I've always been a fast reader. However, the amount of reading material I consume is aided by the fact that for years, I have had chronic insomnia. The bulk of my reading is done in the wee hours of the morning when sleep eludes me.

I am a casual reader prefering mornings and afternoons for reading books. However, i do not plow through a book quickly but rather read it at my leisure. There are lots of other activites and creative things I enjoy and tend to be rather ADD about a book unless it's an absolute page-turner.

A hot cup of chai latte and a nice cozy wrap make for the perfect reading time !

Next to a loyal mutt, there is nothing as pleasant as having a good book waiting for you :0)

I am a fast reader, and do get a lot of reading done at bedtime. But lately I've been reading for an hour every afternoon on my iPad while walking on our treadmill. That has worked out surprisingly well, I can walk at a fairly fast pace and still read. I'll also grab an hour here or there in the afternoon or early evening whenever possible.

Carolyn, I am with you about overlooking dust! I used to read around three murder mysteries a week. They are the sort of books you can't put down.

Recently though it takes me longer since I moved to a place with no good reading nook. I like a cosy spot with good natural light and the best place here is in the bedroom which means I read before my "Nanna-nap" (do you call the afternoon nap by that name elsewhere?).

I rarely read a new book at night as I prefer a re-read of a favourite to get me off to sleep. A new book is too interesting.

Another fast reader here, to the point where I sometimes miss things do to racing along. It is probably why I re-read my favorites. Having said that, I definitely read less than I once did, an hour or two a day where once I read several hours a day. I do so many other things now. My garden in particular takes up a lot of time. So, (alas) does this computer!

Annpan, I haven't heard of a 'nanna-nap' but am getting to an age where a few minutes of 'zzz', usually after lunch, makes a welcome break. Woodnymph/Mary does this helps with the insomnia you describe? I find if I get a couple of night of broken/lack of sleep I can only function on one cylinder and am fit for nothing all day. How do you cope?

I usually read a very dull book at bedtime, otherwise I find I dream about the subject or keep turning the pages wanting to find out what is going to happen next.

For me, it often has to do with how interested I am in the book I'm reading. Some stories just suck me in and I read, read, read! Most often, though, I read during my lunch breaks at work and before falling asleep at night. Of course, I'd get a lot more reading (and sewing and housework) done if I didn't spend so much time playing stupid games on my iPad. :)

Donna

I live alone and I am a fast reader. I also gave up TV 8 months ago, which gives me the evenings free to read as much as I want. I also read at breakfast and over dinner, and I have a lunch-hour book I read at work. I also like to do crafts, and I listen to audiobooks and podcasts while doing so.

This time last year I had read nearly 30 books. Most were short and quickly consumed. This year, I have finished 10 longer books in the same time, but got three times the pleasure out of them that I got from the ones I read in the same period last year. Quantity isn't everything.

When I taught school I'd walk the circuit of halls during my free period. While walking I would frequently read a book because I knew the route and didn't really need to look ! Some part of my brain was doing the navigating for me :0)

I just counted the number of books I read last year and it was 87. That is down considerably from prior years, although the number has dropped year by year recently. I attribute that to the time I spend reading stuff on the computer.

Carolyn, I too attempt the crossword in the Telegraph, each day but can't manage the cryptic one as my brain just isn't wired that way . . . in fact I sometimes cannot work out the clues even when checking on the answers in the following days paper. :-( I content myself with the 'Quick' crossword and at w/ends try the 'general knowledge' ones but have to get DH's help with things scientific or horticultural based.

My reading time has pretty much always been end-of-day/bedtime. However, I almost always carry my current read with me, or at least in my car, for those few solitary moments waiting for a friend at a designated meeting place, or a nurse to call me in to an examination room, I sneak in a few pages.

I'm a slow reader and do not read nearly as many books as most people on this forum seem to. I used to have a true sense of "so many books, so little time," but retirement has helped with that a lot. I no longer feel quite so compelled to confine my precious reading time to "worthwhile stuff."

Retirement helps. Little or no TV helps. Read in doctor's office, at bedtime, after dinner, middle of the night if unable to sleep, the bathroom on occasion, read about 8 books every two weeks.

I actually find that retirement has made things worse. I used to do most of my reading on my commute - about 50 minutes each way. Now I don't commute any more, and I have to specifically make time to read. I love long train journeys - I just lose myself in a book.

I read in the evenings and at bedtime, although I frequently nod off over my book and have to backtrack the next day to see what I missed. I have the kindle app on my phone so if I have to wait at the hairdresser's or the doctor's office I have something besides out of date magazines to read.

Martin - You are the first person I've heard say they have less reading time after retiring, but I can certainly see how that would be true of a train commuter. Perhaps during the next Man Booker Prize season, you will need to hop the train to London and back a few times just to get your reading done.

That's funny, Kathy, and I can see in it the makings of a good book. Imagine the regular train passengers who see someone making a daily run to and from the city from the country just to be able to read in peace. A good author could do a lot with descriptions of his home life. Not Martin, of course.

Perhaps during the next Man Booker Prize season, you will need to hop the train to London...

I live in the suburbs of London, so it would be the Tube, not the train - that would be the commute I used to do. It's actually not such a bad idea - I get free Tube travel now, so it wouldn't even cost anything...

Martin - You get free tube travel?

I used to read on the commute to work with DH in the car, but he got sick of listening to the radio, and now we listen to audiobooks, which has been great.

I get to work early and often read there - our tea room is generally very quiet as of course all bookshop employees are readers :) And I try to read before bed. But I read a lot less than I used to because of the internet.

Kathy, I became eligible for free travel in the UK on my 60th birthday! It was wonderful but I didn't become a "twirly". These ladies were so named because the free travel started at 9am, after the peak hour, and they would wait at the bus stop from about 8.55 then if a bus came straight away, would ask the driver anxiously "Am I too early?"!

In winter, I was told, some pensioners would ride all day until the later peak time to save heating their homes and knew where to go for cheap meals and cuppas.

They were quite an unofficial social group but I never heard of all day readers!

I had considered applying for a free bus pass but then all the buses (an hourly service) than ran through our village were cut in a cost saving move by the County Council, so we are left with a private bus which runs a couple of times a day and just takes passengers to an edge-of-town supermarket which I have no desire to visit.

Many older people have Senior railcards which entitles them to so-much off fares. I believe there is an initial cost for the card so several journeys need to be made to get ones money back. As Annpan says off-peak services are now widely used by older folk.

There used to be an excellent scheme in remote areas of Scotland allowing local travellers to make use of Royal Mail delivery vans that visit cut-off communities, crofts etc. But again, most of those services have had to be 'cut'.

Post Buses in Scotland

Annpan and Vee: Regarding senior travel & the post buses - very interesting! Thank you.

My sister and I took advantage of the Senior Rail Pass on our trip to Britain a couple of years ago. It saved us a packet as we went from London to York to Edinburgh down to Penzance and back to London. We prepaid the tickets from the U.S. and picked them up at departure points.

Carolyn, the discount would have been helpful when we went to Edinburgh but we weren't age eligible then. We went from London by a coach company which was offering cheap deals but my 6ft 3" husband was so cramped he wanted to return by train.

When we enquired about the fare, my husband was aghast and muttered that he didn't expect to have to buy the whole train to get home!

We split the trip back with a Glasgow stopover.

Yes - I get free Tube travel - it's available to anyone who lives in London and is over 60. As I didn't retire until I was over 61, it gave me a de-facto pay rise during that last year.

I also have a Senior Railcard - it entitles me to 1/3 off train fares. The cost is £30 per year (or £70 for three years) - you only have to use it two or three times a year to make it worth while. There is a young person's railcard also (up to 25) which is the same deal.

Oddly, the young person's railcard is a photo id card, but the senior railcard does not require a photo....not sure what that implies...

Perhaps all us 'oldies' look the same?

I don't think that's it, Vee. I just had to renew my passport, and it's the worst picture I've ever seen. No one looks that bad. If I actually look like that in ten years when it will expire, I will need to make other plans. I'm consoling myself by remembering Erma Bombeck's quip that if you look like your passport picture, it's time to stop traveling, and I'm not ready to do that yet.

Carolyn, my passport ran out years ago and I remember the photo and those of the rest of my family look as though someone has forgotten to add a line of numbers across our chests or maybe WANTED across the top. Over here we are always amazed at how well Americans 'photo'. All those white teeth and smiley faces while we tend to look very pale and often, these days, lardy.

There is now a requirement that babies have their own passports with a photo that just is of 'them' which must be almost impossible to do as there has to be a neutral background and no visible image of someone supporting them . . . and babies change/develop SO quickly.

Carolyn, my new passport photo is hideous, too! We had them taken at Walgreens.

Several years ago I notarized a passport renewal for a coworker. She sent off the paperwork and it was returned weeks later saying she was smiling too much in the photo! By then the passport had expired and she had to start from scratch to get a new one.

Donna

Yes, I do know you're supposed to have a "neutral expression" on your face in your passport photo. I was told it should match the expression you'll have when the customs official looks at you. Not sure if that's true.

Walgreen's for me, too, and I was told not to smile and to take my glasses off. Someone suggested that they want you to look the way you do when you get off an overnight international flight on which you have not been able to sleep. Mine looks as if gravity has doubled its force field.

Over here for the last few years we have a 'thing' called 'passports for pets'. The UK has always had very strict laws regarding the introduction of animals into the country. There has never been an outbreak of rabies here but regulations have been 'modified' to allow pets to be brought in without going through the six month quarantine period. Animal owners now have to have their pets inoculated against several diseases, mico-chipped etc. before leaving or entering the country.

Friends who are leaving to live with relatives in what is now the Czech Republic find they must pay £150 to get their 2 dogs and a cat over there; it was cheaper to send their children!

Australia is also very strict about the importing of animals. Just ask Johnny Depp about that!

When I sent my spaniel from the UK there was all kinds of paperwork and vet checks to deal with before she was put on a plane and then had a month in quarantine on arrival.

That place was very pleasant with extensive grounds so the animals could be let out of the comfortable kennel rooms they occupied for walks with owners who could visit.

As Vee mentioned, the whole thing was very expensive but I couldn't leave her.