We all know those people that bend the rules and judge a book by the cover or read the last page first. I may have been guilty at one time or another. Get ready to learn some of my strange and maybe unforgivable reading habits.

As we’ve been told, never judge a book by its cover. But I absolutely do. If I pick up a novel with a poorly designed or unappealing cover, I’ll put it back on the shelf faster than I picked it up. I am truly guilty of this. I’ve decided to read numerous books based solely on its cover. If it’s a genre or plot I’m not interested in, I’ll still read it if the cover is intriguing enough. I’ll admit, I may be missing out on good books because they have bad covers, or that I’ve read bad books with good covers, but I’ll never change my ways.

The famous DNF debate #didnotfinish My list of books I never finished was once non-existent. It was mentally impossible for me to walk away from something once I started. I gave myself a personal challenge of finishing every book I picked up, no matter how terrible it was. But I have come a long way. My DNF list has grown significantly. And another thing, I will not follow the “50-page” rule, if I don’t like a book, reading 20 more pages isn’t going to change that. So now if I find myself dissatisfied, at any point in the novel, I close it and it’s never to be seen again. 

There was once a time, I too, fell victim to reading the ending of a novel first. I didn’t care if it was a sad ending, I didn’t care if the girl got the guy, I just didn’t want the main characters to die. Is that too much to ask for? This habit started because I picked up a book from the library in 6th grade, First Love by James Patterson, and one of the main characters died. I cried actual tears, a lot of them. The next book I read, the main character died again. This happened to me four times in a row,  four. So I became skeptical, I needed no one to die. I continued this habit until 8th grade, when I started asking the librarians to only give me books with happy endings. Then, one day I decided that’s what happens in life, we die. So I said ‘whatever’ and I’ve never again read the ending first. Now I love a good book that makes me cry like a baby. Varying emotional journeys is why you read.

If you were wondering, yes, I’m one of those people that has multiple books going at the same time. Or at least I did when I was a kid. I think at one point I had 5 or 6 books I was reading simultaneously, to be fair some of them were for school assignments, but the majority were not. Once, my teacher actually banned me from going to the library to get another book.

Not all of my habits may be unforgivable, but they sure are strange. Once I read over 100 books in a calendar year, and the next I read less than 10. My interest and focus to read isn’t consistent. I try to spark my love of reading by re-reading my favourites, but sometimes I just don’t want to read, so I don’t. Does anyone else go through phases of reading?

Okay, this may not be unforgivable or strange, but I never use a bookmark…ever. I rely on remembering the numbers of the page. I’ve always been this way. And I can’t explain it, but for some reason the usage of a bookmark actually annoys me soooo bad, especially when someone tells me to use one. Am I the weird one, or are the bookmark users?