Is there a method to your madness?

'ello! I was wondering if some of you (or most of you) have a method to your readings... Because I'm a mess, really. I confess to not finishing a book because I got bored with it, or (more common these days) because a long amount of time has lapsed between reading sessions and I don't want to bother going to the beginning again... I also confess to reading a favorite (or not so favorite) book two, three, even four times, because I have a terrible memory, which is kind of a plus, since it lets me get lost again and again in a story and discover details I had forgotten completely.

I approach my books in a very haphazard fashion... hmm... there's an expression in Spanish that's so right for this. :P I read following the fancies of my moods. Or something like that, heh...

How do you read? :)

Basically, the same way. These days, I get an RSS feed from our local public library, and from that I create a list of books I'm interested in. I keep the reservation queue fed, and I read in order of what shows up at the library first. If it turns out I don't like something, I usually don't push my way to the end.

I re-read stuff all the time because I forget things too, and I enjoy the story all over again...

How do I read? Very quickly! I'm an odd duck in the reading world, I think. I took a speed reading course in high school (back in the 70's OMG! where did the time go?) and found that my normal cruising speed was about 500 WPM, with over 95 percent retention. At the moment I have several ebooks in my Treo with Amanda Quick's Second Sight being the one that's open right now. I also just started Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows yesterday. I took it to work with me to read during my breaktimes and am up to page 314 already. A friend of mine wants to borrow the book after I finish it, and I'll probably re-read it when she gives it back.

Because I read so fast, it's very rare for me to not finish a book due to boredom with it. I don't really have a method to my reading, though. I read for pleasure. Unfortunately, when the book is good, I read it faster. Then it's over all too soon.

I just joined LibraryThing last week. I put all of the ebooks I have read into my bookshelf first, and am going to be adding the physical books that I have not yet read, and then moving on to the books that I have read that are packed away in the basement, once I get shelving up and start moving them onto the shelves. I was surprised to find out that in the 3 1/2 years that I've been buying and reading ebooks, I have read over 600 of them alone.

Hail the Green Dragon! This is my first post in any of the groups here. :)

Welcome naleta!

I remember taking speed reading in HS back in the '70's. I still like to take my time, but it does mean the TBR gets backed up.

I have to admit, lt has altered my progression through my TBR. I keep getting sidetracked by group reads.

I too have a freakishly fast reading speed (which helped immensely in college), although I don't speed read at all. So I basically never give up on a book. I do, however, have the horrible habit of putting a book down because of a new book, and not picking it up again for years. Over half my library is 1/2 or 3/4 finished, only to have been replaced due to my easily distracted nature.

Since I buy so many books, I try to read a newer book, then an older book, to make a dent in my TBR list. However, lately I've just been reading new books.

This is how I decide what to read: I finish a book, put it in the 'done' pile, walk to my shelf, and grab.

Welcome Naleta!

I never took speed reading, but I do it anyway.

This may sound very strange (so what's new!) and may even be a thread of its own, but I have been known to NOT finish books because I dont want the reading experience to end. right now I am one chapter away from finishing Buddha or Bust, which I love, because I dont want it to be over. (On the other hand, I stayed up late last night finishing A Fistful of Charms which I really liked, but not enough not to not finish it.

Sometimes I reread a book because of the spirit of the book. Whenever I make big life transitions, especially when I move, I re-read The Lord of the Rings. When I feel spiritually lost, I re-read Susan Howatch novels.

Generally though, I follow my nose.

It seems to me that I am so much busier now with more on my mind its hard to devote the time to reading that i'd like, but i generally read a book thru without a problem. Sometimes I have given up and put it away to pick up again later and that works for me. Some books just don't do it for me and I just toss em, not in the trash of course but somewhere!

Like a couple of other folks here, I too took a speed reading course which has been both a blessing and a curse.

In terms of method, I'm pretty straighforward; If I've made it at least halfway through a book, I will always finish it. But there are books which I've started and read almost all of, only to get distracted by something else. I always finish, but sometimes it will take me a couple of months to work my way back to the book in question. This problem is somewhat exacerbated by the fact that I read between 7-9 books at a time, not including re-reads.

I usually re-read every book in my collection at least three times, but there are some that I've read hundreds of times, Like The Black Company by Glen Cook.

BTW, I've never actually mentioned in my couple of other posts here that I'm kind of new; I've been semi-lurking and only recently began posting. Great group!

Welcome and be warned...this place is addictive!

I guess I'm a bit odd in that I always finish books I start. At least, that's how I am now. About 15 years ago, I never finished a couple of books, The Vampire Lestat and Imajica and soon thereafter fell off the reading wagon altogether.

Since climbing back aboard 7 years ago, I make it a point to finish everything. I also only read one book at a time. I don't think I'm an incredibly fast reader, above average I'd say. If a passage really catches my fancy, I may re-read it to savor the language.

One of these days, I will re-attempt the two books I abandoned so long ago (starting over from the beginning).

I don't think I speed read, but it doesn't take me long to get through a work of fiction...if I could only stay awake. Not a reflection on the books I'm reading, just my age.

I like to read at least two or three books at a time. I have four bookcases full of TBR books (many inherited). I love reading about certain periods of history and the people in them, but I like to have a mystery or light read as well. I generally read at least a chapter in one of the less compelling books, then allow myself free reign with the one that has grabbed me for the day.

When I finish a book, I walk to a bookcase (alternating which one each time), close my eyes and grab a book. Sometimes I have one of my children pick one for me, though they like to grab the biggest one thinking to punish me. :)

Since I've joined LT, reading in groups has changed my pattern a bit, but not severely, it's just added in a book here and there. I love to re-read my favorite mysteries and I've gotten to the age where the mystery is fresh every time I read it. ;)

Welcome! Have a glass of a virtual drink of your choice!

Most of my reading is re-reads. I buy new books less than once a month and read most books in a day or three. I choose what to read next based more or less on what I've read last. I read series in order from start to finish, and then change genre. Unless I don't feel like it. I can't remember the last book I didn't finish. Occasionally I intersperse my fiction with some non-fiction work, and I pay attention to what I'm requested in the Go Review that Book group.

Edited because my computer did something weird; my post appeared twice.

I'm a bit haphazard in my reading, I guess. I rarely give up on a book, no matter how bad it may be, but there have been some exceptions. I do something really strange that I would only admit here - if a book gets too tedious, it's relegated to the bathroom. I may not be able to take it in big pieces, but I can tolerate small doses. It takes forever to finish a book, but it eventually happens.

I will have the best of intentions, trying to whittle down the TBR pile, then I'll discover some author that I've not read before, so I drop all my resolutions and start reading all that person has written.

I am basically out of control when it comes to buying books, so the pattern isn't likely to change.

The problem I have with reading now is age. My eyes get so dry after an hour or so, that I pretty much have to stop reading unless I want to torture myself (which I will do sometimes). I've tried numerous eye drops, to no avail. I think my glasses prescription needs to be changed, so that may be part of it.

My reading doesn't really have a method either. Sometimes I just feel in the mood for a particular genre; lately, it's been fantasy, but it can be almost any genre. My TBR pile is out of control right now, but when it was in control I tried to read the oldest books first, then the newer ones. Now I'm pretty much reading whatever I want in an effort to get it trimmed a bit, because I read insanely fast when really into a book. I'm not a speed reader, I just read at what is natural to me, but I've found that I read faster than everyone I know in real life, but quite slow compared to some LT-ers!

I tend to read one fiction and one non-fiction book at a time, but the non-fiction generally takes much longer to go through than the fiction.

I'd like to re-read more, but I have too many new books to spend the time doing so.

At the moment I am going through all my anthologies again to document them, basically, and still working my way through the 'superhuman' list I have, and also keeping an interest in new SF, or interesting authors I find out about thanks to LT.

Like some others here, I red pretty fast, so that helps.

Trying out the occasional manga from the library, too, currently, with not a lot of luck. Most of it is still for kids.

Manga? For Kids? That's a narrow point of view. Try Osamu Tezuka's stuff...

Hi, sorry for not replying soon in a thread I started! :P

Thanks for the interesting replies. You know, I never took a speed reading course or anything, but I used to read fast. That was about 10 years ago. I could sit all night reading a book and not put it down until either a) I was done with it (specially Stephen King's books, those are hard to put down!) or b) it was like 4am and I *needed* to go to bed so I could function properly at work the next day.

Sadly, those days are gone. Stress, work, and, well, life get in the way, and I can spend weeks with one book. I try to read every night in bed, at least a few pages, but sometimes I can't fight sleep.

As for my method, well, there isn't any! My so-called TBR list is huge, but I really don't follow it. Just recently, I was re-reading Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere, just because I was in the mood for it. Who cares if I had tons of unread books waiting in the queue? A few weeks ago I also started an SF anthology but never finished it. I left the best authors for last, and I haven't read their stories yet. :P

Right now, I'm reading a used copy of an old SK book I purchased recently, Four past Midnight, because I hadn't read it yet (I have approached SK's bibliography in a very crazy way.)

So there, that's the method to my own madness. :P

Well, I've decided to join you all in reading more than one book at a time. I've got a couple of horror short story anthologies, The Dark Descent and Great Tales of Terror and the Supernatural at home and neither is easily transportable due to size. So while still reading my usual one book at a time while commuting, I have decided to read a short story per night from the anthologies before going to bed. In this way, over the next few months, I'll have finished both of these fine collections.