Reading Habits Book Tag (Evelyn Edition)

Hey, people!

Like Auriel and Kamama before me, I am going to do my own version of the book tag.

Let’s get into it!

Do you have a certain place for reading?

I guess it would be my bedroom, particularly my bed. I don’t have a little reading nook or anything special, but I like to read in my room because I like my privacy.

Bookmark or random piece of paper?

Well, sometimes I use random pieces of paper like a receipt or anything that works that is close if I have to stop reading quickly. But my dear sweet friends have given me little bookmarks so now I have a nice collection to use. But truly, many things work as bookmarks.

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

I hadn’t really considered this before, but I think I’m like Auriel and Kamama. If I don’t need to go do something immediately, I like to finish the chapter, but if I have to go, I will just stick a bookmark where I am and go. I used to try to memorize the page I was on, but I stopped doing that for some reason. Maybe I got more bookmarks.

Do you eat or drink while reading?

Rarely. I haven’t eaten with my books in a while. I do remember eating cheddar bunnies (don’t judge me) with my paperback and brushing the salt off of my pages sometimes. But I haven’t done that in a while. But I do drink tea while I go over my Shakespeare lines, which you could call reading. But I don’t like getting most of my own books dirty. I agree with Kamama––I would be the person that gets a sauce stain on my precious novel.

Multitasking: music or TV while reading?

So, first of all, TV is very distracting to me. I think I have read with the TV on a few times if my family is downstairs and I’m hanging out with them. But I get too distracted with what is happening on the screen to focus well enough on my book. I don’t really listen to music while reading either, but after what Auriel said, I might try it.

One book at a time or several at once?

Generally one at a time, but like Auriel said, I sometimes read for school and read for pleasure. Or I read my friends' books while reading other stuff. I don’t generally like reading two books for pleasure because my brain likes to stick with one story at a time.

Reading at home or everywhere?

Mostly at home. I used to read in the car, but I get carsick. Also, I get distracted by the atmosphere around me sometimes when I go places and try to read, especially if the book is a bit slow.

Reading out loud or silently in your head?

Silently in my head most of the time, but like Auriel and Kamama, I can’t read a whole novel out loud! Although I started reading the book Storming by K.M. Weiland to my mom to help her fall asleep once (the book isn’t boring, but it helped her fall asleep anyway), but I didn’t get through the whole thing.

Do you read ahead or skip pages?

Well, it might be bad, but I do sometimes. If it’s a book that I’m struggling through, I look ahead to see if there’s anything interesting coming up. I did that with Ben-Hur recently (well, it wasn’t completely boring, just slow in parts). Also, I did that with another book that I thought was weird, so I skipped past parts and then saw a part I thought was cool and read it. Or if a book makes me uncomfortable, I’ll skip past a few pages. OH. One series I skipped ahead to see what would happen because the author changed the main character in one of the books, and I was annoyed with the plot and I wanted to get back to the really cool stuff that was in the other books (sadness, the author didn’t finish the series. I loved it so much and he didn’t finish it. SADNESS).

Breaking the spine or keeping it new?

I keep it new. I didn’t know breaking the spine was a thing.

Do you write in your books?

So, I might make people gasp in horror, but I do write in my books sometimes. I had resolved not to write in my books before, but for my Lit class, I had to annotate the books that I read, and IT WAS REALLY COOL. I noticed keywords and how the story brought out themes. And it helped me go back and pull out quotes when I needed them. Now, I sometimes do it with a few books and it helps me to focus and pay attention to the words. It’s kinda like a personal map for me.

Alrighty, that’s it, y’all! I hope you enjoyed my version and maybe we can get Serena to join the party too.

Keep writing and reading!

~Evelyn