Discussion: Can you read in the car?

When I was a kid I constantly had my nose buried in a book. Sometimes I would read even when I was walking down the hall at school. So, of course, any time my dad hauled me off to one of his baseball games or on a road trip, the car was a valuable place for me to get some good reading done. I would stuff my backpack full of however many books would fit. And something I remember hearing all the time was “I’m so jealous, I wish I could read in the car.”

This isn’t something I still hear as an adult, and not because I stopped reading in the car. I wonder if I don’t hear it because I have fewer interactions with people who are just acquaintances, or if this is just not as much a thing anymore? But I certainly understand this sentiment much better now. I do get carsick, and these days I only read in the car if we’re going to be on the highway for an extended period of time.

Which, of course, got me wondering if YOU ALL read in the car. So, can you read in the car? Why or why not? Let me know in the comments!

Currently Reading Book Tag

I’m *almost* caught up on the tags I was tagged in a million years ago! Whitney from Whit Reads Lit tagged me in this tag back in February. I’ve been reading a lot lately, so this should be interesting!

How many books do you usually read at once?

I actually wrote a post all about this lately, because I used to only read one book at a time, but in the last few years I’ve been intentionally opening up to the idea of reading more and more books at once. At that time I was reading 5 or 6 at any given time, but since school started back up I’m down to 4.

1. Main fiction read
2. Middle-grade book
3. An anti-racist non-fiction title
4. A chapter book I’m reading aloud to my five-year-old

Do You Like Music While You Read?

Hi folks! Here I am again this Thursday with another SHORT discussion post. What can I say? Great ideas for longer ones haven’t come yet. And you all seemed to have lots to say last week, so…

When you’re reading, what kind of soundscape do you prefer? Do you like it to be silent, to listen to music, perhaps ambient noise?

Personally, I spend most of my childhood in daycare, and then most of my adult life as a teacher. Too extended of a time of silence tends to be more distracting than not for me. I prefer to have some kind of noise while I’m reading. It could be music, it could be the sound of children playing, it could be just about anything. Just about. It can NOT be the TV or any kind of talk radio, and it isn’t easy to read if it’s music I’m not familiar with. To me the ideal music is instrumental, especially if it reflects the tone or genre or setting of the book in some way. The more familiar the music is, the easier it is to let it float into the background and let the book take over my inner-ear.

A lot of the time, these days, you can catch me reading in silence. With two small children, quiet time is increasingly cherished. But if it’s going to be an extended reading session, I definitely need music or ambient noise on. I listen to the Lord of the Rings and Pirates of the Carribean soundtracks a lot.

Do you like to listen to music while you read? Let me know in the comments!

Top 10 Books I Want to Re-Read

An inadvertent theme here on Never Not Reading this summer has been re-reading. I have been consistently lamenting that I don’t re-read books anymore, and I’ve found out that I’m not alone! Apparently a lot of book bloggers prioritize reading new things over re-reading for the sake of creating content for their blogs, but wish they could find the time to re-read.

So today I bring you the books that not re-reading is breaking my heart.

10. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

I read this book my senior year of high school and was so enchanted by it. I want to re-read it partly because it’s been long enough that I can’t remember it very clearly, and I want to get to know it again. But also because I bet that there’s a lot more to this book that I missed. I’m a much better reader than I was thirteen years ago, and I bet I would appreciate it at a much deeper level. I’ve been itching to re-read this one since I saw it on The Great American Read last summer.

I Didn’t Know I Was Reading Wrong

It has come to my attention that apparently other people don’t audiate when they read.

I can hear the voices in my head now. Half of you are going “wtf is audiate?” and the other half are going, “hold the phone, you DO THAT????” Okay friends, let’s take this one question at a time.

Audiation is hearing the words in your head as you read them, as if you were listening to an audiobook or someone was speaking to you. Most people audiate when they are first learning to read. However, it has come to my attention that for many people, as you learn to recognize more sight words you stop “hearing” them when you read them. This allows you to read more text very quickly.

Next. Yes. Yes, I do audiate when I read. Even (apparently) when reading a stop sign or text message. Always.

My Good Reading Habits Tag

So my good blogging friend The Orangutan Librarian tagged me in this one something like three months ago. *shuffles feet guiltily*

Anyway, as book bloggers we seem to be always talking about our bad reading habits, I thought it would be a nice change of pace to see some positivity around here!

1. Using bookmarks

I don’t dog-ear pages! (Even worse, my husband sometimes uses the flaps of the dust jackets to mark his pages! *shudders*) I almost always have a bookmark on hand, and if I don’t I will use a receipt or a piece of string or SOMETHING.

How Reading More Books Has Changed the Way I Remember Them

When I first started book blogging, I remember I would see people say things like “I can’t remember the characters’ names” and I would hardcore roll my eyes. I would think things like, geez, are these people even paying attention to what they read? How can I trust their review of a book if they can’t even remember something as basic as character names!

These days I find myself forgetting character names all the time. Sometimes immediately after finishing a book I can’t even remember the MAIN FREAKING CHARACTER’S name. So I’ve got a lot more sympathy for bloggers who forget. (And for the record, no I can’t always just go check because I get a lot of books from the library!)

So what changed?

It’s not hard to pinpoint. Prior to starting a book blog I averaged around 20 books each year. Last year I read more than 60 books.

There’s a couple obvious reasons that reading more books would cause you to not remember them as well. If I’m reading more books, it obviously means I’m reading them a lot faster. So theoretically if I’m reading faster I might not be reading as deeply as I used to. (I truly don’t think this is the case for me personally, but might totally be a thing for other people.)

How Do You “See” Books?

“When you’re reading, your whole mind creates pictures for you. I could see it all.” -Morgan Freeman on The Great American Read

We’ve all heard it before. We’ve probably said it ourselves. When you read you create images in your mind, possibly a movie. Our imaginations run wild and create entire worlds for us, worlds we can see in our mind’s eye.

Right?

I don’t know about the rest of you, but that’s not quite how it works for me.

I have a pretty terrible mind’s eye, if I’m being honest. It’s hard for me to really “see” anything in my mind, to hold an image there. My brain is weird. I get flashes of an image for a second, maybe less, before it’s gone. I can only really hold on to an impression. What the story feels like. My mind’s ear is much MUCH stronger. It’s easier for me to listen to something that isn’t there. So it isn’t too surprising that I don’t really paint a picture as I’m reading. It’s a little different for me.

#MotivationMonday

I’ve come so far!

The picture on the left is me just out of college. I was unemployed, overweight, and struggling with my blood sugar. With all the stress of trying to find a job I never took the time for myself.

The picture on the right is me today! In the last year I’ve really started to prioritize and to make time for me. I’m down 5 books from my tbr, and only have 15 books to meet my yearly reading goal! Since I started reading I’m happier, healthier, and more confident than ever before. I am absolutely my best self! When you put in the work, amazing things are possible.

 

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***Disclaimer***
This post originally appeared on my Instagram about a month ago, but I find it too silly not to share. It took so long because I had other, more interesting posts lined up. I’ve finally postponed it enough times to make it a BONUS POST, lol. Sorry if you’re seeing it twice. 🙂

Why I Almost Never DNF a Book

I’ve only quit before finishing three books in my adult life.

The first was Gulliver’s Travels. I realized about halfway through that not only was I not enjoying it, I had no idea what was going on. It’s a satire, and I didn’t have a historical context for it, so I was lost. Tossed it aside and didn’t look back.

The second was A Tale of Two Cities. It’s no secret that I’m not a fan of Dickens, but this book sounded so intriguing that I picked it up anyway. Again, I got halfway through and realized I didn’t have a clue what I was going on, or even who the characters were. This was after like, a month, by the way. I put it down intending to finish it later, but never came back to it. Maybe in my retirement or something.

The last was Anna Karenina. After reading 50 pages of Russian agriculture and never even meeting Anna yet, I decided 800 pages was not worth it. I watched the movie instead.

And that’s it. Only three. I almost never give up on a book. I’ll read it to the end even if I’m not really enjoying it very much. Why?