sawyl | Obsessive reading explored (Reply)

Jo Walton has an interesting post over on Tor about obsessive reading:

I read in cafes and tea houses. I don’t think of this as going there especially to read, any more than I think of going there to breathe. I will be reading and breathing while I am there drinking tea, that goes without saying. I won’t read if I’m there with somebody else, or if I’m having a meal with somebody else. But if it’s just me, or if you’re meeting me, you’ll find me inside the book—and if I’m there with you, I’ll get my book out for the two minutes while you’re in the bathroom.

Which is rather how I read. I always have at least one book (usually two, just in case I run out) so that I don't miss a moment.

I'm not quite as obsessive as Peter Saward in Iris Murdoch's The Flight from the Enchanter, who is so determined not to waste time that "he would read a book while he ate his meals and even while he was shaving, with the result that he was usually as covered in scars as a Sicilian bandit." But, to be fair, I seem to remember that much of Saward's sense of urgency comes from the TB that is slowly killing him and his frantic desire to finish decrypting a system of hieroglyphics before he dies, and perhaps if I were in his place I might consider sacrificing a pound flesh in exchange for an extra thousand words every morning...