Reading Habits Tag
By: Beth Van Der Pol
Tags: Novel, Habits, Reading, Books, Writing

Writer’s Blog

Reading Habits Tag

I like watching tag videos on Youtube and I wanted to participate. Sorry.

I’ve been enjoying watching a lot of tag videos on Youtube recently and as someone that likes to participate but doesn’t really know how to use a camera or video editing software I often feel left out. So I’ve taken to Medium to transfer this Tag into one of my articles.

Reading Habits Tag

Do you have a certain place at home for reading?

At first, my answer was no, but the more I think about it the more complicated this answer gets. I’ll do my best to make sense of my jumbled mess of reading places.

I like to read non-fiction at my desk.

I usually read fiction in my bed or on my couch. I really love to read on aeroplanes or trains. My family lives in a different country so every time I go to visit I get to settle in for the long haul. It’s a great excuse to spend the day reading guilt-free!

Bookmark or random piece of paper?

Both. If I have a bookmark handy I will use that, but I’ll use tissue paper, sticky notes or even dog-ear the pages if I don’t have a bookmark in reach!

Can you just stop reading or do you have to stop after a chapter/ a certain amount of pages?

I normally finish the paragraph that I’m reading. I prefer to stop at chapters but I can stop wherever I have to or want to. I think that’s probably because of reading while travelling so much.

Do you eat or drink while reading?

I tend to forget about food or drinks when reading, even if I have something handy I just don’t pick it up. I get quite absorbed in stories so to eat or drink would pull me out of the book too much.

Multitasking: Music or TV while reading?

Sometimes lyricless music is fine. Mostly I just like the quiet. I like to focus on whatever I’m reading at any given time and noise can be distracting.

One book at a time or several at once?

I used to be a one book at a time girl, then I started my English Literature course and now I usually have three or four on the go at once. I have different moods, what can I say.

I normally have a non-fiction, a few fictions and maybe a poetry book at any given time.

Reading at home or everywhere?

Everywhere. Opps I kind of answered this one earlier.

Reading out loud or silently in your head?

I read poetry out loud mostly. I feel like that is how poetry is supposed to be read? I will read everything else in my head unless I really like the way that something is written. I will take the time to read it out loud if I think that the writing is gorgeous! That might be in line with the poetry thing.

Do you read ahead or even skip pages?

I don’t. I can’t understand why you would ever want to spoil yourself. The only thing that I sometimes do is check how many pages a book is, I like to know how far through I am in the book. I’m not sure why.

Breaking the spine or keeping it like new?

Both, either. If it happens it happens, I’m not picky. I will try to keep a book looking it’s best but my shelf is filled with new books and second-hand books alike, so it doesn't really make an aesthetic difference. If breaking the spine will make it easier to read, I’ll go ahead and break it!

Do you write in your books?

I don’t write in fiction books. I do write in non-fiction.

I don’t normally write in the margins but I’m very good at colouring in my books with a highlighter. I find that reading non-fiction with a highlighter helps me pick out the important information!