Booking through Thursday: Multi-Tasking

Booking through Thursday wants to know:  Do you multi-task when you read? Do other things like stirring things on the stove, brushing your teeth, watching television, knitting, walking, et cetera?

"My mother always said, 'If you try to combine talking and eating, you'll end up doing neither very well!'" - Miles O'Brien

 I am rarely far from a book, and often turn to one if I have downtime. Combining reading with eating has been a habit of mine since childhood, to the effect that I'm constantly sipping water while reading -- I'm used to the combined stimuli. While living on-campus, I often brought a book with me to the dining hall in case I found no friends to eat with, and I tended to stay long after the meal sipping coffee or hot tea, immersed in my book.

Though I do not watch much television, when I do I mute the commercials and read between the breaks -- usually my 'leisure' reading, as books in history, science, philosophy, or other such serious topics demand more attention than the commercial break period provides.

I also combine music and reading -- sometimes having music on as background accompianment, but often listening to music that corresponds to the subject at hand. For instance, while reading "Our Oriental Heritage", I listened to music from India and Japan while reading the histories of those respective nations -- and when reading one of Michael Connelly's Harry Bosch novels, I put on Bosch's favorite jazz  to better immerse myself in the character's environment. Last week, while reading Augstine's "Confessions", I listened to both Benedictine chants and classical music (specifically, Beethoven), because they seemed appropriate.  I enjoy combining music and literature in this way.

I sometimes combine reading and napping, but this is entirely by accident!