So, do any of the rest of you out there skip text?

What kind of text do you skip.

It does seem, though, that I'm reading three or four books all at once. Right now I'm reading "Mao: The Untold Story," at a rate somewhere between skim and savor, "The Lord of the Rings" (again) at savor, and "Seventh Son," also at savor. What I'm reading depends on what room of my house I'm in and where the book is.

While I really liked the books, there was one thing in them that had nothing to do with the story, and I just couldn't stand to read. For some reason, Sterling set up a lesbian relationship between one of the main characters and another minor character. At various places through out the series of three books, he'd have long love scenes of two to three pages that did nothing for the story and was totally irrelevant. I wouldn't have minded these scenes if they had been relevant, but they seemed to be there for shock value only.

Recently though, I've found myself having difficulty getting through Beneath the Moors (short stories) by Brian Lumley. I found myself completely unable to continue reading one story, Rising with Surtsey, and began reading each of the remaining three stories in the book. Each time I began, I had no interest in continuing.

I've put the book down for a while, and will give the remaining three stories another chance, when I'm more 'in the mood.'

I won't read anything if I need to 'skip' parts though. I either like it, or I don't.

If I see a word out of place I'll look it up and make sure I understand it. I'll even look at derivations for greater depth.

I can't seem to skim too well unless I am looking for a quote in something I have read thoroughly before, but I tend to write in the margins when I come across something special so skimming is not onerous, I'm usually skimming my comments.

My wife thinks I'm a kook for keeping a dictionary next to the toilet. I just figure that nature abhors a vacuum.

By the way, it can take me a month or more to get through some books - but by the same token, I have never felt the need or desire to reread a book.

Edit: Last Point: I only skip passage in non-fiction works. I go straight to the relevent sections, unless I'm reading it for fun.

PS" My daughter hates reading a book in which I have scrawled in the margins, but my son loves it.

Tolkien's pages of songs all got skipped on my reading.

I don't mind like 2 or 3 lines, but when you start writing poetry, I'm tuning out.

It I wanted to read Yeats, I'd have bought Yeats.

Hmm... actually, the "love scene in the air" in the fourth Hitchhiker's Guide got the flick-flick-flick from me. I just wasn't interested. Arthur Dent isn't supposed to get lucky. I simply pretended those pages didn't exist. And then, later, I pretended the rest of the novel didn't exist for similar reasons.

I skip the ones that are all in italics.

I also will skim then skip if the prologue is not interesting or not obviously relevant. If it is the inciting incident, I'll hang in there.

Hmmm...thought of something else I usually ignore -- those little quotes or...whatever...at the top of a chapter opening. You know those things. I've read VERY few that actually developed story.

I just recently read two X-Men novels. One was by Marjorie Lui and the other by Marc Cerasini. Both were great reads and I'll probably read them again in the near future. I did read every word in these two. They were engrossing.

I found myself wanting to skip through Tolkien's LOTR, but then again, I haven't picked that up in about 6 or 7 months.

But that's just me.

I hardly ever read every word in a book. I usually skim through the prologue and any authors notes or forward/introductions. I always skip the chapter headings, the connections to the chapter are usually very thin anyway. I never read songs or poetry within the chapters, as they usually have no bearing on the chapter or the story.

If it moves the plot along then great. If it doesn't then all those words, hang around like week old fish and stink up the story. My college english teacher used to call it ENG-FISH. I still use the term today, as I'm sure she does.

Oh, I almost forgot to second what Survivor said. (Anything that I don't wish I'd written.) is perfect!

[This message has been edited by TruHero (edited February 20, 2006).]