On Thursday, March 25th, Booking through Thursday asked:

Do you take breaks while reading a book? Or read it straight through? (And, by breaks, I don’t mean sleeping, eating and going to work; I mean putting it aside for a time while you read something else.)

In my world, there are two kinds of books. One kind is what I call “bathroom books.” These are often, but not always, books of essays or short stories, tend to be non-fiction when they’re longer works, and are easy to pick up just for a few minutes, and put down when there’s something else that must be done.

Then there are the books that I immerse myself in, the ones where I literally plan to have a clear schedule, a pot of tea or coffee, and nothing to do but read. Most often, these are thick novels with compelling characters. Sometimes they’re memoirs. Maeve Binchy and Lauren Willig are two of my favorite authors of this type of book. So is Katherine Neville. And Madeleine L’Engle.

The truth is, my preferred reading style is to read straight through unless something forces me to stop, no matter what I’m reading, and when a book is really good, I get lost in it, and even expect the weather outside to match the weather in whatever I’m reading.

Do I take breaks?

Only when I absolutely have to.