Happy Tuesday friends, and welcome to another really old tag! #KaleenaIsASlacker2k18 Many thanks to the lovely Kelly @ Just Another Book in the Wall for tagging me in the Bad Reading Habits Tag three months ago! If you aren’t already following Kelly, you’re missing out and need to go visit her immediately! She writes amazing reviews and discussion posts, and is an absolute doll.
I am not sure who the original creator of this tag is, and there don’t seem to be any rules other than sharing a few of your bad reading habits. Easy, right?! Here are just a few that might make you clutch your books to your chest in abject horror!
1. Judging a book by its cover
We all know that adage to not judge a book by its cover, but let’s be honest for a minute here: a cover is there to give you a quick representation of what the book is about, entice you to pick it up, and read the synopsis. With so many books being published every year it would be impossible to read the blurbs of every book that is in our preferred genres. This is what I tell myself so I can sleep at night. If a book’s cover doesn’t intrigue me, I won’t read the synopsis or reviews to see if it is for me (unless it is by a known and loved author of mine).
A good example of this is the book Sadie by Courtney Summers. The cover and title honestly made it look like a teen coming-of-age contemporary, so I never gave it the time of day until about the fiftieth review of it showed up on my reader (from a blogger that doesn’t read contemporary) and I saw what it actually was about. Oops. I am reading it now and I would definitely have missed out!
2. Buying more books than I have the time to read and hoarding them for all time
I think this is probably a problem that book bloggers and dragons all share and can relate to. I cannot say no to a sale, especially an eBook deal! I feel like my book buying and hoarding has been exacerbated in the last few months, especially with my discovery of Book Outlet, but I have literally read zero of these books that I have hauled. ZERO. I have actual towers of books that are beckoning me. Why am I like this?!
3. I dog-ear my books even though I have tons of bookmarks, receipts, and bills at my fingertips
Honestly, I am not of the mind that books need to be kept in pristine condition. I write notes in books and consider it my way of conversing with the author as I read, so really what is a little dog-ear on the corner compared to my writing my thoughts in the margins?
4. Book bingeing and ignoring my TBR
I don’t keep a strict TBR because I am a mood reader, but I think this ties in well with #2. I keep buying books and not reading them… and then decide to re-read a series I have read about 4 times already instead of any of those new books waiting to be loved.
5. Skimming over boring sections of books (I rarely dnf but won’t read every word in a book I don’t like)
I don’t really think this is a bad habit to be honest, but I definitely am super guilty of skimming pages and chapters of books when I am just not engaged. I rarely DNF because I usually am interested enough to want to see 1) if it gets better and 2) what happens at the end, but I’ll be damned if I am going to read pages of boring descriptions or dialog that doesn’t advance the plot, or gratuitous fight scenes that I could care less about.
So that’s it, five of my “bad” book habits! What about you: what are some of your bad habits, and do we have any in common? I’d love to see your responses in the comments below!
I Tag: Destiny | Beth | Bibi | Kat | Mo | Tanaz | & YOU if you want!
No pressure to do this tag if you don’t want to, but I’d love to see some of your bad reading habits!
Let’s go on another adventure together!
I also dog ear pages! I know it’s bad but sometimes I just don’t have a bookmark with me!
Yay I am glad to not be the only dog-earer!
Nope, I’m ALWAYS doing it!
Great post, Kaleena! I do all of these except dog ear! I probably would do that habit tbh, but I read mostly ebooks. 😂
Hahahaha yea it is tough to dog-ear eBooks. Thanks for tagging me for this one, Kelly… it was fun!
I’m defo guilty of hoarding 😀 :/ Been like that since forever. Haha.
Covers are important, and i do judge the books based on it. Busted… they can be pretty misleading, like you said.
My hoarding has gotten out of CONTROL the past two months or so.
Glad I am not the only one that judges covers. I mean, they are a marketing tool!
Oh this is a fun tag, I really love it! 🙂 I’m doing my best not to do it too often, but I’m also judging books by their covers, I guess it’s something we can’t really help 😂😂 I think I’m pretty good at not hoarding too many books though – I just hate seeing books unread on my pile so, even if I do always buy more books when I still have some to read, it’s… reasonable? I won’t buy 10 books when I still have 10 books to read, for instance, I might get just one 😂😂
I really could take your lead on the book hoarding… because I literally just hauled 13 books form Book Outlet and I have dozens of books I haven’t read yet. Why am I like this?! 😂
Wow hahahaha, well…. I don’t know, but at least you have tons of books to choose from? 😛
Oh man, I relate to so much of this. Okay, first of all, I literally snorted when you mentioned Sadie, because I did the EXACT same thing. I scrolled right past it and I literally didn’t have any interest in it whatsoever until Jay Kristoff tweeted about how much he loved it, and I was like, “wait, okay, let me look into this…” And I freaking loved it.
As far as #2 and #5, well… just @ me next time, why don’t you 😡
Thank you for tagging me! I hadn’t checked my notifications yet to see the tag and I was going through this thinking, “Oh, this is too much fun, I really hope she tagged me” so YAY 😂💖
OH MY GOD I AM SO GLAD I AM NOT ALONE ON SADIE’S COVER! Like I feel like such a boob for not giving it the time of day for ages, but seriously. It looks like something completely different.
I can’t wait to see your bad habits!
#2 I do and I desperately try to not do but I’m beginning to think I have problems and #5 I also do but I’m the same as you and don’t think of it as a bad habit as such. Sometimes even great books have some slow portions and I don’t have infinite time so I do what I must!
oh I definitely have come to terms with the fact that I have a hoarding problem… It’s BAD! I need a support group!
Hoarding is my number one issue. I have like 7 book shelves full of books I haven’t read. I know, I know, I have book problems. I need a book therapist 😉
OMG you make me feel so much better about my hoarding! I realized I almost have 1 shelf of unread books… but it could definitely be worse. 😂
Yes, believe me. It could be 7 shelves worse hehe
OMG! But at least you have a budding lilbrary???
Judging books. Book hoarding. I am so there with you!
We need a support group!
I’m a hoarder too! We should start a support group lol!
YAAAASSS!
True and true, I agree with all of them except for dog earing the pages. I skimmed through boring books too because I feel bad for DNF-ing books!
I also feel guilty for DNFing for some reason, but def not for skimming!
Oh I think we are all guilty of judging a book by its cover to some extent! And I also agree with you about hoarding books but hey we are book bloggers so I guess it’s allowed? 😀
Too true, I definitely think we all judge a book by its cover… after all, that’s what it is for! I really need to sort out the hoarding problem, I found a copy of Grapes of Wrath on my shelves… and I HATED THAT BOOK and never even finished it 17 years ago when I was in high school. WHY AM I LIKE THIS!?!?!
Ah but in a way it’s good to go back to books you couldn’t finish before. Our reading preferences change as we develop as readers so you may find that you like it now 🙂 Although yes, if you decide that you don’t like it then one more book to hoard which is not always great when you have so many others TBR!
I’m guilty of ignoring my TBR and buying books that I don’t end up reading, and I also skim quite a bit (but I don’t consider that a bad reading habit, more like an efficient one!). I’ve been trying to break out of the judging-books-by-their-cover habit and sometimes I can be really good about it … but other times, well, what can I say, I like pretty things! A book reading habit I have is that I read multiple books at a time; I always have at least 2 books that I’m reading at any given moment.
I am honestly so envious of people that can read multiple books at a time! For me it winds up being that I am not in the mood for Book A so I set it aside and pick up something else and finish that. Rinse and repeat until I feel like returning to Book A.
Hahaha I honestly just have so many books to read in so many different formats that I end up reading multiple ones. When I’m commuting or walking, I listen to an audiobook. When I’m at home relaxing (which is getting less frequent), it’s a physical book. Late at night when I cant sleep, I go and read an ebook. That’s really how I manage to read multiple books. The rinse and repeat method is a classic!
AHA that makes sense! And might be doable…
LISTEN KAL. I HAVE A YEAR OLD TAG THAT HASN’T BEEN DONE YET. If anyone’s been slacking, it’s ME.
I’ve been trying to skim through boring sections of the book rather than DNFing to get my reading speed up, haha. Plus with my internship and blog tours to do, I’m super snappy and quick… Even though I’m failing and continuing regardless. 😳
SLACKERRRRRR!!!
Skimming definitely saves me and I am glad uni taught me that if nothing else, haha. You can do it, Soph!
This is an outstanding post. With the exceptions of #3 and #5 which are indeed bad reading habits, the other three are just, reading habits 🙂
You asked, so here are mine.
1. Judging a book by its cover
“With so many books being published every year it would be impossible to read the blurbs of every book that is in our preferred genres.”
I don’t think this is a bad habit, but more of a necessity for the reason I quoted above. If a book wants to stand out, the cover better be something special, bad-ass or gorgeous.
Yes, this can backfire as was the case with The English Wife by Lauren Willig. Straight from my review…
“I won’t lie to you… I picked this up mostly based on the gorgeous cover. And by mostly I mean over 90%. The author being a New York Times Bestselling Author helped a little, but the cover grabbed and held on to me until I screamed Uncle! Sadly, the only thing I love about this book is the cover. I didn’t go in with any expectations but when I finished, I was left with a feeling of wanting more than what I received.”
Consciously I didn’t have high expectation but subconsciously I think they were through the roof.
2. Buying more books than I have the time to read and hoarding them for all time
I’m including this one because it’s in your post but I’m not seeing a problem here 😛
4. Book bingeing and ignoring my TBR
I too am a mood reader so I have recently decided to do away with a strict TBR.
I published my TBR for August on my blog in hopes that it would help hold me accountable, but all it did was raise my anxiety level. Getting through the TBR, which consisted of eight stories which I really wanted to read, now felt like a chore. I ended up reading two in August, one in September and one this month. Two of the books I read were added at the end of June and the other two were added in August. Of the four that I didn’t read, all have been on my TBR for over a year. I used to feel guilty for having books on my TBR for so long (some since July 2014), but choosing to read recommendations or buddy reads with a group. This is no longer the case. No more strict TBR, no more guilt.
I’ve said this before but it truer now more than ever for me – my poor TBR is nothing more than a wishlist… a way to keep track of books that at one point in time intrigued me and may again in the future.
Have An Amazing Day, Kaleena!
Thank you for normalizing most of my “bad” reading habits, Victor! I totally feel you on the anxiety induced from having a strict TBR, I think I am going to try to eliminate the guilt as much as possible because it will make me much happier overall and will probably help with slumps! Thanks so much for sharing your thoughts!!!
I have a problem with hoarding Kindle reads! All those 99 cent deals are my weakness. I let go of a book if I can’t read it. I tried skimming but then I get so guilty about it!
no guilt with skimming!!! oh man and 99 cent kindle deals.. I had to start deleting those emails because it was starting to stress me out.
I know I shouldn’t, but I judge a book by its cover. If the cover isn’t appealing, I probably won’t pick up the book – as you wrote, the cover represents the book and if the cover seems messy and boring, I feel the story will be also messy and boring (even if it isn’t).
Tânia @MyLovelySecret
I am glad that I am not the only one to feel this way about covers… I feel bad about it but I can’t help it! Thanks for stopping by!
Oh gosh, I totally judge a book by its cover too! I’m just such a visual person and it’s a problem sometime, because I’ve read a plenty of books with beautiful covers that didn’t work for me. Anyways, thanks for a lovely post and for the tag! 🙂
I am so glad I am not alone in this!!!