My husband and I are very different readers. He usually reads 100+ books a year. Many of these are graphic novels and manga (not a bad thing!), but he also reads plenty of doorstopper novels. He’ll often have multiple books on the go if he’s having trouble getting through his current book. Crucially, whenever he finishes one, he moves right on to the next. He’s always got something in the hopper.
I, in contrast, can go weeks or even months without finishing a book. And then other times, I can read a single 600+ page book in 2-3 days. I can devour a book if it’s the right one at the right time. For example, last summer I read almost the entirety of Ursula K. Legion’s Earthsea books — 5 novels and 1 novella — in about a week and a half.
Thus, I would like to share a metaphor that I have found useful when talking with others about reading habits: the goat vs the python.
Goat readers are constantly grazing and moving from book to book. Even if it’s short books, or anthologies, or graphic novels, they are always reading something. My husband is obviously a goat reader.
Python readers do the opposite. They read one thing or a small collection of things all at once and then just sit there and let the books digest, like a python swallowing a pig whole. And I’m not going to lie, sometimes it takes a while for me to come back up for air after a big reading jag. I recently switched to using Storygraph after using Goodreads for over a decade, and I’m very curious to see their graphs and get a better sense of how my reading peaks and valleys look.
I’ve been sharing this metaphor privately with others for years, and now would like to release it into the world. I hope it helps people who feel guilty about not reading enough to reframe their habits: they may just be pythons instead of goats.
Jon
I like the metaphor, but propose an addition. I am more like an octopus, in that I hold onto as many books as will fit on my sticky hands and won’t let them go. I don’t drop them, but don’t really read them either, just the feeling of having books at hand is comforting. At some point, the pain and weight of the unfinished books are too heavy a burden to bear so the whole arm sloughs off and a new sticky arm is regrown, cleared of all previously held books, but now ready to sticky some more!