Filipino Friday: Reading Habits

The Filipino Book Bloggers have been doing Filipino Friday posts for some time now, and I’ve been dropping in from time to time but Friday’s often quite busy for me so I tend to see the posts belatedly. Tonight’s the first Friday I’ve been home early in a long time, and  I’ve been mulling about what to blog about tonight when I saw Jhzunagev’s Filipino Friday Post over at Darchwonders (a recent blog discovery that I’m really enjoying so far) and it seemed about time I joined in.

Chachic, the founder of Filipino Book Bloggers, presented the option of answering the whole Reading Habits meme, so here, I’m revealing all my deep dark reading secrets!

1. Do you snack while you read? If so, favourite reading snacks?

I don’t habitually snack while I read, because when I’m really engrossed in a book I often forget about eating, so no favorite reading snacks.  I usually pick a time when I can set a book down and go get a snack. But I have no trouble eating with one hand and holding a book with the other; I often read when I’m dining alone because I get bored otherwise.

2. What is your favourite drink while reading?

I do enjoy hot drinks with my books, though. Coffee in the morning, then milk tea or hot chocolate at night. Mmmm.

3. Do you tend to mark your books as you read, or does the idea of writing in books horrify you?

I do mark books with my name and my dry seal but other than that, I don’t write inside the pages. Because I do a lot of reviews and I like noting down quotes and other observations, I often use post-its to mark the pages. Sometimes I also note down important details in a separate notebook.

4. How do you keep your place while reading a book? Bookmark? Dog-ears? Laying the book flat open?

I often use a generic bookmark. I have a growing collection of pretty bookmarks, but I don’t usually remember to take bookmarks out of books after I’ve read them so I’ve transferred all the collectibles in a pretty box and I now keep a stack of freebie bookmarks  at home and at the office for my daily reading. You would think I’d never find myself without a bookmark, but I still do, and I end up using receipts, calling cards, and anything thin enough to slip in between the pages.

5. Fiction, non-fiction, or both?

I prefer fiction, because I’m escapist by nature, but I read a lot of non-fiction to cleanse the palate in between books. Mostly trivia and art books.

6. Are you a person who tends to read to the end of a chapter, or can you stop anywhere?

I prefer reading to the end of the chapter if I can help it, but I can stop anywhere. This comes in handy during the commute, when I open and close a book several times when switching modes of transport.

7. Are you the type of person to throw a book across the room or on the floor if the author irritates you?

No, because that’s a horrible thing to do to a book. If I don’t like a book I still read it to the end to see if it can redeem itself. If not, I pass it on to other people who might like it, via BookMooch.

8. If you come across an unfamiliar word, do you stop and look it up right away?

I try to make sense of it first, but if I think the exact meaning of the word is key to understanding the idea, I do look it up, either in a dictionary or online.

9. What are you currently reading?

The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett, for the Flips Flipping Pages book discussion next week.

10. What is the last book you bought?

The last book I bought is The Hotel Cat by Esther Averill, for the NYRB Reading Week, P120 at Book Sale.

11. Are you the type of person that reads one book at a time, or can you read more than one?

I used to read just one book at a time, until the rate I acquired books outstripped the rate that I read them. Now I read at least three books at any given time. Usually one novel and two palate-cleansing books.

12. Do you have a favourite time/place to read?

In bed, snuggled up in blankets, just before drifting off to sleep.

13. Do you prefer series books or stand alones?

I prefer stand alones because series books make me uneasy until I have all the books in the edition I want.

14. Is there a specific book or author you find yourself recommending over and over?

A lot of people ask me for recommendations, but I don’t recommend the same books to all people. I usually try to gauge what they’d like based on their age and interests.

15. How do you organize your books? (by genre, title, author’s last name, etc.)

I have several book shelves organized by genre, then grouped into authors. Then I have three more shelves of to-be-read books, (dis)organized by size and into piles of already covered in protective plastic (and can therefore be read) and not yet covered in plastic (and therefore cannot be read yet).

Feel free to share your reading habits too!