Investigated – What do you do while you read?

Posted March 31, 2014 by Emily in Investigated / 16 Comments

investigated

A lot of people have different reading habits and do different things while they read. Some people listen to music. Some eat. Others just read. So today, I want to know, what do you do while you read.

Music
Honestly, this one depends for me. I won’t purposely turn on music while I read, but I won’t go and turn it off if it’s already playing. Music doesn’t really bother me – I’ve grown very used to tuning things out while I read, just ask my mom. But sometimes, music does help to set the mood for the book, especially if I’m listening to one of those playlists that the author herself / himself created.

Eating and Drinking
This one is usually a NO for me (unless I’m in a rush or really, really bored). I learned from past experience that if you want to eat while you read, especially if you’re eating something with sauce or soup. Unless you want to feed your book your snack or meal also, eating while reading is not a good idea. That goes for drinking too. Well, water is okay. But a glass of orange juice. Umm, no thanks. Trust me, I have a book that still smells like oranges (and it’s pages are stuck together) because I’m clumsy and very prone to spilling things…

Take notes
This one is another no. Unless it’s homework for school… When I read for pleasure, I usually become a plot junkie and read for the story, not necessary for the literary devices within the novel or to speculate why the author decided to write a certain way. So…

Exercise
Personally, I don’t do this either. But my brother is known to read while on running on the treadmill, which I think is a horrible idea, but he’s well him. Anyways I have tried to do squats and leg lifts while reading. Those lasted for like five minutes. After a while, I get to engrossed in the book to realize squats don’t involve actually sitting on the floor…

What do you do while you read?

Emily

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16 responses to “Investigated – What do you do while you read?

  1. I don’t listen to music while reading most of the time. Maybe I’ve done it once or twice, but it was probably classical/instrumental music. As for food, sometimes I’ll eat chips or cookies or Chex Mix or similar foods. Sometimes I’ll read a bit when I’m eating dinner at home, but I’ll usually use my tablet, so I can wipe off anything that might get on it. I definitely can’t exercise and read at the same time. And I sometimes take notes while reading, but it’ll just be general ideas and/or quotes (my note-taking strategy changes way too often). For example, right now, I’ll jot down things that I either love or that bother me about what I’m reading, and then I’ll jot down my general impression of the book once I’m done. It helps me when I’m reviewing because I’m terrible at remembering that kind of stuff.

    • Taking notes while reading to help review is really smart! Maybe I should start doing that… lol, we’ll see how long that’ll last. Thanks for stopping by! 🙂

  2. Music is a no for me while reading. Usually, it’ll distract me and I’ll get confused about what I’m reading! As for eating–well, I’m guilty of that, haha! I usually like to chew while I read, mostly marshmallows or gummy bears. The occasional chocolate. I don’t really take notes while reading, but I love leaving sticky notes on my favorite quotes so I can find them again next time or to add them to a review. I read while walking around the house or the mall–does that count as exercise? XD

    Aimee @ Deadly Darlings

    • I think reading and walking, anywhere, is exercise enough. It’s multitasking – you have to walk, read, and make sure you don’t bang into something like a wall or a person and fall down a set of stairs (not fun) at the same time. Thanks for stopping by! 🙂

  3. In the past few months I have started to read and drink while I read. It’s impossible with a physical book though, so I just sit my kindle and whatever I’m eating in front of me and just click the next page button. Makes life very easy. Though I do have to clean the screen off pretty often >__< Though a lot of the time I just read without distractions. Especially with physical books.

  4. I don’t mind a bit of ‘background noise’, though I wouldn’t deliberately put music on. Eating/drinking – no, you are right there. I do make notes actually, but mostly only for books which I receives specifically for review. Exercise – tried it, didn’t work for me. On the running machine, with my head kind of bobbing up and down, it kept losing my place 🙂

  5. I listen to audiobooks when I’m running, but I can’t read an actual book on the treadmill when the weather doesn’t allow me to run outside. I just listen to my audiobook. Music is distracting and annoying, but the TV is not. It’s usually just a news channel though, nothing with a storyline I have to follow. I eat breakfast alone, so I read while I eat it. That’s really the only time I eat or drink when I’m reading, though. When I eat away from the table, I have to fight off cats who think they want to eat too. I can’t eat, distract cats, and read at the same time.

    • Music. I love listening to music when I read. It’s a habit I developed at a young age. I remember going on a school trip with my walkman and one of my Trixie Belden books. I was laying on my sleeping bag, reading and had my music cranked. One of the teachers walked by and was amazed I could read and listen to music at the same time.

      Jenna, I hadn’t thought to listen to audiobooks while working out. I would like to start walking more once it warms up, perhaps I’ll give that a shot!

    • Listening to a book while I’m running makes the time go by faster, and sometimes I keep going just so I can listen longer. I hope it works for you.

  6. I love reading when I’m eating. I almost always do this. I also take notes while reading. I mainly read ebooks and it’s really easy to type notes and highlight. And I read while exercising as well. I will read when I’m walking, whether it be outside or on the treadmill.

    I cannot listen to music while I’m reading. I don’t want music on. It’s too distracting for me.

  7. I’ve read while exercising – usually audio books. It works well. In fact, with audio books, I usually drive while reading. I read on my lunch break, so I do eat while I read. But if there’s music or TV on I find it distracting. Fun topic 🙂

  8. Note: I had to delete above because I had typed too fast and left a coupla typos in it…the English teacher in me won’t allow me to leave my words anywhere if they’re not ungrammatically correct! You’d think I’d know to proofread!
    I can’t listen to music and concentrate on reading at the same time. Occasionally I will use my I-Pod while I’m eating lunch at work and trying to read, if there’re too many distracting noises around, but it has to be classical music. If there are words, I want to sing along and that is way too distracting!
    When I’m reading I often jot notes into the margins of paperbacks. I consider it “talking back to the author”, but I do this the most with non-fiction. I was thrilled to be reading a book I’d given to my late father years earlier, and I found a couple of notes he’d jotted to himself while reading. It made me feel like he was sitting and reading with me, telling me what the page had made him think about. That felt good.

    • That’s totally okay. I know how you feel. I always feel bad when I publish a comment and then realize I make a mistake. Thanks for stopping by! 🙂

  9. Uhh.. I usually just sit there 🙂 I can’t have music playing or TV because I get to distracted. I might eat, but only like finger foods like pretzels. Exercising and reading at the same time is like impossible. impossible!!