Top 5 Tuesday || Bookish Habits

We all have our own little bookish habits, whether we realize it or not.

Since Shanah @ Bionic Bookworm Blog choose bookish habits as this week’s topic, I sat down to think. What exactly do I do when I’m reading besides, well, read? Do I have any notable habits at all?

And it turns out, the answer is yes. I am nothing if not a creature of habit, and I can’t believe I missed noticing these five habits until now!

I only stop at chapter endings.

Barring someone in my family to yell at me to put the book down and do something, I only ever pause reading at chapter endings. Snack break? Requires a chapter break. Laundry break? Gotta finish this chapter! I’m not sure when I picked this habit up, but it’s been around a long time.

That said, I tend to read books in one sitting otherwise, so I don’t always NEED that chapter break.

The taller the TBR, the more likely it is I’ll get another book.

Admit it: so many of us are guilty of this one. If we asked every book blogger who finished their TBR before buying or borrowing more books to raise their hand, I think there would be very few raised hands. So few.

And I’ll admit it freely: I have an extremely bad habit of adding new books to my shelves despite a TBR about 70 books long. Book buying bans also don’t work on me, since my self-discipline is shaky where shiny new stories are concerned.

I take notes while I read (in a single, specific notebook and nothing else, thank you very much)!

Since I started blogging, I started using a notebook to jot down my feelings while reading. I catch quotes I like, predictions I have, complaints, moments of shock, basically everything. It’s really nice when reading a series, because I can check Goodreads for the date I last read a book, and then consult my notebook for anything I jotted down. It’s not a perfect method, but I sure forget a lot less information between installments.

The notebook method also means I have written proof that I was onto something early in the series. I experienced this with Truly Devious and The Hand on the Wall recently, when I realized my old theory that I thought broke in The Vanishing Stair lined up with the plot all along.

I keep a favorites shelf!

My shelf space right now needs some help (someone stop me from buying more books), but the shelf with the easiest access is my favorites shelf. Sometime soon, I ought to update it, cycle in some new favorites and move out some favorites that aren’t favoritey enough (that’s a technical term, folks), but it still does its job. Here, all the books I’ve adored with my heart and soul get to sit tight and be comfy while I wonder about when the best time to reread them is.

It’s also organized mostly alphabetically by author, with some exceptions for optimal book spacing.

And the best of bookish habits? I run a blog!

Honestly, if you’re participating in T5T, I suspect you share this habit too. 😉 Of all the habits I’ve got, it’s the one I cherish the most. Blogging has been so much fun since I picked it up about two years ago, and I wouldn’t trade it for the world! There are some ups and downs, especially when I bite off more than I can chew, but still. There’s nowhere else I’d get my “yell loudly about books with other people” fix. Plus, it forces me to keep up all my writing muscles. I may be slacking on my fiction (someone get me back on track), but I’m never away from a keyboard for long.

So there you have it! Five of my bookish habits, laid out for you to see. And judge? Well, maybe not. I didn’t include any of my chaos habits…but maybe I’ll talk about those another day. For now, what are your habits? And do we share any?