Buying and reading books are two different hobbies as far as I’m concerned. If you don’t go over the line and buy more than you can realistically afford, I don’t think it’s an issue. I had a period when I bought books non-stop until I started running out of space and I took a good look at my bookcase to realise I had everything I was interested in so far. Just like that. When I browsed through various lists, videos, bestseller sections, etc. I just saw that there was nothing there that I wanted to read that I didn’t already have. I read according to my mood. I can go months without reading anything and then devour more than ten books in a month. It works for me because I have something I’m in the mood for at the moment, so I can just pick up a book and read it. I honestly don’t feel any guilt or regret about that book purchases of mine. Plus, seeing all those books every day brings me so much joy!

I used to read my textbooks aloud when I was studying for tests and had a hard time focusing and understanding the material, so I totally get it. I don’t usually do it with fiction because it takes me much longer, but sometimes when I come across a part I particularly like, I read it aloud to savor it, so to speak.

Some books are crap, pardon my language. That’s just the way it is. Just accept that it’s a crap book or not the right book for you and move on. If you’re reading for pleasure and not for academic reasons, then obviously the book should bring you pleasure. If it doesn’t, then I don’t see the point in continuing to torture yourself when there are so many books out there and so little time to read them all. Do yourself a favour.

First of all, for me it’s about world building. If the world is interesting and well thought out, I can turn a blind eye to a lot of things.

On the other hand, my personal pet peeve is the abundance of unusual names. I appreciate when there are no Peters and Marys in fantasy, but if a book has 57 characters with names I can’t read, let alone remember, it’s going to be very hard for me to keep up.