# How do you read? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 24, 2009, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-read/507517 "2009-08-24T17:00:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![MissIntent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/97f17d/32.png) [@MissIntent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MissIntent)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2009, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-read/507517/1 "2009-08-24T17:00:16Z")
Today, I feel a little stressed and lonely. My boyfriend moved across the country 10 days ago, for a year of school. Today, I will pick up an old book, one I have reread many times. It’s a short work of fiction, and reading it is like curling up under the blankets on a cold, rainy day. When I feel the need to break out of my life, I go to a used bookstore and grab a pile of thrillers and murder mysteries. No matter how hard I try I can’t make one last more than a day. I have to keep reading and reading, desperate to know what happens and who did it. In this way, I’m transported to somewhere else. When I feel lost and aimless, I read autobiographies of people I admire. I read about their sacrifices and their rewards and remind myself to keep going. When I’m in school, I read accounting textbooks. ---
**Author:** ![Projammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/projammer/32/559_2.png) [@Projammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Projammer)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2009, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-read/507517/2 "2009-08-24T21:57:25Z")
Recreational reading is mostly science fiction with some fantasy and horror thrown in for variety. Generally four to six books at a time, picking up whichever is closest when I feel like reading. I’ll read contentedly for hours at a time with no interruptions. Then I’ll get to the last chapter where I will be able to read no more than 1.5 pages before someone will come to me with something that absolutely, positively, must be dealt with right then. I’m going to have to start buying hardback books so I’ll have something handy to express my displeasure with. Sticks and stones may break your bones, but words are really going to leave a mark. ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2009, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-read/507517/3 "2009-08-24T22:12:31Z")
I’m going to move this to Cafe Society, where the readers are known to lurk. twickster, MPSIMS moderator who’s reached an age when she often wakes up in the middle of the night – and uses that as an opportunity to read for 20 or 30 minutes. ---
**Author:** ![Red\_Skeezix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/aca169/32.png) [@Red\_Skeezix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Red_Skeezix)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2009, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-read/507517/4 "2009-08-25T00:40:32Z")
I go to the park and read while I eat lunch. At night I usually sit and read while my girlfriend watches TV. If I’m home alone I sit on my porch with a pack of smokes and read and chainsmoke. ---
**Author:** ![koeeoaddi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/koeeoaddi/32/408_2.png) [@koeeoaddi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/koeeoaddi)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2009, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-read/507517/5 "2009-08-25T00:45:11Z")
I read nonfiction on the couch, fiction in bed and I _always_ fall asleep at night listening to an audiobook. ---
**Author:** ![AKA\_Lisa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/6bbea6/32.png) [@AKA\_Lisa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AKA_Lisa)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2009, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-read/507517/6 "2009-08-25T01:17:17Z")
I read at any and every opportunity. And when I’m reading a book I really love, I can only read a page or two at a time before I put it down. I want the book to last as long as possible. ---
**Author:** ![Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/malleus_incus_stapes/32/3293_2.png) [@Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malleus_Incus_Stapes)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2009, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-read/507517/7 "2009-08-25T02:31:38Z")
I read mostly fantasy, with some humor, mystery, and pop science thrown in. At home I read on the couch or on the bed. At college, I read on my bed and between classes. I’m always running out of books, because I read them so fast. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2009, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-read/507517/8 "2009-08-25T02:56:45Z")
Audiobooks while walking, biking, working out, driving, doing housework. Real books? Holed up in a coffee joint (a neighborhood one has big comfy chairs and a fireplace) with my phone turned off and NO ONE aware of my location…“Gee, honey, for some reason I _just_ got your text.” ---
**Author:** ![silvermist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cc9497/32.png) [@silvermist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silvermist)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2009, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-read/507517/9 "2009-08-25T02:58:25Z")
I read at work, when things are slow. I read on the patio in the sun and sometimes I read when I go to bed. Usually it’s fiction, some kind of courtroom drama or medical thriller. ---
**Author:** ![Soul\_Brother\_Number\_Two](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/soul_brother_number_two/32/3515_2.png) [@Soul\_Brother\_Number\_Two](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Soul_Brother_Number_Two)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2009, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-read/507517/10 "2009-08-25T03:10:44Z")
What book is it, MissIntent? ---
**Author:** ![MissIntent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/97f17d/32.png) [@MissIntent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MissIntent)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2009, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-read/507517/11 "2009-08-25T03:26:19Z")
It’s called Eat Cake, by Jeanne Ray. Ms Ray has a talent for creating fairly ordinary characters who really love some aspect of their lives (like their jobs). For some reason I find her books extremely comforting.