What and How Do You Read?

A few days ago, while walking around town, Marko and I decided, surprise surprise, to pop into a bookshop.

And as we wandered among the shelves, looking at titles and covers, with the intention of buying something, of course, every now and then he would ask me whether I had already read this or that and point to a title he thought I might be interested in. To my astonishment, I had already read most of the titles he suggested. He was amazed, and I was completely confused.

Ok, I know I love reading and that I do it quite happily and often, but I had no real idea of how much I had read. Because, of course, I don’t think I read a lot, not nearly as much as I would like. And then reality gives you a little knock on the head in such a direct way that you finally tell yourself: well, I’m not that bad after all.

On the other hand, Marko has lately been telling me quite often that he is “jealous” of me because I can and have the time to read whatever I want (an advantage of a job that doesn’t interest or fulfil you at all, I suppose).

It’s nothing new for me to always manage to find time to read something that really interests me, however busy I am. And it has always been like that: reading “for my soul” has always been one of my priorities. Whether at primary or secondary school, at university or during my master’s, I always managed to squeeze in something that had little to do with whatever I was “officially” working on. I don’t think I’m a fast reader, it could be much more efficient, but it’s true that I read always and everywhere.

I will never forget something that happened to me at secondary school. While I was waiting in my favourite café for a friend from another class to finish her lessons, I quite naturally took a book out of my backpack and started reading. Because my motto in life is: always have a book with you, because you never know when you’ll get bored. This was the era of “dumb” phones, so scrolling through feeds wasn’t even an option. (Then again, even today I would rather reach for my Kindle than my phone when I’m waiting somewhere, but that’s just me.)

Back then, in my hometown, this was obviously an anomaly, so a very good friend of mine, seeing what I was doing, asked if he could take a photo of me with his then-advanced camera phone (today it’s questionable whether that photo would even be recognisable, given its “quality”). He was amazed and stunned that I was sitting in a café and, imagine that, reading.

Just like now, back then it wasn’t anything spectacular to me; in fact, it was my natural state. But apparently not to the people around me. Not to mention that every time I took the bus to the radio station where I had a show while I was studying, I read a book, and people looked at me strangely, to say the least.

But you get the idea: books are an inseparable part of me, I read them always and everywhere. To borrow from one of my favourite media theorists, Marshall McLuhan, books are literally extensions of my senses.

How I Started Reading More

Since I bought my Kindle, my reading habits have expanded, because now I have a big selection of books that are always with me without taking up too much space in my bag, so I don’t have to think about whether to take it or not. It is simply always with me. You can read more about that in a post on exactly that topic.

What has made a real difference to my reading speed and the number of books I’ve read in the last few months is definitely audiobooks.

So, as I told Marko last night when he asked me what I’m reading at the moment, at any given time I’m technically reading three books: one in print, one on my Kindle and one audiobook I’m listening to, depending on the opportunity and my mood.

I mostly listen to audiobooks when I’m walking Beni or going somewhere on my own. For audiobooks I use the Audible app, which is fantastic. I find almost every book I’m interested in there, both in English and in German.

A huge advantage of listening to audiobooks is that I stay active in the language I currently use less. Since I don’t use either English or German every day as much as I would like, listening to audiobooks in those languages helps me not only to keep the language active, but also to learn and understand new words and expressions.

As they say, the language is always in my ears. And that matters for everyone who lives in a country where another language is spoken, but in a family or community that speaks their mother tongue. Those of us in that situation often feel a kind of dissatisfaction with the language of the country we live in, that is, we never feel we know it or use it well enough. For me, audiobooks were a game changer, and I no longer struggle with that feeling.

I know there are people who find it hard to concentrate on listening just like that, so besides audiobooks I also warmly recommend the increasingly popular podcasts, which are certainly shorter than books.

How I Choose What to Read in Which Format

My philosophy for choosing books is this:

I only buy printed books when I think they deserve a place in my library, when they matter to me, when I know I will read them again or that someone in my family might use them one day. In other words, the ones that are relevant by my standards and deserve a place on the shelf. The printed book that currently has my attention is “Ungezähmt” (Untamed) by Glennon Doyle.

On my Kindle I keep classics that I either also own in print or don’t own at all, books that interest me but that I know I don’t necessarily need in print, and the ones I want to read right here and now and can’t wait to go to a bookshop for. At the moment I’m reading “Bad Feminist” by Roxane Gay on my Kindle.

I choose audiobooks on the principle of “I’m really interested, but there’s no way I’ll get to read it any time soon” (usually because of its length). That’s how, for example, I listened in a very short time to “The Second Sex” by Simone de Beauvoir, which is brilliant but so long that, with all my obligations, it would take me at least a couple of months to actively read it in print or on my Kindle. Novels like “Breasts and Eggs” by Mieko Kawakami, which are not only relevant in their themes but also long enough and gripping, are more likely to end up on Audible than to get my attention in another format. Next on my listening list is definitely “The Lord of the Rings” (in the original, of course), which I have been putting off for years and really want to read.

It doesn’t matter whether you read on paper or on a screen or listen to books, each of these rituals has its own charm and makes you an inseparable part of its literary magic. Every book lover knows what I’m talking about. One thing is certain: the more ways of reading you have, the greater the chance that you will read more. At least that’s how it is for me.

Warmly,

S-Mama