Sci-fi and Heroic Fantasy discussion
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Minimum reading time?
My minimum reading time is the length of a smoke break at work, so probably like 10 minutes. I tend to read quick reads on those breaks so sometimes it's a short story, sometimes it's 10-15 page chapter of a breezy book.
For something I am reading for the first time, particularly something that looks good, or is by an author I like - rarely less than half an hour, and I try for larger chunks where possible.On the other hand, I keep my SF collection on shelves just outside the bathroom door, and will often grab an old favourite and read just two or three pages while otherwise occupied - but that will remind me of the whole story, which I will have read several times before.
(The Niven, Brin, and Pratchett shelves are particularly well-used, and if I feel like bending down there is also a lot of Zelazny . . .)
I do a lot of my reading during commercial breaks on TV. Opening and closing credits sometimes as well. I have my Kindle PaperWhite lying on my chest during the show. So no need to adjust lights or anything. Just pick it up, turn it on, start reading. Then turn it off, lay it back down.If I watch 4 hours of broadcast TV, that gives me over an hour of reading time. :)
I have got into reading 10-15 minutes in the morning, otherwise I wouldn't read anything. It's surprising how quickly you can get through books.
So does nobody else read during bio breaks or is just nobody else admitting to it...
Allan did.Personally my bio breaks only last for about the length of time a short magazine article lasts, so I wouldn't even be able to orient myself, get started and get anything out of a novel before I was done
@Brendan I defintely read on the toilet as well. I'm so glad I have a b&n nook that I can tuck in my pocket now, because my co-workers used to look at me funny heading to the bathroom with a large hardcover tucked under my arm, lol.
I take my "bio break" (That's a thing?) as quickly as possible and then sneak into the guest bedroom next to the bathroom for my reading. Then I come downstairs and pretend it was just a long one.
Does anyone else read while waiting at red lights?
I've never gotten the whole reading-in-the-bathroom things myself. I've also never read at a red light, but I've read in the car if someone else is driving. It's nice to know I'm not the only one that ends up reading in short bursts though.
some of us are in the bathroom a lot... my stomach hates me
Since I enjoy short SF, I always have several anthologies open in various states of being read, plus an e-stack of SF magazines likewise full of short stories. I find them perfect for when I only have a short amount of reading time. Even if I can't finish one, a short story by definition moves quickly enough that I don't feel like all I've done is wade through a chunk of exposition for 15 min.
Laura wrote: "Does anyone else read while waiting at red lights?"
I used audiobooks in the car, no matter what color the light was.
I used audiobooks in the car, no matter what color the light was.
G33z3r wrote: "Laura wrote: "Does anyone else read while waiting at red lights?"I used audiobooks in the car, no matter what color the light was."
I've always used audiobooks in the car as well. Besides being a lot safer, it gives me the chance to add a different book to the mix.
No real minimum limit. I'll read a few lines and stop if that's all the time I have. Since I read from my cell phone, it's not really a bother.
Depending on the day I may only have a few minutes inbetween patients so I listen as I can, which might only be a minute or two or just a sentence. Even a moment can be a great relaxer. At home I listen for hours in the evening except when my husband stops in from work and has a bite to eat. On the weekends if we aren't traveling and I'm designing/creating then I listen as long as I want.
I like to read on my kindle before I go to sleep at night, it helps me relax and fall asleep.
Agreed. A book makes me comfortably sleepy.
J. wrote: "Agreed. A book makes me comfortably sleepy."This is why audiobooks and me aren't getting along right now. I doze and then snap awake and realize I've missed this or that happening.
J. wrote: "Agreed. A book makes me comfortably sleepy."As I noted, I often read during commercial breaks while watching TV. It's amazing how often I miss the last 10-20 minutes of a TV show. Thank goodness for Hulu streaming! :)
Lori wrote: "I like to read on my kindle before I go to sleep at night, it helps me relax and fall asleep."Music is that lullaby for me. Reading really only makes me sleepy if I was already tired to begin with (unless the book is a dud). But personally I try to read a chapter a day, or to a page break if the chapters are too long. That suits me.
Laura wrote: "Does anyone else read while waiting at red lights?"I've done it. Only at really long lights though!
I'll read while I'm waiting for dinner to finish. If I have everything else ready, and I'm waiting on the rolls to finish in the oven or for the pasta to finish, I'll grab my current read and get in a page or two. My husband thinks I'm weird!
Kivrin, since you'll admit to my vice of reading at red lights (and I do have some really long ones on my way home from work!) I'll admit to occasionally reading while cooking, though I usually have the TV on in the living room and I'm listening to that.Reading is what relaxes me so I can sleep at night, too. I read in bed every night for at least a few minutes. If I don't, I have trouble falling asleep.
Laura wrote: "Kivrin, since you'll admit to my vice of reading at red lights (and I do have some really long ones on my way home from work!) I'll admit to occasionally reading while cooking, though I usually hav..."I have to be careful about what I read before I go to sleep. Usually I keep something factual or historical to read in bed. I can't read anything that's going to drag me in because then I'll a) read too late, or b) keep going over the story in my head after I turn off the light and won't be able to fall asleep, or c) I'll dream about the story all night! Last night I finished rereading "Red Rising" (on the couch not in bed), and "Hic sunt leones" just would not get out of my head all night!
I read on and off all the time,in snatches while cooking,longer sessions of an hour or more in the afternoon when there are no visitors,and about an hour in bed every night. Love the summer dawn chorus,the birds wake me up about 5 am and I can indulge in reading for an hour or more.Once I got a computer though I admit my reading time has gone down from about 6 hours a day to about 3 because of time spent on sites talking about reading! lol.
My minimum time is 30 minutes. But if the book is amazing I'm ready to spend all the night)))
I have the Kindle app on my smart phone so anytime I have a few minutes to kill I'm likely to pull it out and read a page or two.
Adrian wrote: "Just for curiosity's sake, what's the shortest amount of time you normally read for? Sometimes I know I've got, say, 10 minutes and I can finish a chapter by then. But I feel like I can't really ge..."These days I only get to read at night, in bed. If it's been a long day, my eyes will close before I even get through a paragraph or two :-p If I have more energy and it's a good book, though, I will read for hours. Depends on the night :-)
I used to do a lot of reading while breastfeeding my kids. That was my personal break. Now I read whenever they let me, usually on the phone. I can't afford the luxury of paper books on the sofa, except at work, and then they're work related. At night, while I' waiting for them to fall asleep I also sneak in a good chapter or maybe two.
I can't focus on audiobooks, although I love the Amber audiobook read by Zelazny. I loose track unless it's a story I'm very familiar with, the mind wanders. There are some interesting short stroy scifi podcasts to listen to, around half an hour stories, great if you're going out for a run.
It's so hard to find time to read! Between working full time, writing, a pretty rigorous training schedule, and the usual minutiae of life, (cooking, cleaning, etc), the only time I have to read is maybe 10 minutes before bed. Audiobooks have been my saving grace! A lot of my work is mindless, so I can listen to an audiobook while doing it. I've also been checking out audiobooks from the library to listen on my commute to work.
I'm not sure what my minimum reading time is. I usually set aside time to start my reading cycle for the day after midnight, if I'm up that late. By long tradition a read at least twenty pages from a book at a time, or a chapter if it has grabbed me, like my recent re-read of The Two Towers. The most recent exception to that is my reread of The Lord of Chaos. I can't only take three pages of Jordan's female characters sniping at each other, at a sitting. Twenty pages, on average takes me about ten minutes. I estimate reading three pages of Jordan's Lord of Chaos takes me six minutes.
I usally don't set a minimum time, but if I know I have other things to do, but I really, really want to get ame reading in first, I will try to limit myself to an hour. But I think the shortest I have limited myself to is 15 minutes, which, depending on the book, is a chapter or two worth of reading time. That, or course, is not counting the interruptions from family, animals, phone calls, etc.
I literally can't keep my attention on the book for sixty seconds without becoming inspired by something I've read, putting the book down, and writing something that comes to mind as a result. I'm terrible at this! Just terrible! I can't enjoy myself because my mind wants to wander! But I love it anyway!
No minimum whatsoever, sometimes I'll pick up my kindle and read a single page if that's all I can manage. (I don't read at red lights, but I'll read when I'm in line for something, or just walking from my car to the office, whatever.)
I hope that "whatever" doesn't include fountains. :)
No minimum but I try to finish at least one chapter.
After one particular incident, I learned that I can 'sometimes' limit myself to 20 minutes, and sometimes go way overboard without meaning to. It happened at uni, when I had one hour till my tutorial started so I thought I'll spend that hour in the library. I found a book that analyzed the role of black superheroes in American comics and it was so unexpectedly interesting to read that I ended up being half hour late for class! So now I read after class, at home.
Not really, but I do try to complete a chapter. But if I only have time for a couple pages while waiting for something, so be it. I'll read why I'm waiting for my toast to pop, or my pasta to cook. I also take advantage of commercial breaks.However, when I use my Kobo on my commute to work, it tracks the stats of my reading so I know its on average about 4 minutes at a time. Not that my commute is that short but I'll read while I wait, then close the reader when I get on and settle myself, then read a bit more, but then have to get off to switch, so have to close again, and so on. So it's more like 15-20 minutes total reading each way, but in 4 minute chunks. Though if its really packed I put the Kobo away.
It does depend a little as to *what* I'm reading though, some things demand more time to do it justice (Lord of the Rings a couple pages at a time would just be wrong). Then I'll fill the short gaps with a magazine.
I have no minimum reading time. As long as I can catch a paragraph I'm good. I work in call center where if it's a slower day I might have 45 seconds between incoming calls, which is usually enough for me to read a page or two. I get a LOT of reading done that way.
My minimum is 10 minutes which is the length of our breaks at work. However, it does get frustrating having to stop mid-chapter sometimes.
I do prefer long reading time. Which is funny because I am, most of the time, a quick reader. I read a book once, very quickly, then a second time, more slowly. If I'm in a middle of something (like the final in LOTR), I will take any moment possible to advance my reading, be it a minute. If not, I'll prefer having at least a good 15-20 min.
Hmm, my shortest is fairly short, 5-15 minutes, but I want to have enough time to get drawn into what I'm reading and experience some relevant unit (if not a chapter, then an event or at least a conversation). I find it's much easier to get drawn into a novel (and how much so depends on the pace and author's voice) than most nonfiction or a short story or poetry. I get really frustrated if I don't have a chance to read a short story in one sitting (with some exceptions for practically-novella short stories). So, reading a short short story anthology usually takes me longer than reading a short-to-medium novel, because I'm waiting to read until I know I have the chance to settle in & finish a story. Having that long uninterrupted reading time is preferred in any case, but with a novel it feels like more of a luxury and a bit less of a necessity.
My favorite time to read is at lunch, so 30 minutes. I like to read to the end of a chapter or a space break, so I'm glad I don't have to punch out and in for lunch. (So it might be a little longer than 30 minutes)
My co-workers think I'm odd for choosing to have an hour lunch. We do have to punch in and out. And the new timecard program only has a 3 min. leeway. I like having time to relax, read for about 30 minutes, get my food, and not have to eat really fast or take it back and eat while working.
Colby wrote: "My minimum is 10 minutes which is the length of our breaks at work. However, it does get frustrating having to stop mid-chapter sometimes."Yeah, that's the main reason I usually prefer to have at least 20 - 30 mins of reading time. I guess it depends on the length of chapters though, but even then sometimes they leave you hanging its hard to tear yourself away.
Anyway 20-30 minutes for me usually. Unless I'm really tired at night and end up falling asleep after a page.
I like having at least 10 minutes during the day every day. It's hard when you get a story that reels you in, but it motivates me to find more time before bed. It's a little reward to myself.
I try to read (fiction) every day, but haven't set a minimum amount of time. If it's good and I get sucked into it, I have to set a max time so I can get something else done that day!
I prefer reading for at least 10 minutes, less is not enough time for me to concentrate and get pulled in the book.Most of my reading is done on my commute (about 40 minutes), but I've also been known to take my Kindle out on shorter trips and in the line at the grocery store. Usually they don't put enough clerks so I can squeeze in 10 min of reading time :)
Does anyone else feel like that? Do you have a minimum time where if you can't read for at least that long, you don't bother?