Monday, November 05, 2007

Reading superstitions

As a child I think I may have had mild obsessive-compulsive disorder. If I took a drink, whether it be from a tap or a cup, I had to have an even number of mouthfuls, and preferably in multiples of two and then four etc.. Two, four, eight...and if I accidentally took that ninth swallow, I was up for sixteen, and then after that... well, it was a stretch for the bladder. I also could not stop reading on page or chapter 13 - or multiples of 13. That meant some late nights if I was reading a book with long chapters.

I'm over the water thing now (tg!) and over the multiples of 13 thing - but I still cannot stop reading on chapter 13, or any chapter before or after. So I still have to decide whether or not to stop at the end of chapter 11 or if I forge on to the end of chapter 14.

OK, so now you know I'm a complete freak, do you have any weird reading or writing superstitions or habits?

8 comments:

Ello - Ellen Oh said...

I cannot stop reading a book if I'm engrossed, even if it means reading all night long. But my OCD is related more to cleanliness. I wash my hands nearly compulsively and I am a freak when I take my kids to public restrooms. I'm the crazy woman shrieking "don't touch anything! Did you touch that? Wash your hands again! Don't sit, hover!"

Stacia said...

Hmm. If I take too uch time away from a project I get scared to get back into it, but other than that...hmm. Not really. I guess I'm just dull. :-)

Chris Eldin said...

I dogear pages that I really like, and read them over and over afraid that I might forget them.
Now that I'm reading middle-grades, my nine-year-old is reading them after me. He's like, "Mom, what did you do to all these pages?"
:-)

McKoala said...

Ello, the best-looking guy I ever knew was also a compulsive hand-washer. He was like a combo of Brad Pitt and James Dean and he had a voice like velvet...aaah, memories... You're in fine company!

December, I do know what you mean. I can procrastinate for hours out of fear, then I plunge in and it usually turns out fine.

LOL CL. Poor urchin. Did you ask him if he likes those pages too?

Stuart Neville said...

I can't leave something for another project and come back to it later. I have to finish it before looking at anything else or it won't get finished at all.

McKoala said...

That' a good policy. My house is full of half-finished tasks of all kinds.

Robin S. said...

When I buy a book, I have to read the end first. Th elats pages or several pages, depedning on how unintelligible the ending is, without knowing, you know, the beginning. Or the middle.

THEN I go back and start from the beginning.

It must be done this way, for me to be able to sit still long enough to read it.

McKoala said...

I can't do that at all, Robin. I like the suspense!

Nice new avatar!