The Sword and Laser discussion

Are you a book-binger? It struck me I may have a book-binging problem when I read the book club's recent selection, The Hunger Games, in about 5 hours on a Sunday. I downloaded the book around 10 and by 3 I was reflecting on what an interesting story that was. Then I thought back to reading the entire "A Song of Fire and Ice" series (so far) in the space of about a month on weekends and the 1st three books of "The Last Chronicles of Thomas Covenant" in about 5 days. I may have even called in sick. It's all a blur. Do you pick up a new book and not stop until it's done? Do you do the same thing with audio books? How do you moderate your book reading time, especially when it's a really good story?(I read Daemon and Freedom TM back to back in 2 days)

I tend to be the same way when it comes to books/series I really enjoy.

When The Wise Man's Fear came out and I got a hold of my copy, I read that almost non-stop. When I first started the Dresden Files, I got through book 1 all the way up to Changes in the span of about a week and a half. Did the same thing with Simon R. Greens Nightside series too.

I can't help it, when I find a book/series I enjoy I devour them.

Yup. I can sit for a weekend with a good book a read it cover to cover. Especially if it's winter and snowing outside :)

Nothing like a good book binge weekend!

I do that with certain books like the Dresden Files or The Wheel of Times, when I new one comes out. Once I get a copy I carry it around everywhere I go.

Boy I can't agree enough on that....can even think of how many times I have got only 4 hours of sleep because I read until 3 or 4 in the morning...

Kris wrote: "Boy I can't agree enough on that....can even think of how many times I have got only 4 hours of sleep because I read until 3 or 4 in the morning..."

I'm doing a lecture next monday. It's only half done because I've been avidly reading A Storm of Swords. This kinda things tend to happen quite a bit with me!

shhh .. I'm reading ..

I too am a binger but I don't read as fast as you all seem to. :) Heck, I've been reading A Storm of Swords all day. I listened to it at the gym, then read a bit while at home, went back out again and listened more, and when I got home, it was back to the Kindle version.

Of course, right now I'm watching How to Train Your Dragon, so no reading! ;)

terpkristin wrote: "I too am a binger but I don't read as fast as you all seem to. :) Heck, I've been reading A Storm of Swords all day. I listened to it at the gym, then read a bit while at home, went ba..."

How do you keep it straight between the audio and print/e-book version?

Matt wrote: "How do you keep it straight between the audio and print/e-book version?"

Manually. I've been doing this for awhile and I've realized that each chapter is ABOUT 45 minutes, so usually I'll high-speed scrub to the point I think I'm at, give it a listen, then adjust in 5 minute increments and hone in. Works well enough for me, though it's not for everyone, I know.

Manually. I've been doing this for awhile and I've realized that each chapter is ABOUT 45 minutes, so usually..."

I'm doing this with The Name of the Wind right now and I love it. I mostly listen to it, but I ended up buying the hardcover since I was loving the story so much that I wanted to read as well. It's very easy to keep track of, honestly.

I binge on reading a lot too, which means more than a couple hours a day for me, but it takes me a while to finish most books too, so I need to binge if I'm going to crank out a book a week or every other week.

I binged with the last one in the Harry Potter series - at the time I was between jobs and I remember staying up all night to finish it. Now I'm reading "A Storm of Swords" every time I can pick it up. But daily life gets in the way so I read during my commutes, coffee breaks, at lunch, before bed, standing in lines, whenever. Since my eyesight has been getting worse, having my iPad (with some good books on it) makes it a joy to read again.

My wife definitely is a book-binger. She'll read a book in a few hours and then start over reading it again and again over the next few days, often just hitting the good parts.

I've been known to do that, but not so much anymore due a combination of not having the time, and wanting to prolong the enjoyment of the book. I get to the end in a few hours, and then I'm disappointed it's over and WANT MOAR!

I am a rather quick reader and can turn into a book binger. What I never do, though, is skip pages to get to the end. My wife does that, and for some reasons it drives me mad, as though I am feeling that a book needs to be read in its entirety. Any one has the same feeling?

I am a binger. The first book I can remember binging on was The Hobbit. We had a heavy snow storm the day after Christmas and I was allowed to read curled up on my bed undisturbed until I had finished it. I guess I was always a pretty fast reader.

I was going to say that I don't binge on books, I just read insane amounts in the first place, but I realized that I also binge. I read a lot in general, but I go through periods (sometimes by mood, sometimes when I have a lot of library books coming due at the same time) when I read almost constantly for some number of days straight. And since I'm currently unemployed, that makes for quite a bit of reading. ^_^;

And, of course, when I find a book/series that really sucks me in, I binge even harder.

I always tended to be a prolific reader, it didn't turn into binging until after I lost my sight. These days things are pretty horrendous, Lisa Shearin's series was a recent victim which led me to demolish the whole elemental assassin series next. As a lot of my reading is done via itunes i'm often a victim of their recommendation system, that and my poor impulse control when it comes to books.

Same here... but now its with audio books. as my life has become busier, I cant afford to "just" read, i need to be productive 24/7 so I listen to audio books, almost all day long. This is nice, since I can work and listen at the same time (sometimes I need to pause it, or my web sites end up having content from books! LOL). Anyways, I know what you mean!

I read this headline wrong when I first saw it and thought someone was wanting to know how many people were using the Microsoft search engine to look for books.

Nick wrote: "I read this headline wrong when I first saw it and thought someone was wanting to know how many people were using the Microsoft search engine to look for books."
HAHAHAH

whats the secreat to reading faster? I can only finish 2 chapters a night. My mind wanders a lot with images on my mind when reading a book and it makes my reading slow.

I don't think I'm a book binger, I just read a lot and fast. My biggest problem is that I always want to finish a book because the next one sounds awesome, too. Sometimes though I will be totally absorbed in a book and then I find it nearly impossible to put it down as well. The last time I had that was actually with The Hunger Games and I finished that in three days or so - could have probably done it in one day if I had nothing else to do.

Before I had kids, I would motor through books. Now I'm forced to take a break, primarily since most of what I read isn't appropriate yet for the kids. A 2 and 5 yo just aren't quite the right demographic for Game of Thrones. yet. I'll get them there though.

But if it's really engrossing The Hunger Games anyone? I just can't put it down. I devoured those books. The woman at our bookstore laughed at me because I walked in three days in a row because I couldn't stand to wait to see what happened. I barricaded myself in the bathroom at home and read while I was walking to my car from work.

Dani wrote: "But if it's really engrossing The Hunger Games anyone? I just can't put it down. I devoured those books."

Yes, I read all 3 in about 5 days (during commute - hurray for the subway - no driving!, during lunch, and in the evenings). Started reading the first one on the commute from work. Got home and continued reading until I finished it (at around 2 am). The first thing I did was go to Amazon and download the 2nd to my Kindle. Was really tired the next day and thus couldn't finish the 2nd book that day as I was just falling asleep and couldn't stay up until 2 am every day and still function at work. The good thing about Kindle is that I never had to go to the store or wait, just hit some buttons and start reading the next book in less than a minute!

I feel like this all the time. I average around 3-5 hours of reading a day. This is on top of the 3-5 hours of listening to an audio book I do at work everyday. Needless to say I find myself covering a lot of ground very quickly. But hey that is what happens when you throw away your t.v. and stop playing video games.

I'll go for months pecking at books, you know, a quick chapter before bed, a few pages on the train, but then I'll go to town for a few weeks and read book after book and binge my way through whole series. It's very sporadic behaviour, but without it I'd be overrun by my TBR pile.

Some books I'll blow through in a day, then I'll go months barely making progress in a particular work.

I wouldn't say I'm so much a book-binger so much as a reading in general binger. I'll usually read 4+ hours each on Saturday and Sunday, but it will be broken up between books. For the next six months (and previous 5), I've started every morning with 30-40 minutes of War and Peace to keep up with the read-along, then the rest of the time will be spent between my current fiction book and my current non-fiction book.

Lately the actual reading has been broken up into half-hour chunks while I work my way through the Babylon 5 DVD sets. Episode, read 30 minutes, next episode, read, repeat. ^^

Though the last couple of weeks it's been like reading ADD for me. I've ended up with 5 books on the go because nothing is grabbing me very strongly, but not annoying me enough to drop entirely. SIGH.

Personally I'm rather sporadic as I'm usually spread across a range of medias, and pursuits. There is definitely times of binging (usually if I'm engrossed in a particular series), but normally other interests call to break up my reading time.

In more recent years I found that I've become a big audiobook listener as it usually affords me 'reading' time during those period where one cannot focus on text. I'm also not a particularly fast reader, unlike my partner who seems to almost inhale text. Like @John Paul I'm curious if anyone has purposely tried to improve their reading speed?

I am a sporadic binge reader. I will read a ton in a few weeks, then not read for a week or so. I am not sure why it is almost like my head needs a break.