By far the biggest source of books in my life is from the library, as ephemeral their stay in my house seems to be. I love stocking up on books from the library, they're always kept in far better condition than my books, lol. I love borrowing from my friends or my mother, for their books are always better kept than mine plus they're more recent than mine (I usually don't buy books unless they're second hand, I'm a total cheapass, lol) so it's good to borrow from them. Fun fact: my copy of Gone with the Wind was on loan from a friend. When she gave it to me, it was a PERFECT book. Perfect spine, cover, everything. The cover has since been accidentally torn off, the spine is in tatters and I'm missing about 19 pages of the first chapter. Plus, I may or may not have dropped it in the toilet while reading it. I haven't even finished reading it yet! She's still wondering why I haven't given it back to her, but I don't think she'll be very happy with me just when she finds out why I'm not giving it back go her. I'm sorry, Faye!
Anyway, my library cards (that's right, plural, suck it) are usually maxed out to their absolute limit and it's not uncommon to see me lugging multitudes of books onto the bus to read on the way home. Which comes to the next part of your question, I guess. I can read anything on buses and trains, but cars and planes? Nope. Bye. No way in hell. I get sick and I've vomited in those particular modes of transport more than I care to imagine. It's not a pretty sight, to say the least.
It doesn't take me very long to finish a book. In my youth, I powered through the final Harry Potter book (the name of, to my horror, I cannot remember right now) in just one day. Dedication! I tend to power through them in a matter of a week, two at max, regardless of length. For example, the latest Katharine Hepburn biography I've read (I've read many in my time) was about 500 pages long, not counting the acknowledgments and whatever. That took me a week to finish, though I could have done it earlier had I had a two hour period to power through the majority of the book. So, in short, it doesn't take me long at all to read a book.
How many books have I read this year? ****, too many. Probably about 50? Even though I'm busy at work, I often have a lot of spare time waiting for customers or for paperwork to magically flutter into my office so instead of socializing with the crew like any other normal person, I read to my hearts content. It doesn't bother me that the other employees think I'm the ultra bookworm with no social skills, because despite what they think I know, I know all that they think of me. But, anyway, back to the thread at hand.
I always read the latest issue of TIME, plus I go on CNN regularly, even if the majority of my visits there are to check if some celebrity has died or to see how Egypt is going. Although I read the New Zealand Herald regularly, I tend to not trust what they put in the paper, for the paper is far too biased and conveniently forgetful for my tastes. I also happen to read 748292929384884838292928384747483829291918282723736373738181928373737374747373738382828282737373747373728282 gossip magazines/tabloids every day, particularly ones involving Jennifer Aniston, so it's fair to say I read a fair amount of everything, lol.
What sort of a reader am I?
I'll tell you, I'll make it short and sweet.
Vivid, baby. Vivid. I'm a vivid reader.
Now here we are, the focus point of the thread! Here we go!
I do not believe reading is a lost art, no. If you've read all the way down to here, which is a commendable effort, then clearly that shows it is not a lost art in the physical sense of the word, correct? Besides, if I didn't read so often, would I have developed the skills to write such a post?
Reading is by no means a lost art, we're just simply occupying our time in different ways. Like, I'm not saying we've stopped reading, but in the 21st century, we have so much technology to grasp our attention, so much to distract us from reading books. But make no mistake, we're still reading, because chances are whatever you're doing still has text for your brain to analyze, therefore, you are reading!
