This report is based on self-observation of my own reading habits over the course of a week.
I know that I typically read throughout the whole day--in the morning, afternoon, evening, and late into the night. However, the more I thought about it, the more I realized that I often read while waiting for something. In the morning, I read on the train while on my way to school. In the afternoon, I read while on my way home and as I wait for the laundry to finish. At night, I read until I am finally tired enough to sleep.
At first, I thought the only time that I didn’t read while waiting was in the morning, as I read for about 30 minutes before getting ready for the day. But even then, I realized I was actually just waiting for my roommate and boyfriend to leave, which means that I don't have to rush through the morning so that they can use the bathroom, kitchen, or entryway.
Based on my self observations, I found that while the time of day didn’t affect whether or not I’d read, place affected reading material. At home, my reading practices are most diverse; I read smutty historical fiction romance novels, assignments for school, or Canadian and Mexican online newspapers. On the train, I still read smutty historical fiction romance novels, but only if I can read them on my phone. If I am at school, I usually only read things on Reddit because I only have ten to fifteen minutes before I have to do something else.
I also noticed that place affected how I would read something. For instance, when I’m at home browsing Reddit I click everything open before even reading the title. By contrast, when I’m at school I only open something after having read the title and making sure that it doesn’t contain material that could be deemed unsafe for work. In other words, I censor the material I read depending on location, and on the chance that somebody else will identify it.
I also compared how my reading has changed with age and occupation. I found that since I’ve become an adult I am more open to reading different genres. For example, I’ll explore speculative fiction, science fiction, and mystery novels. As a child, I would focus more on historical fantasy novels such as Harry Potter, Doomed Queen Anne and anything from Tamora Pierce. The selection of reading material in my town was severely limited; the only places I could access books were my school and public library, which only had a limited selection of historical and fantasy young adult fiction. After a while, I grew bored of constantly rereading the same books, which eventually encouraged me to expand my reading preferences.
As an adult, a few things changed to facilitate the expansion of my reading practices. For example, I could go to my public library’s adult section. I also started working. As a result, I had money, which enabled different means of acquiring books. With my new stream of income I could buy books online and get them instantly delivered to my kindle or phone. However, while I was no longer limited to the books that my town had to offer, I was limited by what I could read at work. As a field medic, one of my responsibilities was to sign people into the site and give them orientation if they hadn’t been there before. I’d also have to sign people out. This meant that my reading would be interrupted several times a day, and sometimes as often as every 5 minutes. This made it impossible to read any mystery novels while at work because I’d get too jumpy and the interruptions would ruin the reading experience. Instead, I’d typically read things that I had already read before. As a student, things are quite different. To cite one example, I try to find books that are free or very cheap to read on my Kindle. This means that a good chunk of the books I read for pleasure are classics such as Anne of Green Gables or anything by Jane Austen.
In sum, I have found that I can read anywhere (and often do), that I usually read while waiting to do something else, and that place affects what I read as well as the way in which I read it.
