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Which kind of a reader are you? Do you belong to several of these categories? None of these categories? Do you know any other category?
Give it a thought – do you dawdle with a book, or do you hoard it like you’d never get to see the book again? I am guilty of being a mix of many, but that’s between me and books.
Let’s list a few to see if you can relate to any of them.
To give a sense of what I am talking about, I have given each one a name. Feel free to add new ones!
They read a book at the speed of light (hence the C) — whiz through a book in under two hours. The best part is, they don’t just skim through it, but actually read every word at that speed. They can even quote you some dialogues. Scary!
They drag it out so that they can savor a book. Ergo they read it so slow that a sloth’d crawl faster than them. Then they chew it over, sleep on it, take it apart while eating spinach, and read it all over again. Only then can they finish a book.
This group is a combination of the first two. They can’t make up their minds if they are the Cs or the Sloths. They want to know what happens next but can’t seem to turn over to the next page. It irritates them, but they love it.
They read multiple books simultaneously and keep up with every story like a pro. They know exactly where they left off in which book, the characters, the plot, even the bloody-saw lying in the basement of the side character.
These readers go back and forth on a book. It’s not really their fault if they come across another interesting book and can’t help themselves but read it. What if they forgot to read the book or don’t get the book when they finish the current one? Even scarier, what if they forgot the name of the book? And the horror – what if that apocalypse actually happened and they never get to the book? Anyone biting their nails right now? Can’t really blame you, your logic is full-proof.
This group, as the name suggests, hoards books in one century to read it in another. They are never short of books. In fact, they don’t even remember which books line their shelves at any given time. But they read it. In their time, at their pace. Probably go into book-hibernation of long periods when that happens — the book-bears.
This kind group will keep a book safe for you. It’s debatable if they read it themselves, but they will take good care of it while you are away. They will even wrap it in a muslin cloth when the book’s shifting hands. I love this kind – they are precious book-lockers, really.
These readers borrow a book from the library and keep reissuing it. It may be because they haven’t gotten time to get to it, but most times, they simply cannot part with a book. Sigh, we have all been there. And if not, I really feel for these readers – they need us.
They never return a book. This kind makes you think of devising a constitution/law exclusively for book-readers. They should be made to distribute free books for a whole month!
This group returns the book, alright, but not before damaging it – folded pages, marked lines/pages using permanent markers, loosened pages/covers, missing pages/covers, etc. The constitution/law devised before should make them hand-write the book. Twice.
This last group is really weird. They are faux readers. They decorate their Rosewood shelves (rich tastes) with dozens of books, know which books to collect, love every one of them, take good care of them, and be done with it. Please, they cannot be bothered to read those books, too.
Oh, well, it takes all kinds. But these are some categories that come to my mind. So, tell me, which kind of a reader are you? Do you belong to several of these categories? None of these categories? Do you know any other category?
Image source: a still from the film Piku
Manasi Diwakar is the author of 'Tea for Two' and a professional editor. Her work has appeared in North of Oxford, Melbourne Culture Corner, Impspired, Literary Impulse, Wingless Dreamer, The Rainbow Poems, among other places. read more...
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