Today’s Book Blogger Hop question is:  How long does it take you to finish a book?

This varies wildly depending on the book–both its length, and how much I enjoy it!  I used to go through books very quickly.  Even a longish book (say, 400 pages) would be finished in about three days.  My pace has slowed dramatically with life changing.  I don’t have as much built-in reading time in my schedule anymore, and (perhaps because it used to be built in) I don’t tend to think of reading when I have free space and am thinking of what to do (I more often write or blog).

I’m probably averaging something like a book a week now, for what I would consider my “proper” book that I’m reading–the paper one that I read over meals and when I feel like picking something up.  I read nonfiction for two hours a week, and could spend a few weeks on one, or finish it in just that time, depending on the length (which probably varies even more for nonfiction than fiction).  I also listen to an audiobook whenever I’m in the car, and probably get through most audiobooks in a week or two.  And I have a book just to read before bed–when I was reading L. M. Montgomery’s journals, it would take months to get through a volume.  Now that I’m reading her short stories, it’s a bit faster.

If I’m particularly enjoying a book, I’m more likely to pick it up more often and therefore I finish it faster.  If it’s just okay, I can get bogged down for weeks.  There is a definite and unfortunate irony at play there…

I always feel I’d like to read more and finish more books faster, but I suspect that feeling is shared by most readers!

Today’s Book Blogger Hop question is:  Have you ever read a library book you loved so much, you just HAD to own it, so you bought a copy for yourself after returning the library book you had already finished?

This is how I buy most of my books.  I read almost everything from the library first, then eventually buy the ones I particularly loved.  The only exceptions are authors I love so much I’ll buy their books unread (though I’ve maxed out most of them), and even those are authors I read from the library first.

I feel like this question implies a shorter time frame than usually applies in my case.  I usually don’t buy books until months or years after I read them the first time.  I’m trying to recall a book I loved so much I immediately went out and bought it…and though I’m sure it has happened, I’m having trouble thinking of an example!

Oddly, what comes to mind are movies.  I rented Jesus, a three-hour miniseries, and I think I ordered it on Amazon before I even finished it.  Both because it’s that good, and because I’d seen enough to be sure it was the one I vaguely remembered watching and liking when I was a kid.  Similarly, I rented Christopher Robin, loved it so much I meant to buy it immediately–got bogged down trying to decide how to apportion a gift card–and my husband bought it for me for Valentine’s Day maybe a week after we watched it (I promptly watched it at least twice more with other people within the following month!)

Have you read a book from the library, or borrowed somewhere else, and then rushed out to buy it?

Today’s Book Blogger Hop question is: Have you ever enjoyed the same book in two or more formats (print, ebook, or audiobook)?

Not simultaneously, but yes, very much so.  When I first started listening to audiobooks (about…four years ago?  Seems longer) I listened almost exclusively to books I had already read in print.  I think it was sort of my gateway into the format.  For a while it seemed weird to only do a book on audio, as though it wasn’t quite the same.  I got over that, and it feels like pretty much the same thing now to do print or audio–though more audio-only books means I have no idea how to spell some characters’ names!

I still like re-“reading” favorites on audio, and have done entire series that way: Narnia, Harry Potter, most of L. M. Montgomery’s canon.  I’ve read Agatha Christie almost exclusively on audio, to the point that I think it might feel weird to pick up a paper one.  I’ve probably read 15 of her books, and only the first one was paper.

I’ve read very few ebooks–probably less than five.

The only time I can recall that I did one book in multiple formats in a single read was earlier this month when I had an audiobook out from the library, and had to return it with half-an-hour left in the book.  So I got a Kindle-unlimited free trial and just read the last portion.  Otherwise, I only move between formats on separate reads.

Do you go back and forth between formats?  Do you have a preferred one?