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?)
I have always multi-tasked when reading; in fact, I’ve been notorious in my family for decades for reading while walking up and down the stairs, a habit that used to drive my mother crazy. She also hated when I tried to read at the tale, and I have to confess that I do this too often now that I’m the adult in my house. However, I don’t always multi-task; last night I spent a few hours reading a book I’ve been completely entranced by (The Invisible Bridge by Julie Orringer, review coming soon) and there was no multi-tasking at all involved.
Why do I do it? I think that especially when I was a child or adolescent, I would disappear so completely into a book I was reading that I really had trouble breaking that spell to do such mundane things as eat or walk. There has been no greater magic in my life than books, and I have spent so much of my life a willing captive, completely immersed in other worlds, both real and fantastic. No thing has had a greater influence on me than reading.
This is my Booking Through Thursday entry.
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- Weekly Meme: Multi-Tasking (Booking Through Thursday) (randomizeme.wordpress.com)
I can’t do anything except listen to music when I am reading! I gotta turn to Audio books! Only way to keep up with reading!
Here is my BTT: Multi-Tasking post!
I can do both but I prefer complete quiet so I can focus on the story. There was a time though, when my kids were small, that the only chance I had to read at all was by keeping my book in the bathroom.
When it comes to reading, you gotta do what you gotta do.
@gautami: I love listening to music when I am reading student papers or short-form stuff, but it can mess me up when I’m reading more intense fiction or nonfiction.
@trish: I have definitely been there!
What a great reason as to why you multitask while reading. I’m with you there, sometimes I’m so enthralled with a book I’m loathe to put it down and will actually sit there with it and ignore tasks I know I’m supposed to do so then I take the book with me and do what needs to be done. I too am notorious for walking with a book, but usually I have to put it down because I’m also a huge klutz.
Here’s my BTT Post
Yes, my preference is focusing totally on the book, while sipping something like coffee or tea….
Here’s MY BTT POST
@dragonfly–I have definitely tripped-while-reading, but it’s so worth it!
@laurelrainsnow: I’m usually snacking rather than sipping, until the book gets REALLY good and all I can do is turn pages!
Mostly, I like a quiet place to read.
Stairs! Very impressed. If I did that broken bones would follow. I fell down the stairs twice last year in the space of a week and I wasn’t even reading.
Sally.
http://theelifylop.blogspot.com/2011/03/booking-through-thursday-9.html
@Mary Ann: You and me both, sister, though it can be so tough to find. I’ve managed to establish a habit of reading before bed, and sometimes that’s the best hour of my day.
@ Sally: Yikes! No books on the stairs for you, indeed!
I gave up on walking and reading after walking into a few things, painful and embarassing. Still, there are plenty of other opportunities to multitask, and I’m great at standing in the middle of the bathroom with a book and my toothbrush: http://mostraum.wordpress.com/2011/03/10/booking-through-thursday-multitasking/
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