Do you savor or do you devour?
I’m sure about every one of you has been on a diet at least once. Do you remember how good it felt when you ate something sinfully bad-for-you the first time after a long spell of lean meats and salads? Did you take your time and savor every single bite, placing the smallest amount in your mouth and letting the flavors swirl around for as long as possible before you swallowed? Or did you just dig in and devour bite after bite until suddenly it was all gone and you were wondering how it disappeared so quickly?
I’ve found that devoted readers can be the same way. One of the above; they savor or they devour.
When I’ve been waiting for a new release from a favorite author, and I finally get my hands on the book, maybe after waiting a year, I savor. (Smile) I don’t sit down and read the whole thing. After all, I probably have months to wait for that next treat. I read slowly, a few pages or a couple of scenes at a time, trying to make it last, conscious that the end is coming and I want it to last. The better the story, the more I savor.
If I finish a book really quickly, like the first day or two or three, that’s usually not a good sign--unless it as a very short book. (Smile)
If I like a book a lot, but don’t love it, I don’t mind just reading it and letting the story flow, but even that takes me a while since I prefer to read a good book when I have time to relax and enjoy it. But….if I don’t like a book, I skim and try to finish it as soon as I can. (After I spend money for a book, it’s hard for me to just toss it. It feels like a waste. Some have been just so awful that’s happened, and it makes me really mad. Thankfully books that bad are very few and very far between. Not only is that a waste of my money when they are that bad, but think of all of the poor trees that died for nothing.) (Smile)
I would much rather have a book to savor. Then again, if the greatest books came around often, I guess I’d forget to savor them. It’s probably best the way it is. Good books most of the time, great books once in a while, and only a really bad one here or there to make me appreciate the good ones, and the great ones, even more.
3 comments:
I savor the book.
However, because I speedread, how I savor books, others would consider devouring.
So I guess its all in perception.
I devour the beginning and then savor the end. I am so thrilled to have my hands on the novel I dive right in, emerging myself in the story. But as I near the end and know I will have to leave it behind I slow down and try to make it last.
I guess I go slow with the great ones to make the whole thing last even longer. (Smile) Now when I'm writing, the start is fast for me, the middle is H E double L, and the end is some where in between, and sometimes even kind of fast. (Smile)
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