My Reading Quirks

Bookish Things

Jan 27

My Reading Quirks
By: Brittany Shields

I’m a book nerd.

I’ve loved reading my whole life. From Dr. Seuss to Nancy Drew to Ted Dekker to Harry Potter (yes, I didn’t read these until college!) to the much broader book spectrum I read from now, I have some weird quirks when it comes to books and reading.

Maybe you can relate to some of these:

I don’t use traditional bookmarks. I use whatever slip of paper is near me. I’ll use the tiniest ripped off corner of paper, the receipt from my library books, or, as I am currently, a lottery scratch card we were gifted at Christmas where we won $3 but I don’t have time to go get my earnings. Bookmark it is! (Also I subsequently accidentally left this in the book when I returned it to the library and they’re currently holding it for me to come back and get!)
When I buy a new purse, it has to be big enough for a book. If I know I’m going to be waiting for any amount of time, I always bring a book. And sometimes I read thicker books, so those little clutch purses or tiny backpacks are just not going to cut it!
I only write in my books to correct grammar and spelling. I have a compulsion to correct misspelled words, missing punctuation, or improper grammar. I confess I will correct these in library books as well, lest the next reader be exposed to such harmful things! Otherwise I like my books to be nice and clean. When I read I do like to take a lot of notes. But those go into a note in my phone or a detailed Word document I can access on OneDrive. So my books stay ‘pristine.’
I buy more nonfiction than fiction books. I read a lot of fiction, but I don’t reread many fiction books so I tend to borrow those from the library. Nonfiction books I know I will read again or am likely to lend out. I don’t have enough shelf space to buy ALLL the books (unfortunately) so I have to be selective in my purchases.
I usually have 3 books I’m reading at one time. I don’t like to read more than one fiction book at once, but I can read multiple nonfiction at one time. Usually some type of devotional, some type of Christian Living or Cultural book, and sometimes also a memoir.
Sometimes I look ahead at the last page of my book. I don’t want to spoil the ending so I don’t read the whole page, but sometimes I have a compulsion to scan the last page for names to make sure a character I like doesn’t die before the end! I also have a habit where my eyes jump to the next page if I’m reading a section with a lot of buildup and I can’t help but see that climactic sentence.
I’m always looking at people’s books. I notice what other people are reading. On a plane. Across the field at my daughter’s soccer game. On the shelves behind someone in a youtube video. At the doctor’s office. I just want to know! What are you reading? Should I read it? Should we be book friends?!
I talk about books too much. Probably half of my sentences in any conversation start with ‘I was reading this book about…’ I can’t help it. As I’m doing it my brain is telling me- ‘That’s your third book reference. Tone it down. They don’t care.’ I’ll try to get better at this everyone, but it’s going to be tough. I read a lot of conversationally relevant books.
I don’t like chapter titles. Unless it’s a memoir. I don’t want to be told ahead of time what’s about to happen. But in memoirs the chapter titles are often funny so I appreciate them in that context.
I immediately think less of a book if the female character’s hair smells like strawberry. There are so many cliche descriptions that are overused. Like strawberry hair or males with broad shoulders. I just really don’t think that many women use strawberry shampoo. Authors need to be more creative!
I organize my fiction books by author, and nonfiction books by topic. For the most part. I keep accumulating books without increasing my shelf space so sometimes I can’t maintain my system.
If I have 20 pages or less left in a book, I will ignore everything else until I finish it. I can’t just put it down when I’m so close to the end! Plus to maintain the feel of the end of the book you can’t chop it up like that. One smooth end reading sesh.
I’m protective of my books. I want to lend my books out because I want to share my favorites and I want other people to read too. But at the same time, it’s hard to part with my books. Especially if I feel the borrowers don’t care about books as much as I do. Will they hurt my books, bend the pages, forget to return them, or not even read them?!
I used to keep a list of all the words I learned while reading. I do still look up words I don’t know but I don’t write them down. If I read a British or Australian book I’ll often include in my reviews a list of words they use that are different than American usage. Hm…maybe I should start a word of the week on my Facebook page…
Sometimes I don’t know how to pronounce words. I have a big vocabulary and know what a lot of words mean but because I learned a lot of them reading, I don’t pronounce them right. There are times I go to use a word and realize, I don’t know how to say this! I think I just skip over saying it in my head when I read. Or I hear a word and have an aha! moment of ‘Oh! That’s how you say it!” Or have you ever talked about a favorite book with someone and find out they pronounce the main character’s name differently than you. It’s a very disconcerting experience. After all, you are both friends with that character and one of you has been saying their name wrong this WHOLE TIME??