Episode #93 - Gulp or Sip?

[Shona]

Loved the podcast today...I have to say that I prefer to "gulp", but like most people I get my reading in whenever I can. I carry a book with me whereever I go - waiting for my daughter after her numerous activities, mostly. However, I always set aside an hour at night before I go to bed to read. On very rare occassions (i.e. no kids to run around, no work, laundry done, house cleaned) that I devote the entire day to reading and I make everyone in the house follow suit!

[John]

For me, it depends on the medium. It's not intentional, but it seems like I tend to gulp with paper books and sip with my Kindle.

[Carla]

I am a gulper! Throw away the cork and hand me a Tupperware tumbler! In all fairness though, all I do is audio, so I can read while doing just about anything, and I do mean anything. I love to be swept away by a great book. I tend to cook food that is in the book or makes me think of that region. We ate a lot of shrimp while I inhaled Beach Music by Pat Conroy. I get lost in the Outlander books by Diana Gabaldon and after finishing Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese, I want to try Ethiopian food. So, here's a toast to the sippers of the world, I am just not one of them. Great pod cast. I can't wait to find The Bells from the previous pod cast and Ape house from this one. I read Lucy written by Laurence Gonzales and loved it and now can't wait for Ape House.
Carla
,

[Beth]

I'm a gulper too but unfortunately there are many times when I'm forced to sip. Like Shona (and probably many others) I always have a book with me so I can always sneak a few minutes of reading here and there. I do most of my reading in bed, once we get my nine year old in bed. My husband usually has the TV on but I get so lost in whatever I'm reading the sound just fades into the background!

Today's podcast was great. I put Ape House and To the End of the Land on my TBR list as soon as I finished listening. Both of those books sound incredible!

[[deleted user]]

I'm the opposite of Ann. I sip the heavy stuff. I always have a serious classic which I only require myself to read 10 or 20 pages a day of.

But with a lighter read (in which category I place most story-driven fiction), I want to gulp.

[Kirsty]

I think I'm a mixture of both. I like to gulp when I can, but I always have my book with me and have been known to 'sip' whilst at traffic lights (some of the intersections that I regularly travel through take FOREVER to change!) also you just never know when there'll be an opportunity to read! I definitely prefer to have at least half an hour though.

[Debra]

My sweetheart says I swallow books (gulp) while he likes to savor them (sip). In terms of length of time reading, I gulp when I can, but I often sip.

[[deleted user]]

Some of them I shake down my throat like a dog, and some I gum down like an iguana

[Lekeshua]

I am a gulper by the first definition cause I need long stretches of time to be able to get swept away.Per Ann's interpretation I am a sipper because I sip every sentence causing me to be a slow reader.

[Djdee]

I too am a gulper.I do not enjoy snippets as it takes me a while to get involed.I agree it is easier with lighter novels but at the moment I do not enjoy those.I am in a phase where I want to learn something or be exposed to something where become truly engaged.

[Linda]

Just because I am so busy, I tend, lately, to be a sipper. It's sad that after I had back surgery, the dog and I went out on the front porch after the evening news and read until the light was gone during the appropriate weather. Haven't even done that more than probably 6 times this summer.

If I find something like The Time Traveler's Wife, I gulp. I read that one in 4 days with 2 nights that didn't end until 4 a.m.

(And no, it hasn't been that long since something grabbed me like that - I worked for the census earlier this year as the receptionist with nothing to recept - so I read - 44 books in 2 months - before "they" decided it was better that I twiddle my thumbs than appear that I had nothing to do but read - I now have the thinnest thumbs in central Ohio!)

[Karen]

To start a book I need to be a gulper, so I can get familiar with the characters. Then I can sip. ***Looking for a good book (paperback) to take on vacation, any ideas? I am defintely a sipper on vacation with all the touristy stuff to do! I only get a few minutes every morning and at night. Though, I can gulp on the plane, don't watch movies at all. Would appreciate suggestions.

[[deleted user]]

Whenever get a book for personal reading, the first thing I do is look through it and break it down into sections, whether it be by chapters or sections or page counts. When I know I have time to read that section, that is what I do. If I have a deadline (i.e. if I need to read it for a discussion group) I make sure I make the time. So, in way, whether I'm a sipper or a gulper depends on how the book is laid out!

[Linda]

Karen wrote: "To start a book I need to be a gulper, so I can get familiar with the characters. Then I can sip. ***Looking for a good book (paperback) to take on vacation, any ideas? I am defintely a sipper o..."

I looked at your lists, Karen, you seem to like mystery so
Booked to Die by John Dunning is the first of the Cliff Janeway novels. Cliff Janeway is a book collector / policeman.

Mallory's Oracle by Carol O'Connell is my favorite mystery author.

I see that you've read two of James Frey's books. How about My Friend Leonard. I enjoyed that shortly after I read A Million Little Pieces.

I'll always recommend Carl Hiaasen, although I see you already read Strip Tease. Try Tourist Season - his first stand alone.

From your "to read list" I have read East of the Sun: A Novel that I think would be a good vacation read. Grisham's A Painted House was decent and easy enough to be a vacation read. It is not one of his conventional mysteries.

I'll wager that you will like Beat the Reaper. It's a little salty at times, but it was a good quick read.

[Kathy]

Because I go through so many books, when you first asked this question I thought of my reading style as gulping. But after thinking about the terms "sip" and "gulp" as the blogger originally defined them, I realized that I really do a little of both. I tend to keep a book in my desk at work and dip into it during my lunch break, sometimes with great concentration and sometimes alternating my attention between it and a newspaper or cryptic crossword. In the evenings and on weekends I tend to spend much longer periods with a single work. My perception is that I absorb the same amount of information and get the same satisfaction from each type of reading, possibly because even when I'm "sipping," I'm able to mentally tune out distractions and concentrate wholly on the book.

[Karen]

Linda, thanks for your recommendations, I have been considering East of the Sun. I think I have made my decision. Thanks!

[Suzan]

Like many here, I prefer to dive into a book and gulp it, but I usually have to sip due to a busy schedule! I love it when a book grabs you so much that you just have to set aside everything else you're supposed to be doing so you can gulp down the rest of it!

I carry my current book with me if I'm going anywhere where I may need to wait, so I can sip for even a few minutes.

Fun discussion!

Sue

[Brandon]

I tend to read before I go to bed, so it depends on how tired I am if I'm having a "sip" or a "gulp".

However, they'll be nights when I can read for 3-4 hours..usually when I get close to the end of a book I'll keep going until I finish it.

[Jessy]

I am both...I hate just reading little bit. My husband gets so mad at me that I want to finish the chapter and not just stop where I am. There are some books that I just can not put down but then others that I can read a little and out down.

[Dawn]

I love mysteries and thrillers, which I gulp or lock myself in my room and swallow them whole. Others that require more attention, I sip.

I envy those who can read on their way to work. I have an hour commute both ways and I could read twice as much if I didn't have to drive.

[[deleted user]]

Dawn wrote: "I love mysteries and thrillers, which I gulp or lock myself in my room and swallow them whole. Others that require more attention, I sip.

I envy those who can read on their way to work. I have an hour commute both ways and I could read twice as much if I didn't have to drive. "

That's where audiobooks come in ;-)

[Dawn]

Tanya wrote: "Dawn wrote: "I love mysteries and thrillers, which I gulp or lock myself in my room and swallow them whole. Others that require more attention, I sip.

I envy those who can read on their way to wo..."

I do listen to audiobooks sometimes on long trips. But I find when I listen to them on my commutes, I have to re-listen because I'm too distracted and I miss stuff.

[[deleted user]]

Dawn wrote: "I do listen to audiobooks sometimes on long trips. But I find when I listen to them on my commutes, I have to re-listen because I'm too distracted and I miss stuff. "

Interestingly, I can hardly walk and breathe at the same time; but I can listen and drive! I also attribute an upbringing on TV to my ability to keep track of multiple plot lines as a biblio-polygamist!

[Debbie]

If I've been waiting for a new book by an author, when it comes out, I definitely gulp. I get through it as quickly as possible. Then I've been known to go right back to the beginning to pick up the nuances I missed. I listen to a lot of audio books, and if the book is gripping and the reader does it justice, I can pretty much gulp those too.

[Dawn]

Tanya wrote: "Dawn wrote: "I do listen to audiobooks sometimes on long trips. But I find when I listen to them on my commutes, I have to re-listen because I'm too distracted and I miss stuff. "

Interestingly, I..."

I'm too visual. I can read and walk on the treadmill, but I can't listen to an audiobook or a podcast while walking. I know...I'm weird.

[Kate]

I enjoyed the podcast discussion about gulping versus sipping and their inherent definitions when it comes to reading. I pretty much go everywhere with a book or my Kindle(a discussion for another post about which I like better), because ANY downtime or waiting time I can start reading. Like alsmost everyone else, I don't have nearly enough time to read and fit it in where I can. Given the choice I am a gulper reading as much as possible as fast as possible, although there are certain books and authors who make me pause and sip because of the beautiful use of language.

[Melissa Wiebe]

It really depends on the book and how much you want to follow the storyline of the book. For example, in the last week or so, I finished two books, one of which I gulped due to the fact that the storyline was fairly simplistic and was something I had read a number of times and one which I know I sipped due to the fact that I had to figure out what was going on through Sparknotes (Candide doesn't exactly lend itself to gulping; there were times in which I had to go to Sparknotes to find out what had happened). For the most part I tend to "gulp", as I tend to read a book in large chunks before setting it down for the day and letting me to contemplate what I have read and to let it soak in. I try to fit in when I can, which means I am usually reading on my way to and from work, reading as much as I can, as I know that by the time that I get home, I probably won't be reading much.

Great topic.

[Esther]

I prefer to be a monogamous reader so I tend to gulp - if I have free time to read I'm not going to waste it on doing anything else!
Unfortunately I don't have a lot of free time so I sip at the bus stop or while waiting in line. But I don't really enjoy a book if I read all of it like that.
I work late so most evenings so my brain is too tired for anything but TV. However some nights I get the kids to heat up a frozen pizza and sneek into the bedroom with a book.

And I finally caught up with the end of #93 and heard your recommendation of the Grossman book (it took me a while to figure out which title you were refering to!).
This book was very popular in our library and spent more than a year on the waiting list.
However I have yet to read it. After living through the summer of 2006 and listening to the announcements of his son's death on the evening news the amount of emotion wrapped up in the book almost scares me.
Now there is a translation out I will probably get it for the English section of the library and finally read it.

[Dani]

Like most working mothers, I don't often get big chunks of time to read a book. That's why I tend to have two books on the go. One is a fun novel that I can take big gulps of on the weekends. The other is a nonfiction book like a book of essays or the history of bathing, something that I can read small snippets of at night or on my lunch break.

[Esther]

Having just realised that I am a 'gulper' I encountered Lisey's Story.
I was in the mood to just sit and slurp it all down in one go but I find Lisey a little boring and although I could appreciate Stephen King's writing after about an hour it began to feel a bit like Bran Flakes - you know they are good for you but a little is more than enough.

I put it aside, read a couple of other books and picked it up again. At first I was surprised at how skilled the writing was but after an hour the taste of Bran Flakes had returned!!!
So I think I will finish Lisey's Story but I will have to restrain myself to sipping it and gulping other books in between.