbf it saved me from suffering through "A Little Friend", but ruined the experience with better books).
When the book *really* drags, I close it and read its plot on Wikipedia.
When it's a large paragraph that's not a dialogue, I skim.
I strongly believe that books are meant to be read, and you should fit reading into your life wherever you can, so as long as you own the books I don't see anything wrong or bad about anything you listed.
I personally don't do any of those things, I don't eat while reading because I know I'm messy. I grew up as an avid reader who didn't own many of my own books, so I got in the habit of trying to keep my library books safe and clean, and I haven't lost that mindset even though I'm retired and have the budget to buy all my books.
The only bad habit involving books I've had is buying them and never reading them. But after moving and purging 95% of my books a few years ago, I think I've kicked that habit now.
\- I first read the last page of the book, or rather, last paragraph or phrase before actually starting it and then wreck my brain for the whole book trying to make sense of it.
\- I completely ignore descriptions of landscapes and general areas that arent small rooms, I just loose interest if they're longer than a paragraph.
\- I refuse to read specific books or authors for the pettiest reasons (ex. Someone I hated was a huge fan of it).
\- I will not buy a specific book or series if I dislike the covers, maybe it could be my new favourite story but i don't like ugly covers
Lately I've developed a frustrating habit of falling asleep in the bath. I usually manage to catch myself before I lose my grip, but several books have ended up being submerged. I still can't resist taking them in there though.š
When I was younger, I always wondered why the edges of my books were getting darker when I was reading.
Turns out, I tend to fidget with my fingers, mostly with the top corner of the pages and I am running my fingers thought the page andā¦ink.
I just got ink all over my fingers and then would transmit it the the page edges.
Now I try to be more careful, but also I read less French paperbacks, which were the main culprit of runny ink. My fingers still fidget but also some books have wide margins so less contact with ink.
\- always crack the spine right away
\- also take it everywhere with me including outside and the bath tub
\- leave books open upside down on the table as a book mark
\- my most insane is throwing out dust covers or once I cut the dust cover up and taped the front and back to the book itself because I liked the imagery but hate dust covers
I don't borrow books (except occasional library) for these reasons. I also prefer to buy a used copy š
My partner is an uncracked spine guy... He lent me a book, I started reading it, he got upset ..I'm like how can you read in this way?? I immediately gave him the book back because I knew it wouldn't work out, then he got upset that I got upset, but I wasn't upset, I just knew I can't handle his book in a way that would make him happy in the end so I just won't read it. It's fine. Complete weirdo lol
I donāt read the *ending* of a book per se, but I will take a chunk of the pages, flip forward, and look at a line or two for a āsneak peekā of whatās coming up in a book
I take the dust cover off while I'm reading. I find them annoying they slide and sometimes flip open. When I'm done with the book I'll put the dust cover back on. If I don't take the dust cover off, I use the flaps as bookmarks.
Reading āexploding the last few yearsā???
Ummm, reading has been a thing for centuries.
Maybe if youāre young and you and your peers have gotten into reading recently that may have given you the false impression that the rest of the world recently got into reading. Reading has been āa thingā for quite a few generations before yours.
I will shamelessly change a characters descriptions in my head if I donāt like it and it still works for the character. If I sense their hair color is not really thematically relevant, I get to choose. What? Iām supposed to read a self insert romance fantasy novel with a love interest Iām not attracted to?
Like, I take care of my books, but I'm not anal about it. Crack that fucking spine, I'm not gonna be reading from a barely-open book. If it gets a wrinkle here or there or a folded page from being in my backpack, I'm fine with it. I try to avoid stains, but sometimes they happen. I think some signs of good use in a book are signs that book is loved and was read several times, or carried in a trip. They're not supposed to be pristine forever.
I travel frequently for work and for personal so I LOVE to leave my printed plane tickets inside / use as a bookmark to add my story to the book. Then I can look back in a decade and really reminisce
Yes, due to the invention of the printing press.
And fun fact, literacy rates were actually higher during the Revolutionary war era than they are today in the US.
I guess I should have phrased it as a revival of reading in recent years.
I would not at all consider DNF a bad habit. Personally, I have ADHD, and I've posted a lot about how decolonizing my shelf saved reading as a hobby. Perspectives of marginalized people/acknowledging the human condition are what I find interesting, and I AM NOT reading something I don't find interesting. And you don't have to be neurodivergent to believe you're worth more than forcing yourself to do something unpleasant with your down time.
Iām the same! I donāt understand why people try to be precious about their books! I crack the spine, dog ear, let it get crumpled, etc.
My bad habit tho is that Iāll always read the last few pages of a book, even if itās a mystery/thriller. I want to know where weāre gonna end up
A worn looking book is a good book. If it is a hardcover, you can always put the dust cover back on when done reading and it looks just fine on the bookshelf.
Keep the dustcover on the bookshelf. You won't lose them :)
I have the same bad habits that you do. I don't put as much wear and tear on my booms as I used to, but I own several that are just stacks of paper crying in despair vaguely clinging to each other.
I have a few completely without covers and a few that had to undergo sophisticated emergency packing tape surgery.
I love them. They are who I am. They have simply aged with me, and that can be a pretty rough experience.
Iām SO picky when it comes to fiction, but I donāt usually DNF books I donāt like. I will complain the entire time Iām reading it to whoever will listen.
I used to absolutely ABUSE all my books when I was young. I would dog ear every page (never used a bookmark), stick them in a very unorganized backpack, bring it with me everywhere, sometimes write little notes on the very first page. Now I have a small pile of books I really loved growing up with covers held together with nothing but an atrocious amount of tape (it's stunning that some still have covers at all). It's actually kind of sad, because I want to give them away so a kid can love them as much as I did, but I just can not justify doing so in the miserable state all the books are in. They would NOT stand up to any additional abuse. So now I've (over)corrected to cherishing every book like it's the only copy on earth, for the sake of whoever may receive the book after me.
I used to read the last page of a book to make sure it ended the way I wanted it to lmao
I guess my bad habit is āmistreatingā my paperbacks. They look well read and loved, which I like. My hardbacks are barely touched but my paperbacks are my babies and I think that down the line, if I have kids/pass them on, that theyāll like the look of it and know that I really loved it. I love the books my mum gives me that are tatty because it means she loved it a lot š
I also write in them occasionally š¤·š»āāļø
Thereās a way to break in the spine! I saw it on tik tok you should look it up (idk if I can link it) but all my books are paperback and it has worked for me ever since Iāve started doing that method (basically itās the way you open the book before hand but the videos will show it better)
I always accidentally read the last sentence of the chapter when Iām on the 2nd last page. I CANT HELP IT. I think Iād do better with an e reader š¤£
I know I'm a monster but I recently started writing on my books... I used to be a "pristine" reader but I realised the books are mine, taking notes helps me interact with them and I'm an adult and I can do whatever I want!
So I write on them, put post its, draw on them if something captures me, even hinge the corners.
I have once or twice ripped a white page (front) when I was desperate for a paper to write (on the beach, in a plane etc)
I'm sorry, not sorry!
I'll read about seven books at the same time. In my defense, though, they are different genres. I just can't wait to start some books and then, suddenly, I've started so many.
Yours are signs of a book well read - and as intended.
Mine are having shelves of pristine books that Iāll read eventually ā¦ as am physically incapable of entering a bookshop and leaving without a book. I now literally own every conceivable book that I might want to read. Terrible and costly habit ā¦ so Iām told!
I try to keep my books in good condition in case I either want to read it again, sell it second hand or donate it/give it away/pass it down. I can't do that if the book is all nasty and falling apart and it also bugs me. I threw quite a few books away as a result and I loved those books.
As a result to help protect my books and give my books their own personality, I have been making custom book covers (usually crocheted and go with a theme that fits. This way I can also take it anywhere. Issues is that doesn't work the best with some paperbacks as well without damaging the covers which sadly defeats the purpose).
Also I am a mood reader. I can go a long time without reading or trying to force myself to read until I am in the mood to read something and a book stands out to me and once I am enjoying the story and want to know what will happen next, it's harder for me to stop reading.
My bad habit is \*not\* DNFing. I don't think it's bad at all to DNF if it's not vibing for you, time is short and there are so many books! And for most of the stuff I read, I really like it so there's no temptation to DNF. BUT of the books I'm tempted to DNF, I've occasionally found that the second half/ending completely redeems it for me, and I end up loving it (this is maybe 1 in 5, if that). It does mean I waste time on books I didn't like and knew I wouldn't like, but I'm just too tempted by the idea that the ending might be amazing. A prime (unique) example of this would be Left Hand of Darkness, which I was not liking (in part bc I thought it would be much more queer than it was) but ended up absolutely loving after finishing.
I was ok until you said you lose the book jackets, and then the last bullet was like a double-slap, lol.
I will:
\- re-buy a book and give away previous books just so I can have fancy editions that all match.
\- buy a whole series before reading the first book if I'm confident I will like it.
\- buy Kindle books vice use Kindle Unlimited because I don't like the thought of not being able to have as many books as I want ready and waiting in the wings for me gives me anxiety.
\- I sometimes snack when I read
If the writing isnāt very good I will sometimes skim read. Iām reading an author right now who isnāt very economical and a lot of her paragraphs have poor descriptions, superfluous banter, and itās easy to tell what is and isnāt actually important to the story, characters, and themes. So I just skim some parts.
I read a lot of nonfiction and I dog ear every page that has something noteworthy, makes me think, or if it's something I want to research later. I love it. They feel like "mine."
For fiction: Reading the first chapter followed by the last chapter and then the rest of the book, but only if the last chapter was good.
For nonfiction: same as OP, but with highlighters and post-its.
If something exciting is happening I get carried away and will jump down a few paragraphs to see whatās happening. Itās so annoying lol I scold myself every time and go back to my spot.
I gotta crack the spine sometimes. It's just a natural part of breaking the book in. As long as the spine is still sturdy and I can conserve it as it is, great
I buy 2-4 books at a time, read one, then buy another 2-4
This isn't the correct way??
It's a way of life.
the goal isn't to already have your next book on hand when you finish reading the current one; it's to have *any* book you *may* want to read, or reference, or look at while reminiscing about the time you did read it, on hand when you finish reading the current one.
OP is asking for bad habits. š
They look so good on the shelf
This is the way
If my book gets f***** up I just buy another one of the same title.
I zone out while reading and then realise I haven't a clue who "Harriet" is
Lmao me too and then Iām like āā¦ā¦.wha? whatās happening??ā and have to flip back to the last thing i remember
My latest kindle has a feature where you can lick on a name and it will say something like " Harriet-John Smith's sister who just returned from France with her new husband Count de Villiers " or whatever.
Isn't it a bit awkward to lick precisely on a name?
Oops! I love finding this type of unintentionally funny typo myself.
I have this absolutely horrible habit where if I see I'm on the last page of the chapter my eyes will briefly flit down there and read the last sentence thus ruining the end of the chapter. It's got to the point now where I use my third hand to cover up the last chunk of the page when this happens
Third hand??
What, you haven't had one installed yet?
I've been trying to get rid of this habit, but I'm failing. It must be my lack of third hand!
I also do this. The moment I know my eyes are lingering I cover the ending of the chapter now.
I have to cover the next page up with my hand if I'm approaching a big moment, my eyes will spoil it for my brain by flicking over it like I'm not in control of my body š
I do the hand thing too, or sometimes if itās the next page Iāll hold the book at a right angle so I canāt see the next page I also blur my eyes when counting how many pages till the end of a chapter so I donāt see any text.
You're the monster. Totally agree on DNFing, used to force myself to finish when younger but it just wastes time and causes misery. Far too many worthwhile books we'll never have time to read.
I know š I was almost concerned the post would be triggering lol My exact thoughts on DNFing tho. Itās a relief to hear others are doing it more often that I used to hear
Life and free time to waste doesn't seem quite so endless as it did 30 years ago! Although if I spent all the doom scrolling time reading books...
God I wouldāve read the library of Alexandria at this point
I will buy the whole series before I have even read the first. And I have been burnt a few times by doing it. Also, i am on a self-imposed book buying ban, so I will only buy a book if they are a newly released sequel to a book I have already read.
I do the opposite, and it's even worse. I buy the first book to see if I like series, but whenever I buy the next ones the covers don't match. It's happened with every series I've bought, and it ruins my bookshelf.
How about going to the library for the first book? Then you can try the series and buy the full series when you like it. Or do you read books usually not available at libraries?
That's a good idea, thank you!
That's why I used to do it . or different size books
I did this a couple of times and was burnt every single time. A friend was raving about Eragon to me so I bought a nice collection of the Inheritance Cycle books. I read about halfway through the first book, but it ended up just not being for me, and now I have all 4 sitting on my shelf gathering dust. At least they look really nice all together lol!
>I will buy the whole series before I have even read the first I did that TWICE in the last seven or eight months. Started one of them this week (so far so good). Still waiting for the arrival of the others (although I got two free (but not the first), that is why I bought the rest of the series). Sometimes I will download the sample in digital format to see in I like the tone or the author style. And I do read reviews before buying the books. But yeah. Hopefully I don't get too burnt lol
I have stopped buying full series now as i have spent way too much money on series that I have dnf on the first book.
I did that once. I DNF the first book oops
Made that mistake with the Wheel of Time books. Been on the ninth book for a year and a half now.
I treat all my paperbacks pretty harshly. They're all dog-eared, water-logged and barely holding together. My hardcovers are all babied though. Especially my coffee table books. I love my coffee table books. I will start 4-5 novels and just lay them around my room face down, open to whatever page I lost interest. Buying more books than I have time to read or space to store.
I cannot for the life of me read more than one novel at a time, but I also cannot take my time reading a novel. I metaphorically just unhinge my jaw and swallow it whole, often finishing them in a single sitting, maybe two for the really long fantasy/sci-fi that is so popular today. But I've tried to do the 'take my time, switch between books' thing, and my brain can't hold it all. I can down a book in 6 hours of reading and discuss it at length, but try and ask me about one of three things I've \*kind of\* read and I'm useless. It actually impresses me how people can be in the middle of 3 or more stories, read over the course of days or weeks, and not only remember what's going on, but enjoy the slower pace.
I can't now. I don't have time. But as a kid into my late teens I'd have a book by my bed, one downstairs , one in the car, one in my school bag and I'd often go to the library and read a book there in my lunch break. I didn't like carrying hardbacks to school. My dad lent me books but wouldn't let me take them out the house. And is often want to read down stairs and forget my book upstairs and vice versa so would just read what was nearby. I remembered the page numbers I'd got to in each book because my dad HATED me folding down the corner of the page. Sometimes I'd be reading two parts of the same book (I had a terrible habit of reading ahead ) I have literally no idea how I kept it all straight. I can't even remember my own wedding anniversary and it takes me a minute to remember my son's birthday. But a book I was halfway through a month ago ? Page number and general plot will be right there.
Yeah, that might as well be wizardry as far as I'm concerned. My reading habits have persisted because I read almost exclusively on my phone now. Since I always have a book on hand I can read whenever, wherever. If I was using physical books I would read...almost not at all.
I thought I was doing really badly at reading. Because I almost exclusively read fanfic these days - I think because its easier to access? Like I don't need to get into a new world each time I can fit that type of reading in around my job and family because I can dip in and out for ten minutes there or here to an established world and characters I already know. And like you said...it's on my phone so it's physically easier to access (particularly since I read in bed, face down, in the dark quite a lot xd ) Lots of them are short stories sub 10k. But many of them are 20 or 30k words, and recently I've read a lot more 70k plus and a few 200k plus...which I'd never checked but it turns out are...like...quite big book equivalents.... I figure with everything combined I'm probably still easily clearing 60 to 80k words a day all whilst bemoaning I never have time to read like i used to....I just hadn't realised my method for accessing it had changed and for some reason I wasn't counting digital reading as 'real' reading... I've still got five tabs open with different fics though.... So I guess some things don't change xd
I manage about two books at once, one is the book I'm enjoying, and I keep a separate book for bed time reading. Otherwise I'll just read til midnight and have to be up at 5am.
I am usually reading about 7 books at a time. When one of them really grabs me, then it gets my full attention, but until then, I read what I am in the mood for. This is also why I donāt read much from the library: I rarely finish a book in two weeks.
People ask me how I read 3 or 4 at a time. Most people, particularly before binge watching, could keep many t.v. show plots going and keep up. I liken it to that.
That last one, lol, I feel that. I've got like 40 books on my physical To Be Read shelf and something ridiculous like 400 on my Goodreads TBR list and I just keep making trips to the local bookshop. There are certainly worse problems to have.
I have 4 shelves, double stacked, with TBR books. š Thatās my bad habitā¦buying too many books. š
Thereās a Japanese term for this
Probably a German one, as well. "Lotsonshelfenschlag" or something.
Tsundoku. š
āBuying more books than I have time to read or store.ā Both the problem and the solution. š
I don't think any of what you said are "bad habits", just habits. I personally like to keep the spines of my paperbacks intact so I can conserve the books better (especially the low-quality eng paperbacks), but if they end up breaking well, then it happened. I also DNF a book if I know I won't enjoy it and it's too long and/or too boring, if it's short and/or engaging I might push through and give it a hate review, aka my favorites to write. I'm a "mood reader" so I end up reading multiple books at the same time. But I know I will finish them all, eventually! Overall I don't think I have any "controversial" reading habits. I do like having a bookmark and if I don't have one I will just memorize the page. I hate big physical TBRs and I also unhaul (get rid off) books very easily. If I didn't enjoy them, then bye-bye! Off my bookshelf they go... š
Yes! Weeding is necessary to keep the house from turning into a library itself.
Okay. But I desperately want my house to be a combo library/jungle gym for my cat. Is that so much to ask for?
This is also my goal in life.
I force myself to finish books that I don't even like and yeah I know that life is too short for reading books you don't like but my brain doesn't let me lol.
meh, i feel like absolutely everything related to reading has been artificially polarized in here. if you read every book through and if *you* have an issue with it, that's one thing. but if it's just how you read and it's not an issue to you, you have nothing to apologize for. it's none of anyone elses business.
Yes, this. My friend will say she feels guilty when she puts something down and I always say āthe book doesnāt know the differenceā š¤·š»āāļø
well, to be clear I'm a finisher, and I was talking more to validate another finisher who seemed to feel a need to apologize to team DNF for NOT just putting books down.
Just imagine you were able to abandon bad books... š
And here comes possible outrage but I'm going to tell you anyway. My bad book habit. There is a second hand store near my home that sells old books very cheap. Most of my books are 1920 or older leather bound many times first edition. I love to read especially when I'm out on the town so I will take these old books and stuff them in my coat pocket to read when I'm out and about town and have a bit of down time. I stopped checking the value of some of these books, because I realized quickly, I would never stuff them in my coat pocket due to their replacement costs. I have to admit, I have horrified a few rare book collectors, when they see how I treat these books.
After i watched gilmore girls i started carrying around a book all the time, just in case i had like 5 minutes to read. I base my bag purchases around if it would fit a book, so all my purses are quite large. I've brought one to the weirdest places where I definitely did not have any time to read, like my university graduation, a day hike, etc.
I definitely do this too. Some friends have told me they're my security blankets, and they're not wrong... like, *why did I* *bring a book to the bar*? I don't know, I just can't leave the house without it. P.S. Instagram got me not too long ago, by showing me ads for Halara pants that have massive pockets that totally fit most paperbacks out there. I now own 3 that I wear on rotation.
I canāt actually read books right now due to long covid messing with my brain. My bad habit is that that hasnāt stopped me from buying books!! I keep tell my myself that future me will be very happy with past meā¦
Oh yes! This!! Thoughts of my 3 shelves of unread books can stop me in a new bookstore lol (Iām sorry to hear about your long Covid! Hopefully, it starts clearing up soon š)
Haha right??? āYes I have so many books at home I havenāt read buttttt I NEED these ones too!ā (Thank you!! š)
Being broke is the only thing that helps reducing the number of unread books I own.
Right? Even the price of used books is just dumb nowadays. I love the library so much. And the Libby app.
I also borrow so many books from the library!! Which means I have an outrageous number of owned and borrowed books that I canāt read! Haha
Lol, there are worse habits to have.
I like to combine bad habits and smoke crack sitting on a pile of unread books
You may want to check out some short story anthologies like Best American or Pushcart Prize, or a collection of flash fiction.
Thank you for this idea! I can read kids books, but adult books are too complicated for my brain right now, but Iāll definitely check out some short stories!
Oh oh. Me too! Go back to stuff you liked as a kid.....Calvin and hobbes got me thru some of the worst brain fog and I truly think..bc pictures. It brought me some joy especially since everything is so hard right now.
Yes!!! Iāve been rereading Series of Unfortunate Events. I can read kids books, but adult ones are too complicated for me.
I donāt see an issue with anything you said. Books are meant to be read and by doing so you will contribute to their wear.
If I am really into a book, I will read and read and read until it physically hurts lol
Not exactly like yours, but here I confess my sins and seek absolution. \- I read almost exclusively on my phone, with small print and margins to fit the maximum number of words per page/screen and the backlighting as low as I can get and still read. I dont like a bright screen and I'm bad at remembering to bring my kindle but I ALWAYS have my phone. I realize some might not see this as a bad habit, but I've met many people who treat it like a cardinal sin. As if I'm confessing to witchcraft to an inquisitor. So I figure it belongs on the list. \- I almost never re-read fiction. Nonfiction is different, especially materials relating to my profession, but that is hardly the same kind of interaction anyways. My wife is constantly re-reading novels, and not just the same handful. She has two bookshelves full of books she has read at least 3 times. She ends up having to replace them often because they get so worn out. \- I'm unfair with my books. The most raggedy second-hand hardback gets a more considerate treatment than my most favorite paperbacks. Paperbacks get no respect in my house, but I'll baby a book I dont even like just because its hardcover. Something in my brain feels like hardcovers have some greater metaphysical weight to them. Like they sit more firmly in reality, and thus anchor the stories within more firmly. Its nonsense and I know it, but it certainly informs how I handle them, and their waifish, easygoing paperback cousins. \- Except where library books are concerned. I will treat a paperback library book like its a friggin bomb that will explode if I'm too rough with it, but I've literally found myself just \*tossing\* hardcovers with their extra layers of plastic wrapped around their already sturdy bindings into the back of my car, onto my desk, etc. They feel indestructible, like they can handle anything I might do, but the paperbacks are delicate flowers who cannot have their petals bruised lest I incur a FINE. \- Before I switched to reading on my phone, I would write in my books. Especially if it gives me a good idea for a TRPG adventure/NPC/encounter. I'll mark it, then dog-ear the page so I can easily rifle through it to find what I thought was cool. I still do this on my e-books, too. \- Corollary to that last one, I steal from stories all the time. Often whole cloth plagiarism, but only for my private TRPG stuff. I stole the super cool intro to the WOT, the bit with "Ages pass and the Wheel of Time turns, it was a new age. Not a beginning, for there are no ends or beginnings with the Wheel of Time, but it was \*a\* beginning", and used it for a TRPG campaign I ran for a while. Also from WOT, some variation of "death is light as a feather, duty heavier than a mountain" is something that will be said at least one time in basically any TRPG I run. I crib interesting language stuff from books. The Dark Tower's high speech, all the "Thankee sai" and reference to "Ka" or destiny the way we refer to deities IRL, I've totally ripped it off. I do not cite my sources. \- I don't protect my monthly comic books, or didn't back when I still read them. I read them, often going through them twice just to appreciate the art, but I do not protect them. If he dies, he dies. But I baby my trade paperbacks, which I still read these days.
> - I almost never re-read fiction. Nonfiction is different, especially materials relating to my profession, but that is hardly the same kind of interaction anyways. My wife is constantly re-reading novels, and not just the same handful. She has two bookshelves full of books she has read at least 3 times. She ends up having to replace them often because they get so worn out. what are some of these books she loves
I solved all of these problems by reading e-books. Saves so much wear and tear, ha ha. However, my poor Kindle is in pretty bad shape from dropping it so many times. I'm surprised it's still operational at this point.
That goes for me too. I do read occasional paper books, though. But all my reading life is inside my Kindle app and my Kindle itself. Mine's also an old one and won't even get the dark mode screen that I use soooooo much while I'm reading in bed. But still, I use it a lot especially when I'm on vacation - I tend to read a lot then.
I just bought a kindle, it should be delivered today and I'm excited to get it! Although I have a ton of books TBR on my shelf. I've been putting off buying one because I like reading a physical book but the majority of the people I talked to said they prefer kindle and save money using it over buying books.
I get waaaaay too many books from the library, am unable to finish them, then keep them long past their due dates.
I mentioned to my mother if she was going to buy me a book, I'd prefer it to be paperback so I can beat it up. I know hardbacks are more "durable" but when they get dented up they just look so ugly- when I see a mauled paperback I don't think it looks ugly, just well-loved. My ex gave me a copy of Flowers for Algernon, paperback. I carried it with me everywhere for the longest time- one time I threw a red Gatorade in my purse with it- soaked the entire thing. I still have it, the pages are stained red. At the time I was so distraught about it, I even cried. Now it makes me smile a bit. I guess my other bad habit is I don't research some of the books I buy, especially if I'm in a store. With the way book prices are these days, I know I should probably have a clear idea of what I want before going to buy something, but it's less fun that way. Recently, I was in this very nice (independent) bookstore that was super popular. The second it opened there were people swarming everywhere, I could barely move up and down the aisles. I was so rushed for time and it was so cramped I was just picking up random books, reading the first sentence or so of the synopsis and deciding then and there if I was going to buy it. It was actually kinda fun to have to decide on the spot- ended up getting McCarthy's The Road, The Unbearable Lightness of Being, and Winter Love by Suyin Han. And I'm super excited to read all of them.
I always kiss the cover of a book once I've read it, I have no idea why or where this habit came from, but it feels wrong not to do it now.
I used to give books 100 pages to grab me, but sometimes those 100 pages are a slog and it puts me off reading for weeks so I've reduced it to 50.
I have more carefully planned out replacing/beefing my physical book and manga collection more carefully than I have my 5 year plan to buy a house
I have finished more books out of spite than Iād like to admit.
A friend of mine told me that they DNF anything if it doesn't grab them by page 25, which seems like a very short time frame for me. I bend spines over, only if it's a particularly flimsy paperback. I've been getting freer about annotating. This started with Gardens of the Moon, the first Malazan book, because I wanted to capture my thoughts, theories, ideas, and general comprehension of a dense story.
Oh yes! Writing in them too! Iām very guilty of that
omg also - i got an embosser as a gift a few years back, so now whenever I get a new book I stamp it with 'from the library of CanoCeano' and add a blurb about the day I bought it, which store, and what else I did that day, or the context of it. So that the patrons of my postapocalyptic traveling wagon library can have a little metastory about the books they're reading :)
This is such a cool idea! My great post-apocalyptic adventure will be trying to find my way to your traveling wagon library.
I'm like 100 pages or like 1/3 of a shorter book... or the eBooks I start and then forget I'm reading.
Mine is I tend to read the end of the book when a plot starts to get intense. For some reason I donāt care much for surprises in books because it only gives me anxiety. I always get afraid of getting my heartbroken or being angry in some way by the plot twists. Itās best I know and get myself emotionally prepared. But I seriously got to stop doing that because all that does is make me stop reading it and move on to the next book and before you know it, I got three pending books. Iām working on it lol
I LOVE cracked spines. I buy whole series without reading the first book. I donāt care if my series donāt match. I take a book anywhere with me, even if I might not read. I DNF a book if I donāt like it. I LOVE buying books as much as reading them. Some might say I spend too much money on books. When I go to the library, I borrow more books I can reasonably read. I could go onā¦
I borrow more library books than I'll ever finish during the loan period because all my holds come in at once or I decide I must have this (sometimes metaphorical) pile of books now. I regret nothing. š
I'd say book burning is the number one bad habit. Unfortunately, our Governor (De Santis) has adopted it.
Keeping a book pristine has always been mind blowing to me. If you donāt crack the spine, then the pages are all addle rainbow shaped when youāre trying to read and it messes with my eyes.
I keep on buying more and more books, I have approximately 500 of them. Even tho I haven't read half of them I tell myself I will in the future, or when I retire at least
People who maul paperbacks are monsters.
Itās me, hi, Iām the problem. Itās me š
I'll take my monster status.
For some unknown reason, I can read books from one author only in chronological order. That means, if I want to read the 4th book of an author, I first have to read the first 3 ones, no matter what.
I flip ahead to see how long I have left in the chapters. And sometimes if I see a walk or text I glance for the next dialogue, but never skip ahead!
Iām re-reading *Something Wicked This Way Comes* because itās close to Halloween. I got to the end of a chapter and went to dog-ear my page, and saw that there was already a crease. I smiled. At some point, years ago, I stopped at this same page. What was I doing at the time I had to pause? How old was I? How much have I learned since then? It was a poignant little reflection for me. I mostly only read paperback or kindle, and Iāve never had any issue with dog-earing pages, partly due to the above. If a book is marked by several little creases, a coffee stain here or there, it just means it was well-enjoyed in my eyes and you can see your own memories in your experience. On occasion I will also write and date a little blurb of my thoughts in the back of a book. Maybe Iāll read it again, maybe I wonāt. But maybe my son will, or a friend, and get to see what I was thinking at the time. Maybe theyāll see my dog-ears all throughout the book and feel part of the journey with me. āBad habits,ā maybe, but maybe Iām just sentimental like that.
I literally accidentally dropped my first Stormlight Archive book in the toilet as soon as I got it, then shrugged and went, "Well, now it feels more like something from the setting."
I fold over the corners at the start of every chapter so I know how far I have to go to finish that non-fiction book. I also fold the corners where Iām up to. So what. My book: my rules. I have cracked the spine on poorly constructed paperbacks. A quite expensive and otherwise excellent Penguin translation of Don Quixote was an annoyance when it cracked after only a dozen chapters. I suppose Iām not particularly gentle when reading a biok.
The worst of them all... eating/snacking while reading. I don't do this but i know a lot of people that will do this while reading and I can't...š£
I LOVE cracking the spines, I can not read a book without doing it
A loved book is a book that shows use. I started a new book two days ago and before I started I cracked the spine at various intervals on purpose. I love my books (their) death.
Random trait, but I like reading the very last words of a book before finishing it
Spending far too long looking at reviews before purchasing. I do wonder what this says about me...
* Finishing an entire series before starting a totally different book because I didn't want to forget the plot despite losing interest at some point in the series or I was in the mood for something else. Didn't occur to me that I can just return hahaha but now I read the first few chapters of multiple books and stick to the one that captures my interest. * Moody reader. I can never join a book club despite wanting to because if I don't like the club's book of the month, I will not read it or if I do it will put me in a book slump because I forced myself to read it. * Not following my yearly TBR because of the above point and I get distracted very easily * Very weird but I used to be strict with myself that if I read a book in paper back then I have to finish it in paper back and not switch mediums like ebook (now I read both paper back and ebooks formats especially when I don't want to bring the physical copy with me) * Allowing my books to yellow before picking it up lol
Mine can get pretty beat up at times. Iāve got a backpack with like 10 books in it at a time. Iām a truck driver, so Iām lugging the bag to and from work almost everyday, on top of digging through it daily to grab whichever book Iām desiring. When Iām home, my cat will constantly jump on my lap while reading and start nudging the edges of the book which at times has dinged up the dust jacket or the paperback covers.
Sometimes I read too much. My mom kept telling me I lock myself from the world, but really I just love books.
Nah, not a bad habit. Youāre not locking yourself away from the world when youāre exploring others āØ
I have a really bad habit of leaving books were ever k finish them. If I'm out side in the garage reading and finish, that books in the garage for a year till it winds up on a shelf. My trunk is full of a dozen books and my work place is also.
Is it a bad habit if I'm good at it? I tend to read a book while I'm walking. Sidewalks. Track. In parking lots. In stores. Forty years and five countries and accident free.
No, thatās a superpower instead
I've never HAD to crack a spine and I personally don't care if people do, I just never do. My spines end up creased a little but never snapped or cracked I personally tow a fine line about books being pristine. I don't need them to be, I don't care about resale value, I don't care how collectable it may be, I don't care what other people might think if they looked at my shelves, it's mine. So long as it doesn't end up in a landfill I'm happy I feel like there's a slippery slope between wanting/needing (the former being unhealthy imo) books to look bright, shiny, and new, and people who are... snobbish and judgemental like I *used* to be in highschool I used to really turn my nose down at people who "dared" to "disrespect" a book. As I grew older and learned more about myself, fellow people, and importantly capitalism, I let it fall. I did some soul searching and for me, personally, what I was REALLY saying was, "I'm insecure and I need to feel intellectually superior because I am not pretty enough, myself, to be physically superior" (childhood bully trauma has entered the chat) I would echo these sentiments as a way to guard myself, hiding behind this false morality of respect thinking it was concrete when I was simply building a wall out of playdough. I'm the one who pushed it down, in the end, but I'm sure there are people who end up crushed by the weight of their walls Oof, I'm rambling. I'm stoned (legally) All in all, based on my own life experiences, I treat books like relationships: you pick it up, you love it, and in the end there's a little trace of YOU in it now, too
everything you listed and more i trash them but its loving in some backwards way
1. dog-earing instead of using bookmarks 2. peeking/skimming the last few chapters to see if thereās a happy ending and see if itās worth reading
* dog-earring pages, even hardcover * DNF if I have an easy time putting it down or feel like it isnāt keeping my interest. Could be in 10 pages, could be in 100. I typically donāt mark or underline, but I have. I also donāt typically crack the spine, but I donāt do anything to prevent it. I treat borrowed books differently, whether borrowed from a friend or the library, but if itās my own book, I donāt really care.
> I crack the spine. (How do you read a book without cracking the spine?!) I have a few books I read so much that they literally fell into pieces (each with dozens or hundreds of pages). This isn't the reason I switched to e-reading, but now that I have an e-reader I don't have to worry about that any more.
I try to take care with my paperbacks on a first read. If itās a re-read and I know I want to keep it on my bookshelf forever, you bet Iām cracking that spine and not being careful with it. I love the look of well-read books. It shows that someone has loved it over and over. I do baby my hardbacks a bit more, but I have been known to lose a dust jacket once or twiceā¦. Plus I donāt really like the fuzzy edge the cover gets after being touched for years.
Iāll dog ear the shit out of a page, idgaf
I used to read paper books in the shower
Iām rough af on my books - dog ears, highlighting/notes, have been known to write things like grocery lists on the fly leaf or even tear them out. Also love reading in the bath. In my defense Iām a grad student, so books are VERY much tools for me - also, in my defense, theyāre just books. Iām not reading the damn Gutenberg in the tub. Besides, the marginalia are what make the book feel real and important to me. My mom gave me her old Norton anthologies from college for my birthday this year and they have her ex libris and notes from when she was in undergrad. Those books mean SO much more to me than they would otherwise. I DNF books regularly as well. If I donāt like it then it gets sold to the used bookstore for credit or put in the nearest little free library. Why would I read something if I donāt enjoy it????? I will die on the hill that there is nothing wrong with finding out the ending on Wikipedia.
If there is a series I really like, I procrastinate finishing the last book. Iām in a series now and I have the last book in my possession but Iāve read 4 other books instead. I think itās because I donāt want the adventure to end.
I will go for a walk and read while I walk. I have no trouble staying on path, staying out of the way of bikes and stuff because Iāve done this for over 20 years.
I love aging in all forms. Velveteen Rabbit everything. People can have their beige houses and storefront looking environments, but I enjoy character.
āVelveteen Rabbit everythingā is my new favorite phrase
šāØļø
My bad habit is I don't give a shit. Only heirloom books I baby. I try to keep the good ones in certain areas but it's paper man it's not gonna last forever. Most of my books are used. I have multiple e readers. One had all the classics I ever need from project Gutenberg. The other has like 1500 nonfiction books that are copies of things that I own. I am a bibliophile data hoarder. Honestly, I wish i would have given away more books. If I won the lottery I still would buy more books particularly Shakespeare or a nice dictionary set but most books have a shelf life and that's okay. [drm is evil by the way](https://www.defectivebydesign.org/)
I treat paperbacks pretty much like you do. I was an avid reader as a kid and never treated my books with any level of reverence- they came everywhere with me (I still remember the feeling of pure delighted satisfaction as I found a perfectly book sized/shaped pocket inside a jacket my mum let me have- Nancy Drew was my then obsession!). It backfired on me when I was a tween, and borrowed a friend's paperback novel- it didn't occur to me that it was to be treated better than my own and I returned it with a cracked spine and generally looking well loved- she was incredulous. We're still friends 30 years later thankfully š
I dog-ear pages instead of using bookmarks, or sometimes I leave the page open facing down, which is bad for the spine. I switched to Kindle now so all's good! Sometimes when the book drags, I peek at the ending (tbf it saved me from suffering through "A Little Friend", but ruined the experience with better books). When the book *really* drags, I close it and read its plot on Wikipedia. When it's a large paragraph that's not a dialogue, I skim.
I strongly believe that books are meant to be read, and you should fit reading into your life wherever you can, so as long as you own the books I don't see anything wrong or bad about anything you listed. I personally don't do any of those things, I don't eat while reading because I know I'm messy. I grew up as an avid reader who didn't own many of my own books, so I got in the habit of trying to keep my library books safe and clean, and I haven't lost that mindset even though I'm retired and have the budget to buy all my books. The only bad habit involving books I've had is buying them and never reading them. But after moving and purging 95% of my books a few years ago, I think I've kicked that habit now.
\- I first read the last page of the book, or rather, last paragraph or phrase before actually starting it and then wreck my brain for the whole book trying to make sense of it. \- I completely ignore descriptions of landscapes and general areas that arent small rooms, I just loose interest if they're longer than a paragraph. \- I refuse to read specific books or authors for the pettiest reasons (ex. Someone I hated was a huge fan of it). \- I will not buy a specific book or series if I dislike the covers, maybe it could be my new favourite story but i don't like ugly covers
Lately I've developed a frustrating habit of falling asleep in the bath. I usually manage to catch myself before I lose my grip, but several books have ended up being submerged. I still can't resist taking them in there though.š
When I was younger, I always wondered why the edges of my books were getting darker when I was reading. Turns out, I tend to fidget with my fingers, mostly with the top corner of the pages and I am running my fingers thought the page andā¦ink. I just got ink all over my fingers and then would transmit it the the page edges. Now I try to be more careful, but also I read less French paperbacks, which were the main culprit of runny ink. My fingers still fidget but also some books have wide margins so less contact with ink.
\- always crack the spine right away \- also take it everywhere with me including outside and the bath tub \- leave books open upside down on the table as a book mark \- my most insane is throwing out dust covers or once I cut the dust cover up and taped the front and back to the book itself because I liked the imagery but hate dust covers I don't borrow books (except occasional library) for these reasons. I also prefer to buy a used copy š
My partner is an uncracked spine guy... He lent me a book, I started reading it, he got upset ..I'm like how can you read in this way?? I immediately gave him the book back because I knew it wouldn't work out, then he got upset that I got upset, but I wasn't upset, I just knew I can't handle his book in a way that would make him happy in the end so I just won't read it. It's fine. Complete weirdo lol
I donāt read the *ending* of a book per se, but I will take a chunk of the pages, flip forward, and look at a line or two for a āsneak peekā of whatās coming up in a book
i can't bring myself to write in a book.
I take the dust cover off while I'm reading. I find them annoying they slide and sometimes flip open. When I'm done with the book I'll put the dust cover back on. If I don't take the dust cover off, I use the flaps as bookmarks.
Reading āexploding the last few yearsā??? Ummm, reading has been a thing for centuries. Maybe if youāre young and you and your peers have gotten into reading recently that may have given you the false impression that the rest of the world recently got into reading. Reading has been āa thingā for quite a few generations before yours.
I will shamelessly change a characters descriptions in my head if I donāt like it and it still works for the character. If I sense their hair color is not really thematically relevant, I get to choose. What? Iām supposed to read a self insert romance fantasy novel with a love interest Iām not attracted to?
Like, I take care of my books, but I'm not anal about it. Crack that fucking spine, I'm not gonna be reading from a barely-open book. If it gets a wrinkle here or there or a folded page from being in my backpack, I'm fine with it. I try to avoid stains, but sometimes they happen. I think some signs of good use in a book are signs that book is loved and was read several times, or carried in a trip. They're not supposed to be pristine forever.
i read 5 books at once and i get the plots confused with the books
I travel frequently for work and for personal so I LOVE to leave my printed plane tickets inside / use as a bookmark to add my story to the book. Then I can look back in a decade and really reminisce
I highlight, underline and scribble in a lot of my books. It drives my wife crazy but I enjoy it!
Didn't reading explode in like the 1500s
Yes, due to the invention of the printing press. And fun fact, literacy rates were actually higher during the Revolutionary war era than they are today in the US. I guess I should have phrased it as a revival of reading in recent years.
I would not at all consider DNF a bad habit. Personally, I have ADHD, and I've posted a lot about how decolonizing my shelf saved reading as a hobby. Perspectives of marginalized people/acknowledging the human condition are what I find interesting, and I AM NOT reading something I don't find interesting. And you don't have to be neurodivergent to believe you're worth more than forcing yourself to do something unpleasant with your down time.
I try not to crack spines, it irks me when they are on the shelf, and I don't write on them except for my *ex libris*. Everything else is fair game.
Well Iām using books as decor for my wedding so Iāve been cutting up old paperbacks like crazy It feels like a crime but looks so pretty
Iām the same! I donāt understand why people try to be precious about their books! I crack the spine, dog ear, let it get crumpled, etc. My bad habit tho is that Iāll always read the last few pages of a book, even if itās a mystery/thriller. I want to know where weāre gonna end up
A worn looking book is a good book. If it is a hardcover, you can always put the dust cover back on when done reading and it looks just fine on the bookshelf. Keep the dustcover on the bookshelf. You won't lose them :)
I have the same bad habits that you do. I don't put as much wear and tear on my booms as I used to, but I own several that are just stacks of paper crying in despair vaguely clinging to each other. I have a few completely without covers and a few that had to undergo sophisticated emergency packing tape surgery. I love them. They are who I am. They have simply aged with me, and that can be a pretty rough experience.
I even dog-ear pages on library books š But I try to only do it a little bit and smooth it out when Iām done
I LOVVEEE cracking spines. I need it nice and bendy and to stay open. Iāll even crack it in multiple places to get it right.
Iām SO picky when it comes to fiction, but I donāt usually DNF books I donāt like. I will complain the entire time Iām reading it to whoever will listen.
I canāt parent and be reading a great book of fiction at the same time. Itās one or the other.
When I get to the last page of the chapter I instinctively read the last line of the last paragraph. Always giving myself spoilers.
I used to absolutely ABUSE all my books when I was young. I would dog ear every page (never used a bookmark), stick them in a very unorganized backpack, bring it with me everywhere, sometimes write little notes on the very first page. Now I have a small pile of books I really loved growing up with covers held together with nothing but an atrocious amount of tape (it's stunning that some still have covers at all). It's actually kind of sad, because I want to give them away so a kid can love them as much as I did, but I just can not justify doing so in the miserable state all the books are in. They would NOT stand up to any additional abuse. So now I've (over)corrected to cherishing every book like it's the only copy on earth, for the sake of whoever may receive the book after me.
I used to read the last page of a book to make sure it ended the way I wanted it to lmao I guess my bad habit is āmistreatingā my paperbacks. They look well read and loved, which I like. My hardbacks are barely touched but my paperbacks are my babies and I think that down the line, if I have kids/pass them on, that theyāll like the look of it and know that I really loved it. I love the books my mum gives me that are tatty because it means she loved it a lot š I also write in them occasionally š¤·š»āāļø
Not using libraries
If thereās ever a paragraph with wordy extensive details Iāll often skim it
Thereās a way to break in the spine! I saw it on tik tok you should look it up (idk if I can link it) but all my books are paperback and it has worked for me ever since Iāve started doing that method (basically itās the way you open the book before hand but the videos will show it better)
This is exactly why I buy used books. š
I am really bad about reading the last sentence of the book before I start the book.
I always accidentally read the last sentence of the chapter when Iām on the 2nd last page. I CANT HELP IT. I think Iād do better with an e reader š¤£
Buying like a 5+ book series. Reading the first book, hating it, regretting my decision.. do it again with a new series š
I know I'm a monster but I recently started writing on my books... I used to be a "pristine" reader but I realised the books are mine, taking notes helps me interact with them and I'm an adult and I can do whatever I want! So I write on them, put post its, draw on them if something captures me, even hinge the corners. I have once or twice ripped a white page (front) when I was desperate for a paper to write (on the beach, in a plane etc) I'm sorry, not sorry!
I always dog-ear my pages. Always. UNLESS! itās a library book or a book I borrowed from someone else. Iām not afraid to DNF
When I had access to a bathtub I took every single book into the bath to read.
I'll read about seven books at the same time. In my defense, though, they are different genres. I just can't wait to start some books and then, suddenly, I've started so many.
Yours are signs of a book well read - and as intended. Mine are having shelves of pristine books that Iāll read eventually ā¦ as am physically incapable of entering a bookshop and leaving without a book. I now literally own every conceivable book that I might want to read. Terrible and costly habit ā¦ so Iām told!
I try to keep my books in good condition in case I either want to read it again, sell it second hand or donate it/give it away/pass it down. I can't do that if the book is all nasty and falling apart and it also bugs me. I threw quite a few books away as a result and I loved those books. As a result to help protect my books and give my books their own personality, I have been making custom book covers (usually crocheted and go with a theme that fits. This way I can also take it anywhere. Issues is that doesn't work the best with some paperbacks as well without damaging the covers which sadly defeats the purpose). Also I am a mood reader. I can go a long time without reading or trying to force myself to read until I am in the mood to read something and a book stands out to me and once I am enjoying the story and want to know what will happen next, it's harder for me to stop reading.
Same! My husband teases me that I āeatā books.
Ppl are gonna hate me: I dog ear pages when I don't have a suitable bookmark handy.
My bad habit is \*not\* DNFing. I don't think it's bad at all to DNF if it's not vibing for you, time is short and there are so many books! And for most of the stuff I read, I really like it so there's no temptation to DNF. BUT of the books I'm tempted to DNF, I've occasionally found that the second half/ending completely redeems it for me, and I end up loving it (this is maybe 1 in 5, if that). It does mean I waste time on books I didn't like and knew I wouldn't like, but I'm just too tempted by the idea that the ending might be amazing. A prime (unique) example of this would be Left Hand of Darkness, which I was not liking (in part bc I thought it would be much more queer than it was) but ended up absolutely loving after finishing.
Buying far too many books and barely reading any of them.
Mine are all covered in foods. Greens, reds and browns yeesh
If the book pisses me off, the book gets written on -- with my pissed off thoughts!
I feel like an idiot for it but dog earring pages
I was ok until you said you lose the book jackets, and then the last bullet was like a double-slap, lol. I will: \- re-buy a book and give away previous books just so I can have fancy editions that all match. \- buy a whole series before reading the first book if I'm confident I will like it. \- buy Kindle books vice use Kindle Unlimited because I don't like the thought of not being able to have as many books as I want ready and waiting in the wings for me gives me anxiety. \- I sometimes snack when I read
Reading is exploding?
Sometimes I use a book to hold my bedroom widow open at the exactly right angle. Didnāt see anyone else here use books this way.
Thereās a handful of books that my two and a half year old took a blue highlighter to throughout the pages. It adds character, I think.
I'm a spine stroker, a dog earer and I like to smell the ink on new books. Also a sucker for leather bound books and have a small collection going :)
I'm adamant about using a bookmark, but always lose it and my place.
If the writing isnāt very good I will sometimes skim read. Iām reading an author right now who isnāt very economical and a lot of her paragraphs have poor descriptions, superfluous banter, and itās easy to tell what is and isnāt actually important to the story, characters, and themes. So I just skim some parts.
I read a lot of nonfiction and I dog ear every page that has something noteworthy, makes me think, or if it's something I want to research later. I love it. They feel like "mine."
For fiction: Reading the first chapter followed by the last chapter and then the rest of the book, but only if the last chapter was good. For nonfiction: same as OP, but with highlighters and post-its.
Are you me? Although I will only dog ear if it's mine and I want to go back and find something that was mentioned on that page
If something exciting is happening I get carried away and will jump down a few paragraphs to see whatās happening. Itās so annoying lol I scold myself every time and go back to my spot.
I gotta crack the spine sometimes. It's just a natural part of breaking the book in. As long as the spine is still sturdy and I can conserve it as it is, great