How much do you read?

In My Humble Opinion
1

Pretty simple; how much do you read and what do you read? Also how much do you think it adds to your personality?

I read alot, but mostly short term things like newspaper articles, magazine articles and web articles. I suppose I gravitate to news items and somewhat forgettable items like straight dope threads (I just mean they never seem to be relevent to me outside of the dope)

I read about 3 - 5 books a year it seems. I wish that number was higher. I enjoy reading documentary books and popular fiction that is critically acclaimed. No fantasy or disposable reading.

I feel like I’m not that well read, even though I know good writing when I read it. I don’t seem to add a whole lot to conversations.

2

I don’t read nearly as much in the last five years, 'cause I’ve needed reading glasses and I used to read mostly in bed. So I can’t lie on the pillow and read (I lie on my side).

I did find books on tapes, I love them. I use them when I hit the gym and now that I walk to and from the gym, I use them then too.

It’s a great way to “read” all those books you’ve been meaning to read but never got around to.

3

It waxes and wanes but I almost always am reading something. Last few months I’ve been hungry so I’ve been going to the library every 2 weeks on the dot, borrowing 7-8 books, mostly reading them all, then going back for more. I don’t know how long this will last.

As for what it does for me? Mostly it just entertains me and makes me think. And that’s good enough for me!

4

If allowed to, I would probably read for about seven hours a day. In reality, many days I don’t get to crack open a book at all. But I do it as much as I can. According to my Goodreads list, last year I got through 76 books, plus four I’d read before, and eight audiobooks.

I read books mostly (non-fiction and fiction, including young adult books). I don’t generally use precious reading time on newspapers or magazines, unless that’s all that’s available. The audiobooks I listen to as I drive to and from work.

5

I read a lot, but on the book front, I will read around ten a year.

Right now most of my days are spent reading political news and law books. I read so much that when I get a headache that prevents me from reading I feel like I have nothing to do.

6

A lot. It’s hard to quantify. I re-read a lot. We’re packing to move right now, and packing the books is making me slightly claustrophobic, because I might need to read something we’ve already packed! Last week I took out from the library and re-read five YA books I’d read when I was about ten, and a Lynn Flewelling fantasy trilogy.

Impact on personality? Well, what I talk about is largely books or internet based. Does it improve my personality? I dunno. In what way? I read food writing, theology, some philosophy, a lot of fantasy, some classics.

I don’t know how many new books I read a year. It varies a lot, probably between 50-100. I probably read in excess of 200 a year if you count the constant re-reading (I’ve just started re-reading Gilead, Anne of Green Gables [I’m reading it aloud to my husband and a friend] and the Detective Chen mystery series).

Reading is pretty much like eating or breathing to me. I get twitchy without books.

7

Lissla, I discovered the origin of your username just a couple of weeks ago while reading. :slight_smile:

8

I read from 10 to 12 hours a day, four to seven books a week.

9

Due to work, commuting, kids’ homework and family time, home projects, and spending quality time with my wife, I have maybe 90 minutes of time a day, maximum, that I could devote to reading. Unfortunately, most of the time I don’t use that time reading. I really enjoy getting involved in a good book- most of what I read when I read is non-fiction- but it’s really hard to find the time consistently. So what happens is one week I’ll read for 3 consecutive days, then because of schedules and other issues it’ll be 1.5 or 2 weeks before I can do it again, so I have to back up and remind myself what was happening, then proceed. It’s the ‘one step back, two steps up’ approach.

Whenever I read one of the threads about how the voracious readers express such disdain for people who don’t read, I keep thinking “when do you find the oppurtunity? don’t you have other demands on your time?”

ETA: Sigmagirl, for instance- how is that even possible?

10

I read for up to an hour each night when I go to bed. I tend to read novels about realistic human drama, set in different times and places. It’s kind of an escape to different realities of what life could have been like. I don’t know that it adds to my personality; it’s more of a private thing that expands my imagination.

And a beautiful turn of phrase is satisfying just on its own as something to reread and savor.

11

I average a book a week. For the past year and a half, as a sort of personal challenge, I’ve read almost nothing but dystopian fiction. When I started, I thought this would wind up feeling very narrow, but it turns out to have led to me several classics I never picked up, incredible authors I would not otherwise have bothered with, and a series or two that were otherwise under my radar. It got me out of a fantasy/sf rut, actually.

12

Oh, it’s possible. I read a couple of books a week, every week. I read on the bus, I read during my lunch, I read 30-60 minutes in bed before I go to sleep.

Most of the time, I don’t even have to ignore my two kids to get my reading in…most of the time.

13

It’s possible. I read while waiting for manuscripts to download at my job. I read while watching TV. I read at stoplights. I read while cooking and doing laundry. I read in bed. I read while walking the dogs. And I am a very, very fast reader.

14

I subscribe to four magazines (National Review, The New Republic, Vintage Guitar and Fretboard Journal) and read those when they come. I read a couple of news and opinion aggregation sites and SDMB pretty much every day. I read books every night, for at least an hour and sometimes much more, depending on what else is going on. I would guess I average about 4 books per week. On a typical trip to the library, I will borrow a couple of popular fiction books, a non-fiction book on science, music, sports, politics or biography, and some classic piece of literature that is on my list of “books I should have read but haven’t”.

15

I used to average one to three books a week when I was a kid and teen, but I probably read six to ten books a year now. Most of it’s generally genre fiction, though I tend to supplement it with one or two non-fiction books.

Being a sci-fi nerd and generalized geek, it constitutes a not-insignificant part of my personality, and media – books, movies, music, etc – was what the friendship with one of my best friends was initially built on.

16

As for books, I read a few pages every night before going to sleep, so I go through them pretty slowly- maybe one or two a month. But I’m constantly reading anything I can get my hands on during the day. Magazines, posters, cereal boxes, the internet, you name it. If it has words, I’ll read it. I crave reading and love it, and I have since age 4.

17

Daily at work: New York Times, Wall Street Journal, BBC.com, Washington Post, Fark.com headlines, SDMB, health policy updates (various thinktanks, non-profit orgs, etc.), government healthcare updates, media clips, other people’s work (including my boss’s, marketing materials, reports, etc.)

Daily at home or on breaks: My “bathroom” book (read while brushing my teeth or putting on makeup in the morning, my “bed” book (read for about a half hour in bed before sleeping; also doubles as my “treadmill” book when I don’t feel like moving fast), my “car” book (read during lunch hour in my car so I can be alone), whatever my son wants me to read to him (at least once a day before bedtime, but I’ll read to him more or less anytime he wants to unless I can’t)

Weekly at home: the New Yorker, my own freelance work

Monthly at home: Four other magazines (I think I get Real Simple, Women’s Health, Self and will about monthly borrow a copy of my husband’s Economist, but when I get home I’m usually tapped out on business reading)

As it becomes available at work: updated legislation

As necessary: older legislation to compare against updated legislation and lobby briefs, other people’s summaries of legislation

I’d say I spend about 10 hours a day reading. I get paid well for most of it; the reading I do on my own or with my son is well worth the cost of reading material.

18

Elaine: … he reads.
Jerry: I read.
Elaine: Books Jerry.
Jerry: Oh, big deal!

That is all.

19

I read approximately the same number of books a week as Sigmagirl - between four and seven, depending on the books and the week.

This is helped out by the fact that I have a 70 - 75 minute commute everyday via commuter railroad and subway. Plenty of time for reading when I don’t have any other real demands on my time. I also read in bed for a few minutes before I fall asleep, during commercials if my husband doesn’t fast forward them, while hanging out in the living room with my husband while he’s watching something I don’t care enough to follow closely (ball game, UFC, one of the shows he enjoys and I don’t), etc. I read while standing in line for lunch, during downtime while preparing meals, basically anytime I have a spare minute, I break out a book. I am essentially never without a book near at hand. There are books on virtually every flat surface in my home.

I also generally have somewhere between two and four books started at any given time. For example, right now I have the book in my purse (along with a backup book in case I finish the first book), the book on my nightstand and the book in my bathroom - all of which I’ve started reading. The ones in my bathroom and on my nightstand tend to be re-reads (I re-read often - I’m always finding something new or different even in old favorites, and I find re-reading an old favorite book immensely comforting) or short-story compilations - better suited to short time period reading. The bathroom book at the moment is a re-read on a mystery novel I’ve read a couple of times and enjoyed and the bedroom book is a short-story compilation featuring several favorite authors.

Also, I read somewhere around 200 pages per hour unless what I’m reading is particularly dense. So I tend to chug through most books in a day or two. 200 pages an hour and two and a half hours of commuting via railroad every day runs you through a lot of books in fairly short order. On weekends or vacations, I read even more - on my most recent vacation, I was making it through two or three books a day and still had plenty of time for vacation activities with my husband, parents, brother and niece and nephew.

20

Who here has been accused of being one of those “book readers” (in a non-ironic, serious and somewhat hostile way)? Show of hands? As if were a bad thing.