Naughty Under the Blankie – Bad Reading Habits Tag

We all have some reading habits we are not proud of. Marina @Books of Magic wanted to know mine.

So, let’s get down to business, and see what dark secrets I’m harboring and what dirty laundry I’m hiding under the blankie.

#1 Thou shalt not be mentioned

Every now and then I come across a book I don’t enjoy. I’m shameless when it comes to dropping them, and I don’t feel bad at all about not wasting my time on something I don’t like. Occasionally though, when a book displeases me, I go to great lengths to not even mention it ever again. Oh, that book? Nah, never heard of it.  ‘Cuz that’ll show ’em!

#2 I buy the book that is cheap, not the book I actually want

Lately I’m as stingy as it gets (girl wants to buy a house, okay?), and yet, I can’t resist a kindle sale. Not once did I go on a shopping spree, dazzled by the hoards of £0.99 books that sounded pretty good, and at the same time resisted buying books I really wanted to read, because I was reluctant to fork out £.9.99 on them. Yeah, I know, makes no sense.

#3 Oh, sure I’ll read that!

I find books I get excited about and want to read them immediately almost on a daily basis. But since I’m stingy, I just save them on Goodreads for future reference. During the monthly purge I weed out most of these, and even wonder WTF is this crap doing here? I change my mind like you change your socks.

#4 The lady vanishes

Occasionally I get contacted by authors who ask me to read their book and consider it for a review. I will consider anything that sounds like my sort of thing, but unfortunately it happened that I ended up not enjoying these books, and haven’t even finished them. Nothing wrong with that. However it doesn’t always stop there, and some of them come back later to ask when I will post my review. Usually by the time this happens, I’m so over it, that I don’t even want to mention it again. (Refer back to #1). The whole situation makes me squirm to be honest, so I just basically pretend to be dead.

#5 This can’t be good

I don’t want to say that I judge a book by its cover, but I do. If a cover doesn’t look professionally done, has those weird fonts that look like some leftover from ’90 web design kit or have tacky pictures on them or anything else I don’t view as quality work, I jump to the conclusion that the story itself won’t be good enough quality either. True? Not true? You tell me.

#6 Confusing quality with popularity

Not once it happened that I saw a book that piqued my interest, but when I checked it out on Goodreads I was horrified that it only had a handful of ratings. What? It’s been out for years and nobody read it? *gasps in horror* Well, then I won’t bother either. I’m probably missing out on some hidden gems though.

#7 Buying without trying

I probably could have save a considerable amount of money if I spent some time on trying some samples. (Refer to #2 and weep over my impulsive habits) When I know I don’t want to finish a book, I usually know it pretty early on. This is actually one thing I’ve slowly started changing, because reading the first few chapters usually doesn’t take that long, and I already crossed out a few books from my list I’d thought I wanted to read.

The first step toward overcoming one’s bad habits is to acknowledge them. So, here’s to hoping I’m on the right track!

What about you guys? What reading habits are you not so proud of? Confess in the comments. If you feel like.

I tag Ova | Inge | Jennifer | Kathy