How Do You Read?

I know this sounds like a simple enough question.  However, I have been asked this lately and it's been a difficult question to answer.  How do I read?  Books?  Magazines?  Newspapers?  It doesn't matter what I read, but how I read them does.  

Then, I posed the question to a man I got talking to yesterday morning on my way to the chemist and he said he had difficulty reading whole books.  He told me he read the blurb of the book, then the first few pages of the first chapter, and then flipped to one of the chapters in the middle and read a few pages of that and then he got the idea of the book and put it down; thinking that he knew the ending.

I found this an unusual way of reading a book; not uncommon, but unusual.  I've heard of people reading books like this because they're time-poor and feel as thought sitting and reading a whole book would take up too much of their time.

However, how he reads a book is exactly how I find a book to buy.  I read the blurb - sure - but what I do next is flip to chapter five and read the first few paragraphs.  If I'm interested, good.  Then, I find chapter nine and read some paragraphs of that; and that's how a book is found to be interesting to me.  

I read books in a different way, though.  I make time to read them.  I spend around 2 or 3 hours reading a book while drinking a nice coffee or tea in my lounge with my feet up on the coffee table.  Or if it's a nice day outside, I'll be sitting out in my yard getting into the pages of a book and reading under the shade of the Lilly-Pilly Trees in the corner of my yard.  How lovely is that?  It only takes a few hours for me to do, and I totally enjoy myself as I escape with a book.

I can't read on a bus or other public transport, it's too distracting, but - funnily enough - I used to do it all the time when I was much younger.  I guess our attention span changes over time.

So, how do you read what you read?  In long spurts while curled up in bed or on your lounge with a nice hot drink?  Or outside in the fresh air?  Until my next post, happy reading!