i read fast and furious and pretty much constantly and always have, although it tends to be the case ever since i started writing that i'm reading my own work more often than not. a life without reading is sad and unfinished, in my opinion.
Do you mostly read fiction or non-fiction?
mix of both. i do audiobooks of non-fiction when i'm driving places, but i've never enjoyed fiction audiobooks. doesn't feel immersive enough.
Is reading for pleasure part of your daily routine? If so, how much time a day do you spend on reading?
oof, that varies! if i'm writing, i'm often pausing to read back what i just wrote. and i often spend the day or so after posting a fic chapter to just read it like 343 times in a row. i don't really set aside time to read, it just happens. like breathing really.
Do you often binge books?
Describe your average reading session 😁(Do you have a special spot where you get comfortable/is it a hard copy or an e-book/is it day or night etc.)
mostly on my laptop if its fanfiction, and mostly curled up in bed. but if it's a physical book, i like to take it outside or to a cafe. especially i like reading non-fiction books at cafes and writing in the margins and underlining bits i find interesting.
Do you have a schedule or do you read when you feel like reading?
Have you ever struggled with reading (e.g. issues with concentration/retaining information, learning disabilities etc.) and how did you manage to overcome it?
thankfully no. i consider myself to be a top-tier reader. i love grammar and spelling and diagramming sentences and linguistics and etymology and all things word-related. i like to know the rules by heart so i don't feel bad when i chuck them out the window.
Can you read multiple books at once?
Oh yes. Right now i've got deTocqueville's Democracy in America, selections from Hayek, and a music primer from 1916 sitting out on the table all waiting for my attention. i also listened to a half or so of an audiobook called Deploy Empathy last night while cross-stitching, and just listened to The Highly Sensitive Person a week or two ago. Most of it.
I go along with audiobooks until I get the gist, unless it's one i really like. Definitely not afraid to quit in the middle. When I was younger, i used to try to finish every single word and be thorough, always, but nowadays, i usually go for much smaller increments of books, like half-chapters or 5-6 paragraphs, especially if it's something dense. quality over quantity.
If you're multilingual, do you intentionally choose to regularly read books in your target language(s) to maintain language proficiency? Is it a habit too, or is it a matter of the book's original language?
i like reading manga in japanese. i'm not quite good enough at it to be able to read without a dictionary handy, but i'm trying to improve.
i can read spanish as well. sometimes i read spanish-language fics on ao3.
How do you usually choose books for your to-read list?
oof. good question. i am both a generalist and a stay-in-my-lane specialist. i love a good library or used book store. Got the Hayek volume from a little free library in the neighborhood, and got the music primer from the thrift store. i bought the deTocqueville one at full price, which is unusual for me, but i read his book about his journey thru Ireland years ago and still think about it on a near-daily basis. figured it was time to bite the bullet and read this gigantic tome about my home country. so far it's... mm, more mythological than i was expecting.
anyway, i suppose my main method of choosing books is to read authors i already know i enjoy, and for nonfiction, i often read books from the bibliography or work cited of a book i enjoyed or found educational.
Do you keep track of the books you've read/plan to read?
nah not really. i used to, but it usually ended up being a long list of books i would "get to later," and i find that having a list of undone things is a bit of a downer for me.
Do you consider reading manga/comics "reading"?
actually i think there's a lot to be said for reading fiction and creating all the details and lighting and ambience and mise en scene in your own mind, and doing mental casting and voice acting and setting the scene based on the author's written instructions. i really enjoy that process, myself.
but having someone else do all that FOR you, with beautiful artwork and static cinematography, is lovely too.
Do you often find yourself in a reading slump? How long did your ultimate slump take?
never had this experience. never will, fingers crossed and god willing. i switch stories and books and topics a lot, a lot a lot, but i've never not had something.
andulkaphoto
snowghoul
romaincrisis
janainaart
prguitarman
vaporwave
blakekathryn
