Do you multi-task when you read? Do other things like stirring things on the stove, brushing your teeth, watching television, knitting, walking, et cetera?
Or is it just me, and you sit and do nothing but focus on what you’re reading?
(Or, if you do both, why, when, and which do you prefer?)
Very rarely, I’ll physically multitask while reading. Sometimes while I’m waiting for water to come to a boil, or waiting for noodles to boil that proper amount of time, I’ll read a couple pages in a book as able. This tends to be if I’m toward the very end of a book, incredibly involved in the book, or particularly antsy or bored with the water/noodles.
On a slightly more passive note, I’ll often read while I wait for something that’s in the microwave for more than 5 minutes, or something in the oven for awhile.
I prefer to focus on my reading and ideally have time to read a significant chunk of something in one go. If I’m reading a comic, I want to read the whole issue at once—or at least the main story if the issue has more than one story in it (such as Specials, One-Shots, Annuals, Anniversary issues, etc). If I’m reading a graphic novel or collected edition, I like to also read at least a fully issue’s worth of pages. If I’m reading a book, I prefer to be able to read at least a full chapter.
Mostly, my “multi-tasking” with books is the fact that I rarely have one finished when I start another. And through the years, I’ve found myself with dozens of books that I’ve started, but to this day have not finished. I get distracted by life, or another book, or other books, or comics, and eventually a book that’s sitting around waiting to finished will get shelved, and for the most part forgotten.
Because of more than two decades of reading comics—typically this tiny chunk of a much larger story, with at least a month between issues—I usually have very little trouble with picking a book up after weeks or even months away and simply resuming where I left off…even if I’ve read another book since putting this one down.
This tends to be the primary reason I find myself BUYING most of the books I read, and rarely obtaining them from a library. Library books have an odd feel to them for me, as I see the “due date” as a “deadline,” and a deadline implies “forced” reading, and I have trouble trying to read something that may not be IMMEDIATELY engaging, AND/or that I feel like I’m being forced to read. The library’s due date comes and goes, and being just a few pages into the book or not yet fully engaged, I’ll return it with the best of intentions of checking it out again later.
Filed under: Booking Through Thursday, NON-REVIEW CONTENT | Tagged: booking through thursday, books, btt, btt2, multi-tasking, multitasking, reading | 7 Comments »
Comic Reviews by Walt 