I'm one of those people that if I want to be truly immersed in a book, I have to be reading in total silence. The silence really helps me to visualize the world and the characters. If there's music on, it's not that it's distracting... it just pulls part of my mind away from the book.
As for white noise, it's okay so long as it isn't the murmur of people talking in the background. Then, I keep wanting to listen to their conversation and you catch words here and there and it's so distracting! If it's just a fan or the noise of the wind or something, that's fine. Although, like with music, I still can't totally enter the book unless I'm reading in absolute silence.
Am I alone in this? Can you read with other noise going on in the background? And if there is noise, do you like it to be a certain kind?
While we're on that thread of conversation, if I do listen to music, I try to match the theme of the music to the book (writers who make book playlists, you ROCK!). That way, I'm at least semi-not distracted you know? So if it's a fight scene or something, I listen to some rock or rap music (so basically all of the Throne of Glass series is a Volbeat, Metallica, Macklemore, or anything else like that jam session with bits of Taylor Swift thrown in there). I feel like that really gets me into the book and then the book and the music sort of mesh together.
Do you like to listen to a certain kind of music while you're reading? Does it matter?
I used to like to listen to music when I read, always New Age type of music, mainly Enya. I listened to a whole lot of Enya when I was reading Harry Potter back in the day so some of those songs remind me of those books. Now I don't like to listen to anything when I read. It's too distracting. I can handle something instrumental, but I'd prefer silence. I can't read that well if the television is on and I just want to sing if I'm listening to music. :P
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Haha that can be a good or bad thing depending how you slice it. If you're one of those people who hates Harry Potter, you'd never be able to listen to that music again! But it's always awesome when a song comes on and you immediately think back to that favorite scene in HP... :D Seriously?? Me too! Whenever I know the song that's on, I HAVE to sing along with it! And if the TV is on, I HAVE to listen to what the people are saying so I can't concentrate on the book...
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