Musing: books - Fifteen Things About Me, Books And Reading
Since this meme looks fun and all... I give you, fifteen things about me, books and reading. :D
1. It took me a long time to learn to read. It just never interested me until I was about seven. And then the Cat and Mouse books were a godsend for my parents. They featured such story lines as Cat and Mouse going to the moon and meeting chunks of living rock. Once I read those, I was hooked.
2. Two years after I learned to read, I was reading my mum's books. She picked 'em carefully, of course: anything with too much sex or whatever in it, she'd save for a bit later. But most of the time, she'd read a book and then pass it on to me.
3. My school did a test, relatively often, measuring each pupil's reading age, from 6-16, or something like that. From the age of eight or so, I was off the scale.
4. The librarians never, ever believed it, but I was capable of taking out eight books, carrying them home, reading every single word on every single page, and then going back there the next day to trade them for more. Sometimes, the librarians would test me on it, saying they wouldn't let me have new books if I didn't pass their tests. I always did, of course, to their great surprise.
5. I have a huge active vocabulary (and presumably a large passive one, as well). However, most of it is made up of words I've read but not heard spoken, so my pronunciation is all over the place. For example, for a long time I was convinced that "island" was said "is-land". I blame Squirrel Nutkin for that one.
6. I'm naturally short sighted, but I'm pretty sure the major deterioration in my sight came from the fact that I would read, in my bed at night, by whatever light I could come by. If parents were on the prowl, I'd have to open my curtains and use my neighbour's security light. I have no idea how I did it, but I once read the Hobbit in its entirety by the light of the street lamps in the next street over.
7. When I was little, I could read up to twenty books at a time and never get confused about the plots. I like to think they were simpler, then -- nowadays, I can only manage two or three at a time before I start neglecting one or forgetting where I am in the books.
8. I used to keep books in my bed. Seven or eight. This was to aid in the illicit book reading after lights out. It used to drive my babysitter crazy when she had to change my bed, and it drove my mum up the wall because books would disappear up there and seemingly never return. Sometimes, I'd even hide them in the pillow case.
9. When I'm reading, I'm quite particular about where I can stop reading. It has to be the end of the paragraph, and preferably the end of the chapter. I can't stop halfway through a page: I either have to go back to the beginning of the page when I start reading again, or not stop reading until I've reached the next page.
10. I'm almost incapable of classifying books. Mum always asks me, "yes, but what else is it like?". To me, though, all books are new worlds of their own and I find it very hard to say that one author's style and universe is like any other's. The best I can do is specify the genre -- and even sometimes then I struggle.
11. I am very neurotic about spines and the bending thereof. If a book's spine is visibly bent, it has to be bent throughout, not just one or two lines. Some books I automatically try to keep pristine. For example, Robin Hobb's books all have their spines bent by me, as do Susan Cooper's, but Tad Williams'? Never. It follows no known pattern, and it makes me very reluctant to lend books to anyone. Especially my mum, who is a notorious spine bender.
12. I have sixty or more books that I have and haven't read yet. It's a very rare thing for me to go shopping and not buy new books. Forget clothes, books are where it's at.
13. When I'm into a book, I read non-stop. In school, I used to read in every single spare minute I had. Before registration, when the teacher was late, during lessons when I'd done the work, at break, when I was walking between lessons...
14. I like to whisper the words to myself as I'm reading. Partly, I think it's that I absorb what I'm reading more completely, because I'm reading more slowly. Partly, I just like the -- I know this makes no sense -- taste of the words. One of my favourite words to stay is "steps". In fact, I'm fond of most words with s and t and p. "Swept" is another one.
15. I have a bunk bed, and there's a sofa pushed into the space below it. One of my favourite things in the world to do, when I was little, was pick a pile of books, four or five of them, and then hang the duvet down from the side of my bed and sit on the sofa behind it. I was usually a prisoner on a pirate ship at that point, and whenever my eyes started to hurt from reading too much, I'd "go up on deck for air". I used to happily spend whole days like that.
1. It took me a long time to learn to read. It just never interested me until I was about seven. And then the Cat and Mouse books were a godsend for my parents. They featured such story lines as Cat and Mouse going to the moon and meeting chunks of living rock. Once I read those, I was hooked.
2. Two years after I learned to read, I was reading my mum's books. She picked 'em carefully, of course: anything with too much sex or whatever in it, she'd save for a bit later. But most of the time, she'd read a book and then pass it on to me.
3. My school did a test, relatively often, measuring each pupil's reading age, from 6-16, or something like that. From the age of eight or so, I was off the scale.
4. The librarians never, ever believed it, but I was capable of taking out eight books, carrying them home, reading every single word on every single page, and then going back there the next day to trade them for more. Sometimes, the librarians would test me on it, saying they wouldn't let me have new books if I didn't pass their tests. I always did, of course, to their great surprise.
5. I have a huge active vocabulary (and presumably a large passive one, as well). However, most of it is made up of words I've read but not heard spoken, so my pronunciation is all over the place. For example, for a long time I was convinced that "island" was said "is-land". I blame Squirrel Nutkin for that one.
6. I'm naturally short sighted, but I'm pretty sure the major deterioration in my sight came from the fact that I would read, in my bed at night, by whatever light I could come by. If parents were on the prowl, I'd have to open my curtains and use my neighbour's security light. I have no idea how I did it, but I once read the Hobbit in its entirety by the light of the street lamps in the next street over.
7. When I was little, I could read up to twenty books at a time and never get confused about the plots. I like to think they were simpler, then -- nowadays, I can only manage two or three at a time before I start neglecting one or forgetting where I am in the books.
8. I used to keep books in my bed. Seven or eight. This was to aid in the illicit book reading after lights out. It used to drive my babysitter crazy when she had to change my bed, and it drove my mum up the wall because books would disappear up there and seemingly never return. Sometimes, I'd even hide them in the pillow case.
9. When I'm reading, I'm quite particular about where I can stop reading. It has to be the end of the paragraph, and preferably the end of the chapter. I can't stop halfway through a page: I either have to go back to the beginning of the page when I start reading again, or not stop reading until I've reached the next page.
10. I'm almost incapable of classifying books. Mum always asks me, "yes, but what else is it like?". To me, though, all books are new worlds of their own and I find it very hard to say that one author's style and universe is like any other's. The best I can do is specify the genre -- and even sometimes then I struggle.
11. I am very neurotic about spines and the bending thereof. If a book's spine is visibly bent, it has to be bent throughout, not just one or two lines. Some books I automatically try to keep pristine. For example, Robin Hobb's books all have their spines bent by me, as do Susan Cooper's, but Tad Williams'? Never. It follows no known pattern, and it makes me very reluctant to lend books to anyone. Especially my mum, who is a notorious spine bender.
12. I have sixty or more books that I have and haven't read yet. It's a very rare thing for me to go shopping and not buy new books. Forget clothes, books are where it's at.
13. When I'm into a book, I read non-stop. In school, I used to read in every single spare minute I had. Before registration, when the teacher was late, during lessons when I'd done the work, at break, when I was walking between lessons...
14. I like to whisper the words to myself as I'm reading. Partly, I think it's that I absorb what I'm reading more completely, because I'm reading more slowly. Partly, I just like the -- I know this makes no sense -- taste of the words. One of my favourite words to stay is "steps". In fact, I'm fond of most words with s and t and p. "Swept" is another one.
15. I have a bunk bed, and there's a sofa pushed into the space below it. One of my favourite things in the world to do, when I was little, was pick a pile of books, four or five of them, and then hang the duvet down from the side of my bed and sit on the sofa behind it. I was usually a prisoner on a pirate ship at that point, and whenever my eyes started to hurt from reading too much, I'd "go up on deck for air". I used to happily spend whole days like that.