SF commentator and author, Jo Walton, started this conversation over on Tor.com. Here’s my response to her question: How do you read?
My reading habits have definitely changed over the years and have been dictated to (at one time or another) by age, as well as where I’ve worked (for instance: I got a lot of reading done while I served six years in the British Women’s Royal Air Force).
As a kid of four, five and six, I was a full on gulper, I couldn’t get enough science fiction and was happily reading 5-6 full-length novels a week by the time I was 10-11 (as were all my siblings at the time). School didn’t slow me down either, in fact, I would say I found the capacity to read more because, by then, I had become a both a gulper and a sipper.
I sipped at every given moment, and yes, would fall asleep every night with a book in my hand. I continued gulping and sipping in various proportions throughout most of my working life and would carry if not one, then at least two books around with me wherever I went. But people look at you funny when you have a paperback book stuffed in either back pocket of your jeans!
Then? This year I bought myself an ipad and, oh my, not only have I been reading a lot more new material, but thanks to Jo Walton and her columns on Tor.com, I’m now rereading a whole slew of books from my past, especially Heinlein who I grew up on.
As a result of the iPad purchase my partner now refers to me as Roo and my iPad as Kanga, given it goes everywhere with me from bathroom to bedroom, kitchen to couch, train to bus, though I have yet to figure out how to take it into the shower? Any pointers?
My only grumble? Please, everyone, make more ebook versions available!
So, what are you, a gulper, a sipper, or a little of both?
