21st Century Literature discussion
Question of the Week
>
Things You Do That Make Your Reading Easier And/Or Harder? (7/18/21)
date
newest »
newest »
Easier: Good light and a comfortable chair.Harder: Need to think about that one. Certainly, to let lay fallow for too many days before returning to one in ARP -- active reading pile.
Easier: Steady reading pace with self perpetuating reading variety.Harder: Sometimes overloading on old/long/translated/culturally distant material and becoming cranky as a result.
Mod
Harder: Rushing as I get near the end of a book (I'm excited for the ending and excited to start a new book). It usually means I can't remember how books end (sometimes, as soon as the next day after I've finished the book).
Easier: Starting a book over from the beginning when I feel like I'm not paying enough attention to the book and losing my flow. (more lately than in the past)Harder: Being easily distractable by shiny objects, and therefore not paying enough attention to the book and losing the flow.
Me too, Bretnie.Also harder: judging myself by what I read, and reading less of what I love because I'm a little embarrassed to be spending my reading time on it. I'm not talking YA or romance. I'm talking William Sleator. Willard Price. Mad Magazine. Animorphs.
Easier : Silence. That's why I read at 4 am. When the rest of the world is alive, noise levels are too high.Harder: like I said, noise is a factor
Sometimes having to constantly deviate from my TBR makes difficult reading. This month I read way too many experimental novels, but I had to, I'm not saying I didn't like it but when you read 6 in a row, one gets a bit frustrated. Last month I read too many 'conventional' novels but I had to. Ideally I like a balance.
Noise is my distraction too Robert!lark, that's awesome. :) I hope we can all read whatever we want and not ever feel embarrassed.
Mod
Robert: I have a lot of trouble navigating between my TBR, acquiring new books, and joining in GR discussions (which often means diverting from my TBR and/or acquiring more new books). And too much of any one author or genre quickly wears on me.
Bretnie wrote: "Noise is my distraction too Robert!lark, that's awesome. :) I hope we can all read whatever we want and not ever feel embarrassed."
related problem: I hate it when the cover of a book embarrasses me. Usually it's a romantic/titillating cover for a book that is neither, or the book is 'now a major motion picture' and has a giant picture of the star's face on the cover.
Easier: Having my cat on my lap while I read. :-)Harder: Noise or interruptions (like my neighbor who likes to run really loud yard equipment a lot of the time).
Easier: Breaking up long books by stopping at good stopping places and reading a short book before I continue. Often these books are already broke up in parts but sometimes I just find a natural place where I would imagine that installment would end if it was a TV show or film.Harder : When I am listening to an audiobook and end up doing something that engages my brain so that I'm not taking it in. There's a fine balance with audiobooks with keeeping my hands busy so I'm not restless but keeeping my mind engaged.
Making my reading easier. I like to have several books going at one time and find that a variety helps me sustain interest. So I like a mix of novels, stories genre, fiction/nonfiction and time periods going at one time to switch between. I find this helps even more when I am reading two books that that have similarities I wish to compare. For example, I read two different Bronte novels last month and being able to pallet cleanse with something between the Bronte reads helped me a lot in comparing them.
Making my reading harder.
Falling asleep or entering that twilight stage where you keep drifting away from the text which happens just before you fall asleep.
Sam wrote: "Falling asleep or entering that twilight stage where you keep drifting away from the text which happens just before you fall asleep. ..."This is exactly why I can't understand how, in author interviews, the generic way to ask an author what they're currently reading is: "what books do you have on your nightstand?" Do people really read in bed, and keep their currently-reading books there instead of taking them along with them during the day to read when there's a free moment? Aren't there many better things to do in bed than read, and many better places to read then in bed?
I never read in bed without falling asleep before the end of the page. I read at my kitchen table.
lark wrote: "Sam wrote: "Falling asleep or entering that twilight stage where you keep drifting away from the text which happens just before you fall asleep. ..."This is exactly why I can't understand how, in..."
I read pacing the living room, sitting on the sofa with the cat on my lap or leaning against the kitchen counter. If I read in bed I'll fall asleep with the book on my face
lark wrote: "Sam wrote: "Falling asleep or entering that twilight stage where you keep drifting away from the text which happens just before you fall asleep. ..."This is exactly why I can't understand how, in..."
I do read in bed but it is in the wee hours between 3AM and 6AM when I have had a good night's rest. My problem comes in the late morning or early afternoon while sitting in my reading chair or another reading spot. It is accompanied by the heat of day and exacerbated by my medications. I have to get up and take a walk, or a shower to shake out of it.
Mod
Whitney wrote: "I love reading in bed. If I fall asleep, I will frequently continue 'reading' in that half-asleep hallucinatory way...."[g] I laughed/slept/laughed my way through about half the last ten hours of Anxious People last week to meet a deadline for having been through it at least once....
21st Century Literature
Books mentioned in this topic
Anxious People (other topics)Authors mentioned in this topic
William Sleator (other topics)Willard Price (other topics)
Maybe you set aside dedicated reading time or have a quiet hiding place. Or, maybe you drive yourself nuts by buying too many books or trying to commit to too many GR discussions.
What is it you do that makes your reading easier or harder?