tagged by @yavieriel

1) Do you have a certain place at home for reading?

I tend to read on my bed/on the floor next to my bed- but honestly wherever I can flop down. If it’s on the kindle or phone then it is literally anywhere- as I’m cooking, as I’m pushing a shopping cart, whenever I have a spare moment. It’s a maybe 60/40 split on whether I read stretch out on my stomach or curled up sitting, so the floor and bed has enough space.

2) Bookmark or random piece of paper?

Look, a bookmark costs money, you have to reminder to grab it/find it, and it is a hassle and a waste. Why do people buy them if not just for the aesthetics?  Random piece of paper if there’s one near where I’m sitting. But honestly my most common bookmarks? Loose hair things. The edge of the blanket of the soft surface I am closest to- close the book around the fabric. Or the most expedient and easiest option – you keep the book open and turn it over, resting it face down on the pages you’re on. Or just make sure to stop on a page with an easily remembered number.

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

Ahaha. Quick and obsessive reader, so if I’m not reading the thing in one sitting, then I’m usually pausing because I’m called away for some other task or found a good scene to stop on or rarely get too emotional and invested and my brain says take a break. So this is either very random or dictated by the pacing of scenes, which oddly enough doesn’t usually correspond with the actual chapter breaks.

4) Do you eat or drink while reading?

Snacks sometimes. I am constantly drinking tea/coffee/etc… during other tasks but not reading.

5) Music or TV while reading?

Music I can sometimes do, but usually silence. I’m very good at tuning out other stimuli when reading- it’s how I survived summer camp and school and such. So it doesn’t matter if either are on in the background.

6) Reading at home or everywhere?

See answer to question #1.

7) Do you read ahead or even skip pages?

Rarely I will skip to the very end of a book just to skim the last pages, usually when I’m in the opening chapters for that spoiler of which characters are alive and active, thus knowing which ones are the protagonists to pay attention to, or because I am a spoiler fiend. But more than 90% of the time I don’t.

8) Breaking the spine or keeping it like new?

See bookmark answer. I don’t initially do it, and I like my books to look mint condition, but the older books and ones I’ve used that page marking technique have a few lines in the spine. I try not to let it bug me.

9) Do you write in your books?

OH FUCK NO. It’s a weird thing because I’m sure this was initially ingrained with prohibitions against writing in school books, but even books I have owned for years, the mere thought of writing a note in pencil or using a highlighter even in college textbooks- even just writing my name on the inside of the book, is utterly anathema to me. For one it means I could never resell the book if I ever needed to, and it distracts from the text (I can maybe make an exception for fixing a typo). But I HATE it. School books I made separate notes- rewrite or paraphrase the quote or write the page and paragraph number. Favorite books I remember my page numbers/go look up quotes. The closest I get to anything like this is annotations for only a small handful of my own fics on Google Docs. But to physically write in a book I’ve bought that isn’t a journal? Grimace of hard dislike. Hard struggle not to judge those that do.