The 'Lost In A Book' Tag.
So I've been nominated in another tag! I did 2 Liebster awards in April which you can read here and here and at the beginning of this week I cheated in my 7 Day Nature Photography Challenge.
Now I have had the pleasure of being nominated for the 'Lost In A Book Tag' by the lovely Hailey Jade Ryan! I've been reading her blog for a month or so now and I tend to binge read like 5 posts in one go which is A OK with me! I loved reading Hailey's post for this tag because she starts by saying she can't borrow books because she wants them all on her shelf and that is SO me! Definitely go have a read of her blog -
1. Do you have a certain place at home for reading?
I go through phases of reading ALL the time and then not reading for months because I can't find the time (a phase which I hate) and I have similar phases with where I read. When I was little I would just be reading all the time after CBBC had finished all the good programmes and I would most probably be on the sofa in my living room. When I was in uni I'd read before bed religiously so tucked up in a duvet with some fruit (my nightly supper yo) and that's a habit I really want to get back into.
2. Where do you like to read?
I think bed is the best place for reading. It's cosy, it settles you down and calms you and gives you the chance to switch off your mind which I think is vital before you want to be sleeping. I absolutely CANNOT read whilst on the go like in the car or on a train, I will literally vomit.
3. Bookmark or random piece of paper?
My boyfriend uses a train ticket as his bookmark and I literally cannot stand it, it's too small and keeps falling out and loosing his page and it makes me want to scream. I actually didn't used to use anything up until about 18 months/2 years ago. I wasn't one of those people who'd fold down a page because I couldn't deface a book but I just used to find my book would open on the right page (have a feeling I bend the spine A LOT). Now I use a book mark which I bought on holiday somewhere which is matte black with a black satin ribbon and says "the land of make believe where dreams come true' which I think is cute for a book.
4. Can you just stop reading or do you have to stop at a chapter?
Oh god no I can't just stop mid sentence or something. I have to finish at a logical point which often leads me to staying up much later than I wanted to because Must.Keep.Reading. I quite like books that have short or manageable chapters because that brings a natural close to my reading sesh but if the book has really long chapters I'll finish at a logical place like the end of a paragraph or at a change in the book.
5. Do you eat or drink whilst reading?
When I was little I would always read before I went to school (no early morning TV allowed in our house FYI) so I would have toast or pancakes and a cuppa but now I read in bed most of the time I have a glass of water and some supper. Fun fact for you, if I don't eat immediately before bed I wake up starving or wake in the middle of the night sick with hunger and I normally faint (my mother is also the same) so we both have a bowl of fruit (grapes, strawberries, kiwi, apple, pear) and natural yoghurt.
6. E-reader or real book?
Always always a print book. Got nothing against ebooks (read my dissertation which was on it over here) but personally nothing beats the feel of a real book or having a paperback collection on my shelves.
Oh and Hailey, I read your answer for this one and I like the smell of books too!
7. Music or TV while reading?
Normally I read in silence because it's bedtime but I could quite happily read with the TV on in the background. Not sure about music, I think I'd just be singing along and it'd distract me from the book!
8. One book at a time or several at once?
Omg I couldn't even imagine the horror of reading more than one book at the time. I get so engrossed in books I don't think I could keep up or be as enthralled if I was reading multiple. I makes me stressed just thinking about it.
9. Reading at home or everywhere?
Mostly at home at the moment just because I don't read as much as I'd like so it's normally a bedtime thing which would be slightly weird if I was on the bus or something. When I was little me and my brother used to take books if we were going somewhere that didn't interest us and we needed to be kept occupied or something. My parents used to take books for us when we went to restaurants to keep us from being bored whilst waiting for food and that was something we continued to do until we were about 15. Can you tell books were a big part of our childhood haha?
10. Reading aloud or silently in your head?
In my head always. I think my boyfriend would be pretty pissed off if I was reading aloud whilst he was trying to concentrate on reading GOT next to me! The thought of reading aloud makes me think of reading paragraphs in school in English. Actually terrifying, it brings a cold shudder over me!
11. Fiction or non-fiction?
Both! I quite like sad stories or depressing stories or books that make you think about your life and appreciate what you have and I find that works well in both settings. If you can give me a book written as a memoir about real life but written in a way that sounds like a story I'll treat you like a god.
12. Do you read ahead or skip pages?
I have really bad habits with this. I always always read every word even though I read so fast my eyes look like I'm skim reading (a gene my brother and I inherited from my Dad) but if something is really juicy I sometimes can' stop myself skipping ahead to see what happens, spoiling it for myself, being annoyed with myself for spoiling it and then going back to read where I left off.
13. Break the spine or keep a book like new?
Break the spine, I just cannot help it. I think this is why my books would just fall back open where I left them because I would break the spine so much the book probably didn't lie flat any more. I have to be able to hold the book with one hand so I can eat with the other (life) so bending the book massively out of shape is the only way I know how. Oh and I rarely buy hardback.
14. Do you write in your books?
Other than annotating when I was in school no. My parents instilled in me somewhere that it was wrong to scribble in my books as a kid and deface them and that has lasted with me in some shape or form. I take quotes from books and write them down sometimes if I love them that much but always in a diary or on a scrap of paper.
15. Your favourite book?
Being the age I am from the era I was born in I'd say probably Harry Potter. Everyone says it, everyone is a fan but it really is one of those series of books that defines you and I can't even put into words what they mean to me. I did a post on some of my favourite books in April which you can read over here!
Thanks so much to Hailey for tagging me in this series, I love tags like this because they give me the opportunity to write something on the blog than I might not discuss otherwise!
I'm not going to nominate anybody this time, I am going to leave it open to anyone who reads this who thinks it's something they'd like to have a crack at or thinks it's a good way to talk about books if they might not include it in their blog all that much. If you do use the tag as a result from reading this post please tag me and tweet me because I'd love to see what you write!
If you liked this you might also like '10 Books You Need On Your Book Shelf.'