15
votes
How do you read?
I'm wondering what all the different ways people read here are! Do you always buy a new hardcover, or do you get everything from your library on your e-reader? Feel free to share both format and when/where/what you like to read.
I've been reading books almost exclusively on my phone lately. It's not something extra to carry around and I almost always have it around with me, so I can read pretty much anytime.
To avoid eye strain, I use a cream background with brown text during the day and black background with red text during the night, all with a large font size that barely fits two paragraphs. It works fine for me, and the larger text helps a lot with reading speed and pacing.
There's also the issue that I don't feel like collecting physical books is a good idea right now, as I don't really have a "permanent lifestyle" set up. I prefer to not have many belongings that I'll have to carry around or get rid of in the future.
I used to prefer hardback books, as I don't like the how easily damaged the paperbacks are. I've been traveling a lot lately, so most of my books are now in the form of audiobooks. Some of the voice actors are fantastic!
I wish I had more time to read and I am trying to carve out more time (I will finish my George Washington Biography! It may take two years but I will finish it!) but audiobooks have been a life saver.
I may have only read 3 books last year but I listened to 12 books, and yes some of the voice actors are amazing! I listened to American Gods which had a full cast for all the characters and it was fantastic!
American Gods was a fantastic one. The Martian was pretty good too, if you've not checked it out. The nature of the novel, being primarily composed of diaries, lends itself well to the audio book format.
Nick Podehl is probably one of my favorite voice actors. He has such a wide range of characters that he employs in his narration. I first heard him with The Name of the Wind, loved him so much I just started listening to books that he narrated. I strongly recommend the Moontide Quartet if you're into Game of Thrones.
I've heard good things about The Martian audiobook, but I've read it twice so I haven't bought the audiobook yet.
I haven't heard anything by Nick Podehl, but a quick google search looks like the books he narrates would be up my alley, so when I'm done with my current book (Consider Phlebas) I'll look at Moontide Quartet (I've read the first 4 GOT books but I've stopped mid five and now I need to re-read the first four to power through the fifth sooooo I'm gonna finish those far in the future lol)
I hope you like it! The start can be a bit slow, but all of the plot threads spiral together in very compelling ways!
Oh man, I completely forgot about audio books, even though thinking about it I see a million ads for Audible. I have some fond memories of cracking out books on cassette tape to pass the time on family road trips.
If you want any recommendations, please let me know! Audible tells me that I've listened to 92 Audibooks since 2012, lol.
Personally, I read pretty much only on physical books, whether from the library or purchased. I don't have an e-reader, and though I have tried using my phone for that purpose, I am far too easily distracted to ignore all the other things that my phone can do.
Right now I'm reading How to Make a Spaceship by Julian Guthrie. It's about Peter Diamandis and his founding of the XPRIZE to foster development of private spaceflight, which I think is pretty neat.
Physical books, I don't care whether it's paperback or hardcover but it has to be a real book I can touch and turn pages with my hands. I always buy them and when I finish them, if I enjoyed them, I give them to members of my family to read. I only get e-books if there is no way I can buy a physical book, that's because turning pages in those things requires mental work and that usually ruins immersion. On the other hand, turning pages on a physical book is just muscle memory for me and I don't even notice that while I'm reading.
Edit:
How could you!?
I mean, paper is dead trees after all. Can't leave books unread on the shelf, or you wasted a perfectly good tree!
I was being sarcastic :P
Unfortunately I have wasted a few perfectly good trees, it hasn't happened a lot, but I have one book that was so boring I couldn't finish it. I can't remember the name now.
I'm really big on physically owning books. If I could afford them they would all be hardcovers, but it's hard to beat the price of a mass-market paperback. Probably about a third of my collection are hardcovers, at the moment.
I've also owned a third generation Kindle that's been going strong since 2010, and I downloaded a torrent of 10,000+ books around the same time. I don't prefer the kindle, even with such a bottomless library, but it's very convenient for when I have to travel.
Audiobooks make my daily commute worth surviving, but they're my least favorite format.
I used to inhale books when I was younger but lately haven't been able to find the motivation, when I'd pick up a new book I found myself putting it down a week or two later having gone through only a few chapters. Lately I've started using Audible and I'm finally able to finish books again, at about one per month, which is convenient cause that's how long it takes to get a new credit. I have a long commute so I listen on the way to work and back, it's a great way to focus on something other then the idiotic drivers
I had a lot of reservations about going from hardback books to a Kindle. I wasn't sure how integrated my tactile experience was integrated into my reading habits. For some reason I assumed that the actual action of turning a page effected my ability to absorb the content and I didn't want to take the chance. But now I'm slowly but surely moving all of my physical books to eBooks and I've begun reading far more often and for longer periods than with a physical book. It's much more accessible to me now that I can throw a thin black slab into my bag before work and read a few pages over my lunch break.
I am at a bit of a chicken or the egg thing with moving to a Kindle or similar right now though, in that I don't feel I read enough to justify one at the moment, but maybe if I had one I would read more. Reading at meals is exactly the kind of time that an e-reader would help with, since you don't need your hands to hold the page open.
If you're hesitant on switching to an e-reader, maybe try reading a bit on your phone, or better, on a tab if you have one. It'll get you the experience of reading on one, except that e-readers would be much better.
For me, the e-reader solves a problem that the phone has as a reading device. My phone does other things, like reddit, ~, youtube, etc. all of which tend to distract me from reading. My ideal e-reader wouldn't do any of those things, so I couldn't get off track.
E-books work well if you like and primarily read fiction. But they're still really inferior to physical books for many types of nonfiction, IMO. Footnotes, endnotes, graphs, tables... none of these really work well on e-readers. And good luck printing a copy of a chart from an epub or mobi file on an e-reader to refer to later. (Though if you're using something like FBReader on an Android tablet, you can at least take a screenshot.)
I have had a good experience using pdfs of textbooks and the like, though some of the online digital textbooks I have used have been abysmal. Obviously all of that is on a laptop though, so I can imagine how a more tied down format on a different device could be more difficult.
I will keep that point in mind though, currently most of my reading for pleasure is fiction, though once I have space in my life for more technical hobbies I may expand that.
Consider an Amazon Fire, the 7" tablet is $50. It is not a powerful tablet but works great for reading text. If it turns out e-reading isn't for you, the tablet still functions as a decent bathroom tildes interface ;)
Here's my answer from the last time this was asked here:
I don't know any more. When I was a youngster reading science fiction that included these magical electronic readers which could carry a thousand books, I couldn't wait to get one. As I got older, I realised that I prefer the tangibility of reading a print book. As I got even older, I realised that I have too many books and I need to reduce my storage. But I like the look of them on my shelves. But an ebook is lighter to carry in my bag than a print book.
So... ultimately... I don't know if I have a preference. Both formats have their advantages and disadvantages.
What I do now is decide whether I should buy a particular book in ebook or print form. My sci-fi books tend to be ebooks these days: they're a high volume for me. I have lots and lots of sci-fi paperbacks, and I need to cull them. But some sci-fi books are special enough to buy in print versions - which means they're also special enough to buy in hardcover. On the other hand, reference books and history books tend to be in print, and often hardcover. (Although there's one historical fiction series which I have in both hardcover and ebook because I bought and collected the hardcovers as they were being published, but the ebook versions are easier for actual reading than the thick hardcovers!)
Ooops! I forgot that I had the 3 day sort on, didn't mean to repeat a topic so soon.
With a name like yours, I can imagine that sci-fi books are pretty high volume. My plan when I'm done with what I'm currently reading is to head to a used bookstore I found near me and get some quality sci-fi.
That post is 2 weeks old. The population of Tildes has increased by about 50% since then, so a lot of people won't have seen that previous post. Ain't no big deal.
Oh, yeah! That section of my collection fills two bookcases (and the Isaac Asimov books are about 1/3 of that total). I want to reduce that volume by replacing the paperbacks with ebooks, but it's expensive to buy all those books again - especially when I bought many of the paperbacks at secondhand bookshops in the first place, so their replacement cost would be more than I originally paid for them.
Enjoy!
I love reading a hardcover book, it's just such an enjoyable experience; however, they're also expensive and if it's not the kind of book I'm going to re-read a few times it feels a little wasteful and extravagant (even though I want nothing more than a gigantic bookshelf full of hardcover books)
I only bought one hardcover book last year (Artemis) and I ended up giving it to my mom to read and then my brother so it would at least get read a few times.
I also have a kindle, but I don't think I've used it in over a year, there's just something about it that takes me away from the immersion. Could be because it's an OG kindle and there have been QOL improvments since then or it could be since I've only ever read ~5-10 books on it , it's still a novelty and that takes away from the immersion.
Mostly I listen to audiobooks, I have the ability to listen to a lot of audio regularly. I typically listen to podcasts throughout my work day and then an audiobook on the commute home (currently listening to consider phlebas). If I could listen to an audiobook while working without zoning out of the audiobook I would, but as it is I only listen to it on the way home.
Recently I've been getting a lot of my books from goodwill. I never realized how good of a selection some can have (I found 5 books on Saturday). Usually I read in bed for 30 minutes before going to sleep so I can limit the time on my phone.
I used to prefer hardcover books, but recently I switched over to an e-reader and I love it. Perfect for traveling. I waited too long! It's a little bit of money up front, but there are so many free ebooks at libraries that the cost is justified.
i usually read physical copies and lately i've just been rereading haruki murakami books to pass the time.
It's a mix. When the book is for something "important" — school, a book group, etc. — I prefer a paper copy. But if I'm just reading it for leisure, or I'm traveling, or I couldn't get my hands on a physical copy, I'll read it on an ereader.
I frequently find myself wanting to be the opposite on books for school. I have a physical copy, but I can't search it. Looking for equations I want while working on a problem can be pretty tedious sometimes.
In the past couple years, I've been reading mostly fanfiction, so I had to read digitally. I use my phone for that, and I've gotten very used to it, to the point that I prefer reading digitally.
I encourage others to try out e-books too. I was hesitant at first, as I read a lot of paperbacks, but once you get used to it, it's so much more convenient (and cheaper too).
It used to be paperbacks for me due to lightness and price. I recently had access to a hardcover copy of IT by Stephen King, which was too huge and awkward to hold while standing. It helped me rediscover the joy of reading on a tablet, using Kindle and other similar reader apps, which also lets me pace around the room while reading.
Pacing while reading is not something I've heard of before. Would you mind sharing why you do that?
I suppose I get restless if reading while sitting, and doze off if reading while lying down. Whereas if I'm standing and especially pacing around, I can focus on a good book for hours at a time.
I prefer physical books right now, but perhaps that's because my only experience with ebooks has been with PDFs and reading those on a phone or computer is a firmly 'meh' experience. I do enjoy being able to feel the pages in my fingers as well as being able to physically see my library on the shelf.
I tend to just buy larger paper/ hardbacks every so often, and work my way through them in my free time- that is, when I'm not working on a project or rehearsing. As I'm very into musical theatre, I'm currently reading the biography of Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow (Inspiration for the musical Hamilton), going on to Les Misérables (Inspiration for the musical of the same name.)
Lately I've been doing all of my reading with my ears. Apparently, I don't need the part of my brain that processes audio books for driving. I freakin' love Audible. According to my stats I seem to spend 25-35 hours a month listening to books.
Previously though, my favorite eye books were always used books I got for dirt cheap online. They seem to have more character, and there's even been a few nice surprises like an author signature or dedication.
I download books on my phone and read whenever I'm not doing something else. Definitely one of my biggest time kills, and it'd be a lot harder if I had to carry all these books around physically.
Depending on whether I'm traveling, I will read physical books or use my tablet for e-books. I read fairly quickly, so it's a lot easier to take a tablet with 1000 books on it than it is to carry the 5-6 books I need for a trip of 3-4 days. On occasion I'll listen to audiobooks, but I read so much faster than people talk that I get frustrated pretty quickly unless I'm driving.
5-6 books in 3-4 days while travelling! I am pretty average when it comes to reading speed but that is impressive. Have you deliberately trained yourself in speed reading, or are you just a naturally fast reader?
I have always read fast - my parents thought I was just flipping pages when I was 4-5ish. I eventually convinced them by asking them to test me on what was in the book.
Sometimes I wish I could slow down long enough to savor things more. I switched to reading in Spanish for a while hoping it would slow me down, and for a brief period in Jr High I read upside down, but it didn't take long to acclimate to that, too.
Honestly, if I'd picked the stat to max out, that wouldn't have been it.
If I read a book on a tablet I don't feel like I accomplished anything, but the problem is when I'm traveling and I actually carry a book to read (preferred method) I generally end up using my phone the entire time.
That's my trouble too. If the device I'm trying to read on does other things, I'll typically find myself doing those instead of reading. Boxing myself in with a physical book solves that easily though.
Usually on my phone during my commute. More practical that way, i can just put the thing back in my pocket, and it is easier to hold when standing in a bus. UBReader is a great app that does the trick for me.
If i'm on the beach or somewhere, paperback. I don't like hardcover books, too awkward to hold.
I collect books, so hard covers only. I will occasionally use audiobooks for traveling and give them to family when completed. I usually buy my books via eBay, thrift stores, Abe Books, or Amazon (if it is a new release). We don’t have a book store in our town, so I have to buy online or wait till we go to a bigger city to shop in store. My family teases me, because I say e-readers are sacrilegious.