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Everybody's got bad habits, especially me, who is usually perfect in every single way. However, when it comes to books, I have a lot of bad habits. How bad? Well, I personally think that they're terrible, but other people might not think that they're all that bad. Y'know what they say: different strokes for different folks.
For some reason, this is just how I read. Before I start reading, I very carefully look to see how many chapters are in a book (emphasis on carefully, no spoilers y'all) and then divide that by how many days I plan on reading that book for, and then I have the amount of chapters I'm going to read in one day. Why? It reminds me to read. Sounds crazy, but somehow it just works for me and doesn't actually determine whether I'll like a book or not. I will admit that when I was in a readathon and didn't mark out how much to read in a day, I read a lot more, but this is just the way I do things.
Ohhhh boy. I am so, so, so guilty of this one. Most of the time it comes from just not knowing that a movie/TV show is based on a book - this happened to me with Dexter- and other times it comes from me just being really impatient - like how I watched the 1931 version of Frankenstein before reading the book, only to find out that the book and that particular movie adaptation have very few things in common. Or it could be a mixture of the two, like how I watched American Psycho before reading it because I 1) wanted to see Christian Bale being hot and doing murderous things, and 2) was actually too scared to read the book at that point in time because it is nasty. I'm getting better at quitting this habit, because I've been wanting to see Gone Girl since it came out last year, and I still haven't because I want to read the book first. See, progress!
Some people don't mind doing this, but when I do it, I can't help but feel like I'm being bad mannered and end up feeling guilty about it. I'm not a rude person, I swear! I just want to read my book. If I'm going to be completely honest (which i always am), this isn't my worst habit because I actually struggle to read if I'm around people who are likely to talk to me, compared to if I was sitting in a crowded area alone. If that makes sense. Basically, if nobody's going to talk to me, I can read. But if they are, my attention will be all over the place.
Just typing that out, I can hear my dad yelling at me for wasting the electricity. But then again, aren't everybody's parents like that? Obviously, leaving the TV on while I'm reading isn't good for our electricity bill, but again, this is another focus issue. My bedroom is very small. Like, extremely small. There isn't even enough room for me to comfortable lie on the floor and I'm 5'4". I read on my bed, but the lamp that I use while reading isn't at the same end that I sleep at. Yes, I do different things at opposite ends of my bed. My TV is next to my head while I'm asleep, so if I'm awake I go to the end of the bed to watch TV and read and such. Anyways, getting back to how I can't focus: if the TV is on while I'm reading, it's right in front of my face so I'll end up watching the TV anyway.
I like my books to be kept in a nice condition: who doesn't? But, because I don't have a desk in my room, sometimes I use my books and something to rest on while I'm writing or even *gasp* doing my nails. Yes, sometimes I put my books at risk of getting sticky, smelly nail polish on them, all in the name of beauty. I am starting to use my bedframe more these days because it's at a better level, but still, some of my books have very narrowly escaped having nail polish dripped onto them.
Okay, let's be real here: doesn't everybody do this? I'm a huge believer in retail therapy (a bit too huge actually, oops) so I'm constantly buying more and more books. But we all do that, so I guess this isn't really a bad habit?
These days, I'm kind of starting to hunt for more standalone books, or even duologies because I'm getting just a bit burnt out by series. Sometimes I don't finish a series because I wasn't too thrilled with the first book (Matched trilogy), sometimes I totally forget about it because I've been reading other things (Lux series), and then sometimes I look at the sheer amount of books in a series and go "nope" (The Morganville Vampires series). But yeah, series can be tough work sometimes, especially if you're not into marathoning them in one big sitting like I'm not.
Okay, the emphasis here is on silently: my mouth says "nah, it's okay, you can like/dislike whatever you want". My brain however doesn't always do that. I am getting better at telling myself that what somebody thinks of something that I like/don't like doesn't really have any affect on me at all, but sometimes it is there. But only if you're mean about it. Like I always say: like what you like, dislike what you dislike. Just don't be an ass about it.
Once upon a time (or up until this summer, if you would rather have a realistic timeframe), I used to review every single book that I read. Yep. All of them. Obviously I don't do that as much anymore, but when I did do this religiously, I would almost always end up with a buttload of really shoddily written reviews because there were some books where I just had nothing to say at all and the whole thing would have "I was totally indifferent" about five times in it. So yeah, really shouldn't review something unless I have a lot to say about it. That's the exact reason why I don't review movies as much as I used to.
Raise your hand if you've ever done this. *raises hand so high that it knocks out the ISS* Seriously, I should have a crown for being the queen of this bad habit. I constantly shame myself for not reading, and instead doing things like looking for naked man butts in The Tudors (i'm now into season 2 and i've only seen one, but that's okay because it's the only butt that matters to me. all the exciting stuff happens in the pilot episode anyway.) or being on Twitter or trying to find a good enough walkthrough for Arkham Origins because I'm a baby who can't play video games without my hand being held. Sometimes I just don't want to read. Is that a bad thing? Of course not, it's just that sometimes I feel like I really should be reading and I blame dark wizards for that.
For some reason, this is just how I read. Before I start reading, I very carefully look to see how many chapters are in a book (emphasis on carefully, no spoilers y'all) and then divide that by how many days I plan on reading that book for, and then I have the amount of chapters I'm going to read in one day. Why? It reminds me to read. Sounds crazy, but somehow it just works for me and doesn't actually determine whether I'll like a book or not. I will admit that when I was in a readathon and didn't mark out how much to read in a day, I read a lot more, but this is just the way I do things.
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Ohhhh boy. I am so, so, so guilty of this one. Most of the time it comes from just not knowing that a movie/TV show is based on a book - this happened to me with Dexter- and other times it comes from me just being really impatient - like how I watched the 1931 version of Frankenstein before reading the book, only to find out that the book and that particular movie adaptation have very few things in common. Or it could be a mixture of the two, like how I watched American Psycho before reading it because I 1) wanted to see Christian Bale being hot and doing murderous things, and 2) was actually too scared to read the book at that point in time because it is nasty. I'm getting better at quitting this habit, because I've been wanting to see Gone Girl since it came out last year, and I still haven't because I want to read the book first. See, progress!
Some people don't mind doing this, but when I do it, I can't help but feel like I'm being bad mannered and end up feeling guilty about it. I'm not a rude person, I swear! I just want to read my book. If I'm going to be completely honest (which i always am), this isn't my worst habit because I actually struggle to read if I'm around people who are likely to talk to me, compared to if I was sitting in a crowded area alone. If that makes sense. Basically, if nobody's going to talk to me, I can read. But if they are, my attention will be all over the place.
Just typing that out, I can hear my dad yelling at me for wasting the electricity. But then again, aren't everybody's parents like that? Obviously, leaving the TV on while I'm reading isn't good for our electricity bill, but again, this is another focus issue. My bedroom is very small. Like, extremely small. There isn't even enough room for me to comfortable lie on the floor and I'm 5'4". I read on my bed, but the lamp that I use while reading isn't at the same end that I sleep at. Yes, I do different things at opposite ends of my bed. My TV is next to my head while I'm asleep, so if I'm awake I go to the end of the bed to watch TV and read and such. Anyways, getting back to how I can't focus: if the TV is on while I'm reading, it's right in front of my face so I'll end up watching the TV anyway.
I like my books to be kept in a nice condition: who doesn't? But, because I don't have a desk in my room, sometimes I use my books and something to rest on while I'm writing or even *gasp* doing my nails. Yes, sometimes I put my books at risk of getting sticky, smelly nail polish on them, all in the name of beauty. I am starting to use my bedframe more these days because it's at a better level, but still, some of my books have very narrowly escaped having nail polish dripped onto them.
Okay, let's be real here: doesn't everybody do this? I'm a huge believer in retail therapy (a bit too huge actually, oops) so I'm constantly buying more and more books. But we all do that, so I guess this isn't really a bad habit?
These days, I'm kind of starting to hunt for more standalone books, or even duologies because I'm getting just a bit burnt out by series. Sometimes I don't finish a series because I wasn't too thrilled with the first book (Matched trilogy), sometimes I totally forget about it because I've been reading other things (Lux series), and then sometimes I look at the sheer amount of books in a series and go "nope" (The Morganville Vampires series). But yeah, series can be tough work sometimes, especially if you're not into marathoning them in one big sitting like I'm not.
Okay, the emphasis here is on silently: my mouth says "nah, it's okay, you can like/dislike whatever you want". My brain however doesn't always do that. I am getting better at telling myself that what somebody thinks of something that I like/don't like doesn't really have any affect on me at all, but sometimes it is there. But only if you're mean about it. Like I always say: like what you like, dislike what you dislike. Just don't be an ass about it.
Once upon a time (or up until this summer, if you would rather have a realistic timeframe), I used to review every single book that I read. Yep. All of them. Obviously I don't do that as much anymore, but when I did do this religiously, I would almost always end up with a buttload of really shoddily written reviews because there were some books where I just had nothing to say at all and the whole thing would have "I was totally indifferent" about five times in it. So yeah, really shouldn't review something unless I have a lot to say about it. That's the exact reason why I don't review movies as much as I used to.
Raise your hand if you've ever done this. *raises hand so high that it knocks out the ISS* Seriously, I should have a crown for being the queen of this bad habit. I constantly shame myself for not reading, and instead doing things like looking for naked man butts in The Tudors (i'm now into season 2 and i've only seen one, but that's okay because it's the only butt that matters to me. all the exciting stuff happens in the pilot episode anyway.) or being on Twitter or trying to find a good enough walkthrough for Arkham Origins because I'm a baby who can't play video games without my hand being held. Sometimes I just don't want to read. Is that a bad thing? Of course not, it's just that sometimes I feel like I really should be reading and I blame dark wizards for that.
What are some of your bad bookish habits?
How do you deal with them?
