12 Bookworm Confessions
I’ve been a reader for as long as I can remember.
One of my earliest memories of reading was on a long train trip (from Wisconsin to Washington State) with my mom and sisters when I was about six. My mom had brought along Number the Stars, which had won the Newbery a few years earlier, and I picked it up and started flipping the pages.
My mom 100% thought I was just pretending to read it and when I announced that I was done, she asked me some questions about it. To her surprise I actually HAD read the whole thing and was able to tell her (in probably much more detail than she wanted to hear) all about it.
Since then, I’ve done my best to never be without a book, and reading has been one of the great joys of my life (hence twelve years of writing about books here on Everyday Reading).
But behind that love of books, I also keep some bookworm secrets.
And a chilly Monday morning seems like the right time to spill them here. Here are my 12 bookworm confessions – you might be able to relate:
12 Bookworm Confessions
- I take my library books on vacation. So far, I’ve never lost a book on vacation (although we did have to go back to the Boston airport one time to retrieve a library book Bart had left in the seat back pocket).
- I don’t care that much for Dr. Seuss. There are a handful of his books I like, but overall, I kind of don’t get the insane love for him (and most of his picture books are SO. DANG. LONG). It’s like they were trying to pretend some of his books are picture books when they’re practically chapter books.
- I almost never take notes or mark up a book when I’m reading. When I see books that are filled with underlines and notes, I love the idea of having my books so personalized like that. But I never take the time to actually do it myself.
- My idea of a bookmark is the library receipt they used to mark my holds. I actually own quite a few lovely bookmarks. But who has time to go dig those out when you’re reading? That paper gets the job done.
- I have no real organization system for my books. I get asked all the time about my organization system for my books and . . . I don’t really have one. The librarian in me is cringing. Most of our picture books go in the big bookcase for our playroom and they are roughly divided into fiction and non-fiction, but there are also board books and a couple of shelves of my books and young adult and middle grade books. I keep most of the board books in the nursery, and the adult books scattered between the upstairs bookshelves.
- It never gets easier for me to start a new book. No matter how many thousands of books I read, that first page or chapter is almost always a little bit of a slog until I’m into the story and the characters. When I do start a book that grabs me from the first page, it feels like an extra special treat.
- I never sound out character or place names that aren’t obvious. I just recognize the name by sight and how it’s pronounced isn’t part of the equation at all for me. Which is only a problem if I’m going to talk about the book in person afterward. In fact, one thing I love about audiobooks is that I know how tricky names of people and places are pronounced and I get a weird satisfaction for knowing the correct pronunciation (but not enough satisfaction to do it myself, obviously).
- I hate to borrow books from other people. It’s too much pressure! I want the freedom to return a book to the library unread or to hate a book and not have to report back to the person who loaned it to me that I think the book they raved about was totally boring and I only finished it out of obligation (I learned this lesson the hard way with Eat Pray Love).
- The worst part about reading on a Kindle for me is that the text location keeps changing. I’m a pretty visual reader, so I can often remember where on the page something was located, but whenever I read on a Kindle, it’s always changing (I don’t know what that is?) so it’s basically impossible for me to go back and find something.
- I lay my books face down with the pages open. I actually didn’t even KNOW this was bad for a book until I did it with one of my books when I was a school librarian and my aide was horrified
- I’m a fast reader, but I am not a speed reader, nor do I have any interest in learning how to speed read. I read for fun, not to crank through as many titles as humanly possible and to me, speed reading sounds 100% not fun.
- I totally eat while I’m reading (including my library books). A long time ago, a friend told me in great detail about how careful she was with her books, including putting them in ziplock bags when she traveled, and I make a promise to myself right there and then to never borrow books from people who cared deeply about the condition of their books. I’m careful, but I can’t guarantee the book will come back pristine. So it’s just safer not to.
What are your bookworm confessions?
Me too on about all of these points! And the thing with the Kindle, if you have to cite something, it is impossible to give a page number. Also, while I love the Kindle for some reasons, like always being able to find something to read at night or anytime, if you really love a part of the book, you can’t stroke thevpages!
You can mark or highlight a page, there are a few options. You can also add notes at any section. It saves it all for you and you are able to cite it for papers.
I don’t take baths much anymore, but I used to read in the tub. My sister still does. There’s a definite kind of book that ‘s good for reading in the bath (soft cover, not too thick and NOT a library book), and my sister and I between us only had a handful of books that got submerged. For the record, they can totally be salvaged by drying them out, but they’ll never close flat again . . .
So many of these were true for me. I couldn’t even finish Eat, Pray, Love, I disliked it so much. Big Magic was pretty good, though.
I LOVED Big Magic, but it took me forever to pick it up because I hated EPL so much.
All of these. Pretty much all of these.
I love books, but I also believe that we need to LIVE with the books. Which means they go in my purse, I read them in the bath (regularly, and have NEVER submerged one), I eat with them, occasionally cookbooks get splashed (you can tell a great recipe when the book opens at that page and it’s stained!)… You gotta live with them!
And WORD on the Kindle changing the page and messing everything up. I have an excellent visual memory (… back in college, a guy wanted to know the definition of a word from the textbook, so I told him, and he was like ‘you just read that chapter once, in 5 minutes, how do you know’ and I was like ‘it’s on the third page, third column, about 2/3 of the way down the page 2 lines under the bold header’ and when he saw that I was right he literally threw the book at me, CLASSY) and the Kindle just messes it up. I enjoy the convenience of a book always on my phone and being guaranteed to never run out of reading material while stuck in line, but… paper books are my jam.
I can relate to almost all of these, but especially numbers 4, 6 , 8, 9, and 10. Bookworm problems forever!!!
YES! I love these. Maybe they are just common things amongst readers!
I’m a yes to all of the above. I have had to replace a couple books I took on a trip once due to sudden car sickness. It was not pretty. But other than that all my food eating while reading and other things haven’t ended badly. Also, “Number the Stars” is one of my first favorite books that I remember. It started my love of historical fiction and especially WWII books!
I also do all of these… but never ever ‘dog ear’ a page to mark my spot because for some reason I just Hate that! Yes to reading in the tub.. even library books. I take my library books on vacation but never let my kids take theirs.. learned that lesson the expensive way! And I love my kindle and iBooks app because it is so darn convenient but don’t love that when I am reading what my kids see is still me looking at a screen. After many years of following you finally started utilizing my requests and holds at the library which I love! (With the exception of when 7 books come in at once and none can be renewed 😉 > )
Nothing worse than a kid losing a book. Those picture books are SO pricey!
I recently found the “pause holds” option for my library. Now I don’t have those stacks of unrenewable books all coming home at once!!
Ooh thank you! I’ll look into that.
I identify so much with these!
Library books always go on vacation- when I was little, we even made a special trip the library right before leaving to make sure we had enough new books to read on our trip.
Starting a new book is my least favorite thing- I have to block off a good chunk of time to get into the boo. If I read the first 10 pages and have to stop, there’s a good chance I’ll never get back to it.
I never borrow books or lend books. I do give away books though, especially if it’s something I enjoyed but I don’t have a strong emotional connection to it, don’t want it back, and I think a friend will appreciate it.
I lay my books face down. I take them in the tub. I dog-ear the pages. I eat/drink/cook while reading. I believe books are meant to be read and loved and lived with. I have a book with cheeto stains on the pages and every time I read it (I re-read books regularly) I remember how I was crying over a breakup so I ate cheetos and read this book to help feel better. Cheeto stains aside, I try to maintain a basic level of sanitation, but I will never have pristine books and I would never want to try to keep them all pristine.
I love this! (And I love Cheetos).
Last month I read The Dark Heart as a Prime First read. It’s a murder investigation in Sweden. Names were ok to read, but cities, well basically it was like reading all the product names at IKEA.
And, don’t hate me, but I felt kind if meh about To All the Boys I’ve Loves Before.
HA! We can still be friends 😉
All of these, but I’m commenting for number 7. I have never understood why this is a problem for people. It’s like my brain just takes a picture of the name, I don’t need to know how to say it. (Unless, as you said, I’m talking about it.)
EXACTLY! I’m not pronouncing any of the words aloud in my head!
Ha ha, I actually started a series on my blog for my bookworm confessions because I started to realize how weird I was just a couple years ago with some of my habits. Some of my confessions:
*I don’t count audiobooks as reading (though I don’t mind that other people do); therefore, I will only listen to an audiobook if I’ve read the paper version of the book first
*I have to read books cover to cover to “count” them, including forewords, introductions, and even sometimes the appendices
*I have a pretty hard time abandoning books (though I have a much easier time doing it on the rare occasion I read one on an ereader) and have only abandoned 7 books in the past two or three years or so (which is exactly a really high number for me! I’m getting better)
*My reading tastes can sometimes come off as a bit snobby, just because writing style is REALLY important to me
*I literally own over 400 books I haven’t read (and the number is growing)
*I have to read multiple books at once. I didn’t realize how much of a compulsion this was until I made myself not start any new book while trying to finish Lord of the Flies earlier this year, and it just about killed me
*I religiously track which books I’m reading and finishing on my Goodreads account
*I have several book lists that I’m constantly referring to for recommendations and for books I can cross off
There’s more, but I think I’d better stop there 🙂
I loved reading these!! So fun. I always use the library hold receipts for my bookmark. Unfortunately my 5 year old does not recognize it as a bookmark and regularly removes them from my books.
Sometimes at the library I pull out my favorite picture books and put them on display. I’m just trying to help both the librarian and other parents
I love it! I’m going to start doing that!
Same!! Except I don’t leave my books facedown. My son was reading Chamber of Secrets and kept leaving it face down, and he totally broke the spine and now all the pages are falling out. I almost cried when I found it. So now I’m a stickler for correct book usage, ha. But I eat with my books, travel with library books, and never try to sound out the names (even in books like My Lady Jane, where they tell you the correct pronunciation at the beginning!). And I never never borrow books (or even promise people that I’ll read a book they like). Sometimes it’s a book that I know I’ll like, but just the stress of knowing I’ll have to report back to them makes me like the book less. I’d much rather get my books from the library and not be required to give an opinion if I don’t want to… though this doesn’t stop me from recommending books to everyone I know, ha!
Those original Harry Potters have the WORST binding of any book I’ve ever seen. It’s definitely not just you who has lost big chunks of pages from them.
Yes to these, especially the Dr. Seuss one! People are always so appalled when they learn that I don’t prefer his books. And they are SO long.
SO long.
I think we’ve possibly discussed this before but I am so with you especially on dr Seuss. So many teacher friends are obsessed with his books but I just don’t understand the appeal. Even as a kid I found them tedious to read.
Well, now you know why we’re friends.
Sitting with a new reader trying to get through Green Eggs and Ham about did me in. I remember liking the 500 hats story and Horton when I was a kid, but I haven’t reread them as an adult, so I might hate them now too.
My husband HATES when I leave books face down, and he isn’t even a reader.
Ha! I love that it bugs your husband even if he doesn’t read!
I am with you on 11/12 of these. The only one I differ on is that I like Dr. Seuss.
The pronunciation bit is so bad that I have been know to talk about the s-boy or i-girl in classes, and when people looked at me like I had 5 heads, I then realized that was not a common way to deal with the problem.
It’s bad to eat and read?? Uh oh. Lol.
I have paid for a few library books: 2 for water, 1 for puppy chews.
I also dislike Dr. Seuss. The other classic book that I don’t care for is Where the Wild Things Are. It does nothing for me. I love to read but I don’t always notice/appreciate good writing. I definitely read for the story/plot. We have a wonderful public library here that pretty much buys any book I request so I never buy books.
Oh boy. I totally take library books on vacation, dont even think twice about it. One time I left two board books in the plane seat in Santa Barbara and the library wanted $25 a piece for them!! I just kept renewing and hoping for good luck. Someone from the airport actually returned them. I always use the receipt for bookmark as well. I hate the princess and barbie books at the library, and my 2 yr old always wants to bring home 100 of them and the early reader curious george books. I have acid free crafting scotch tape specifically to fix ripped pages. Luckily it doesn’t happen very often. But I’m way good at putting those pages back together.