I have to admit, it’s a bit of a relief to know that I’m not the only one with overloaded bookshelves and a large personal collection of books. Thanks for making me feel normal! It’s fun to think of all you book-lovers who, like me, have books stashed in pretty much every room of the house.

Ready for this week’s question? Here it is…

Do you skim? Or are you faithful to read every word?

I clearly remember the evening (early in our marriage) when I first confessed to my husband that I have been known to occasionally skim while reading. I assured him that I usually only skim when I’m reading fiction, and only in rare circumstances. For instance, if an author insists on veering off into lengthy and boring passages of description that add nothing to the plot and do not capture me with their beauty…I feel no guilt in skimming right over them. Or if I find myself in the middle of a book that infuriates me, frustrates me, or bores me to tears…in that case, I’ve been known to skim along, gleaning what few key points there are along the way, just to finally get to the end and discover the resolution of the plot.

My husband was shocked and did not approve. However, I’m happy to say that he has since come to accept my periodic tendency to skim what I deem unnecessary material.

I will also admit that there are times when I zone out while reading, and come to the end of a page or chapter, only to realize that I have no idea what I just read. When that happens, it’s usually time to put the book down. And if it happens with the same book repeatedly, it’s probably time to set that book aside for good.

What about you? Are you dedicated to reading every word (even the boring ones)? Or have you been known to skim over some passages?

Though the specifics varied, there seemed to be a common thread through the answers to last week’s question: Many of you re-read books…but not too often. It seems most of us agree that there are so many books out there yet to read, that it’s hard to devote too much time to revisiting those we’ve already finished.

This week, we get a little techy:

On what devices, if any, do you read books? Or are you strictly a “physical book” reader?

While it’s true that I love traditional, physical, “real” books, I’ve also grown to love ebooks more and more. They’re super-portable, often less expensive, and if I’m using the right device, I can even read them in the dark. For my Fall Into Reading list, almost half of the books I’m reading, I’ll be reading as ebooks…on some kind of device.

That being said, here are the devices I use (and some I don’t):

• A Kindle. I love my Kindle. I can use it one-handed (even turning pages), it holds countless books, and the e-ink (or whatever it’s called) makes reading easy on the eyes. These days my Kindle is never far from me.
• An iPad. I also sometimes use the iPad Kindle app. The benefit to the iPad is that I can read in the dark (if I’m up in the middle of the night and don’t want to wake my husband). Reading on a screen doesn’t particularly bother me, though I doubt I could read for hours at a time this way.
• Smartphones/small-screen gadgets. These would be devices I don’t really read on. Though I’ve loaded the Kindle app onto devices of this type, and I’ve done some very modest amounts of reading, I think the screens are just too small for me to read comfortably. I’m either squinting to read the small print, or I enlarge the print and then have to “turn” the page far too often.
• A traditional computer. Again, this is a “not really.” Amazon has a Kindle app for desktop/laptop computers. I’ve used it, but I don’t really like it. I’m not sure why, since I read blogs and news and email all the time on my laptop. But for some reason, reading a book on a full-size computer is just not appealing to me. I’ll stick to handheld devices for my e-reading, I suppose.

So there you have it. Personally, in addition to traditional books, I primarily read on a Kindle, but also use an iPad occasionally.

What devices do you read on? Or do ebooks annoy you, and you prefer to stick to good ‘ol traditional books?