Are You A Reader?
Booking Through Thursday provides weekly prompts on book related topics. This week's topic is "Definition."
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A reader is any person who always has an answer to the question "What are you reading now?"
More often then not, a reader will tell you what book they just finished, what they are in the middle of, and what they plan to read next. (Key Lime Pie Murder by Joanne Fluke, Fire and Ice by Anne Stewart, and I've got a stack of romance novels borrowed from Kate to dig into next.)
What this means is that folks who read a handful of books a year with plenty of time, weeks or months (gasp), in between finishing one book and beginning another. Those are what I call "people who read books." While they trump "people who don't read books" in my level of understanding, they are not "readers." In the same group are those who read only best sellers or only one author.
Readers are slightly obsessive. There is a word for compulsive writing (hypergraphia), but there should be a word for compulsive reading, too. I only buy purses large enough to hold a paperback, but prefer them to hold a hardcover. I read in bathrooms daily.
I got to work with at least two books: the one I'm reading, plus a spare. If I'm not sure I'm going to like my spare book, I throw in a book I adore just in case. Too be stuck without anything to read is a nightmare.
Yep. I'm a reader by any definition. What about you?
I'm quite a bit more lax on the definition of reader. And I definitely wouldn't count out people who read bestsellers/only one author. It's just a preference, and even if you and I think the books are horrible and in bad taste, they're still reading.
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For me it's the same as the term "gamer." A person who plays video/computer games is not automatically a gamer. It's about the level to which you are dedicated.
By the way, I encourage all reading even while knowing most people aren't going to let it overtake their lives. We, the readers, are the abnormal ones.
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I like the definition you give: that a reader is ready to answer the question, "What are you reading now?"
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For me it's the same as the term "gamer." A person who plays video/computer games is not automatically a gamer. It's about the level to which you are dedicated.
By the way, I encourage all reading even while knowing most people aren't going to let it overtake their lives. We, the readers, are the abnormal ones.
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Awhhh I'm not a reader. I'm an occasional reader, kinda like an occasional smoker but a lot less addicted. hahahaha Congrats on being a reader!
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Occasional reading is much better than no reading at all. And occasional readers usually get much more done around the house then those of us who read like a second job.
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