I’ve been lucky to live all over the US and spent several years overseas as well. This taught me that vocabulary changes by region. Sometimes the level of education has an impact, but I find the community has more influence.

I think if you could see into my brain when I read you would likely see very clear details for rooms and other places, also details for bodies and clothing, but when it comes to the face they would likely not have many features.

I read a 19 book series about a female NPS ranger and I don’t have an image of her face, I have some details, but I couldn’t even suggest an actress to play her in a movie. If a movie has been made before I read a book, I will usually visualize the actors who play each character while reading.

I did read a while ago that there is a fan fiction site that actually creates images of characters in books. I didn’t pay much attention to it, but thought it would be helpful for fantasy books when characters don’t look human.

If you are someone who enjoys buying books, a complete ban will likely fail. If you are someone who prefers to read 1 book at a time, this will likely not be fun. If you are someone who hates to have a deadline to read a book, this will likely feel more like school or work than a fun leisure activity.

One of my goals this year was to finish the last 25 books that moved with me a few years ago. I read an average of 12 books per month (I’m retired so I have lots of time to read), but I actually listen to more books than I read in print and I have other reading goals. So I gave myself the year to read the 25, so that’s only 2 per month. I also joined a challenge to help me choose what to read next. I love participating in challenges, so I found one that is specific to TBR lists.

My suggestion to you is to think about what is most important to you when it comes to reading. Create a plan and review it regularly and adjust as necessary. If you love buying books and don’t think you’ll be able to not buy while you’re working your way through your currently owned and unread, maybe allow yourself a new book after you read 3 owned books. You may also want to try to read more than 1 book at a time to see if it works for you.

I do enjoy reading multiple books at a time, but I do it for specific reasons. I usually have a print, ebook, and audiobook going at all times. They have to be very different genres and I read each format at a different pace. I can listen to an average length audiobook in 2 days, ebook in about a week, but print can take me more than 2 weeks. That may also be because most of my print books are nonfiction which just takes me longer to digest the material than a fictional mystery.