This morning I came into work and set my bag down on a desk to hang up my coat. My bag was open, and the current book I’m reading, “Game of Thrones,” was laying atop my things.
“You’re reading that?” Dr. L asked. “Isn’t there some Dragon mother character?”
“Daenerys Targaryen?” I replied.
“Wow, you are such a nerd.”
“I’ve never claimed to be anything but. If you assumed otherwise, I don’t know what to tell you.”
Truthfully, I am surprised at how much I am loving a Fantasy book. Part of my enjoyment comes from my investment in the television series. I had tried reading “Game of Thrones” two years ago but found it difficult trying to keep all the characters straight. Now that I watch the show, it’s so much easier to visualize who is who and where they all come from. It’s fun to read, and I’m already feeling anxious for him to finish writing the series so I can finish reading it. I started the book on Tuesday after a three week hiatus from reading to study for my semester 2 vet tech finals. So I’ve been indulging myself in all my favorite book nerd behaviors. Not sure how normal or abnormal these are:
- When I’m reading on the subway, I wear my iPod ear buds. I’m never listening to anything. I just don’t want anyone to interrupt my reading.
- I HAVE to have a back up book read to go in case I finish the book I’m currently reading.
- When people send me postcards, my first thought is usually, “That’ll make a lovely bookmark.”
- Sometimes when I’m bored, I browse through my GoodReads to-read list and fantasize about all the books I’m looking forward to reading.
- I don’t like to see books touching the floor. It feels disrespectful.
- I love falling asleep with a book in bed with me and waking up in the morning to find it waiting under my arm.
- When I’m doing something mind-numbing like inventory at work, the most irritating part to me is thinking about how much reading I could be doing at that moment.
- I’ve perfected the art of read-walking. When I’m just about to finish a chapter and I’m at my subway stop, I exit the subway, walk up the stairs, and walk to my apartment, still reading.
- When my train is delayed and everyone around me is pouting and staring at their watches, I feel bliss at how much more time I get to read.
What are your weird book nerd habits?
Chrissy's Blog 
This is a timely post, because I just spent the entire day reading a new book.
I never tried reading the Game of Thrones books until after I got hooked on the show, and only started them BECAUSE I got hooked on the show. It absolutely helped to have the characters from the show in my head, which I know because when I got past the point where the show was up to, I started loosing track of the threads of plot in the books… Seriously, I’m not really sure who is who or what is what with some bits of the later books. At some point I’ll have to reread them.
Oh, and come to think of it, they were the reason I bought a Nook! I had PDF files of the books, and reading them on my laptop was giving me eyestrain.
As for book nerd habits:
I perfected the reading walk when I was a kid (probably why I’m so horribly near-sighted now…).
I have also totally done the fake-out ear buds, too.
Any time spent doing something boring instead of something awesome like reading more is annoying and time wasted.
Now that I have a bed big enough for the books not to get crushed in my tossing and turning, I like having them there as well.
I love hanging out in libraries just so I can be surrounded by all those books, and actually pet them a little when I walk down the stacks.
I sometimes have to force myself to start reading a book that I think I’ll especially love because I don’t want to have finished them.
I love to binge-read, especially when it’s a series, and will ignore just about everything else going on to do it. (This is also why I have terrible vision, or at least a contributor.)
I love the different smells books have, depending on their age and use (expect mildew smells. Those are always bad). I have different nostalgic memories of various points of my life attached to the different smells of books.
I have been known to snuggle with especially beloved books like they are stuffed animals.
There’s probably more things, but I can’t think of them right now!
Oooh, I love the smelling books. I definitely do that too. There is a woman who works at the New York public library whose job is to sniff all the books and document their smells!
I still remember the way the Book Mobile smelled from when I was a little girl living in small town Ohio in the 1950’s.
One of my favourite books is a massive Jèrriais-English dictionary, which I love partly because it has the most lovely smell, like no other book I’ve ever owned. I always thought it smelled a little like the sea, and when I was finally able to visit the Isle of Jersey, I discovered that the book smells just the island on which it was printed. I’m a little sad that the fragrance is slowly fading over time.
I think many of us book-lovers have similar habits, though I don’t pretend to use headphones—but I’ll sometimes put them on and play music while I’m reading.