Do you listen to music when reading?

No, I consider it distracting

Never.

I'm a musician; when I listen to music I listen. When I read, I read. Can you imagine getting a new CD by your favorite band, then choosing a book to read while you listen to it?

I listen to music while I read. I sometimes also watch TV, have conversations with my wife and various other things.

Reading is what I do when I can't clear away all the outside distractions that would disturb me if I was writing.

Nope, can't do it. I need to focus, no distractions.

I can play music in the background while I read, but I can't listen to it while reading. Unless it's seriously obnoxious it doesn't even register while I'm reading -- I mean, not at all. It becomes absolute white noise. So there's really no point... If I want to listen to a new CD and read a new book in one afternoon, I have to schedule them separately, as experience has taught me, or I'll only hear the very beginning of the very first song. At least, if the book's any good. Otherwise it might go the other way.

No, never. When I read I want peace and quiet. If I read while listening to music (or try to) my attention is divided between the two and neither gets the amount it deserves to truly be appreciated.

Seldom when I read, but always while writing. The type of music I listen to is not distracting, and in the background it subtly creates the mood I need to put myself inside the story.

90% of my first drafts are written outside the house. I find it fun, interesting and helpful to write in places that are similar to where my scene is taking place. I've written in restaurants, police stations, bus stations, on city transportation, in parks, residential neighborhoods, lobbys of corporations, museums, sculpture gardens, and, even on the Greyhound Bus! I bought a ticket and went to the next state over for lunch and came back, writing during the trip. Being in a similar environment a scene takes place in helps me write it better and allows me to live life instead of staying cooped-up at home living the typical solitary lifestyle writing tends to offer.

I do my editing and rewrites at home though. That's where I need the solitude and peace and quiet. No music.

I can't. It's hard for me to write with outside distractions let alone read with them. What ends up happening is my brain will try to split between the two and I'll read half a paragraph and hear half a song verse and I'll just get confused with both and it'll be a big mess. Silence for reading and writing.

I'll tolerate music if someone else is playing it, but I never listen to it myself while reading. If it has lyrics it distracts me, if it's instrumental it tends to send me into daydreams (or naptime, depending on how tired I am). Ideally, the only sound I hear when reading is the turning of the pages. Well, and the cat purring/snoring. Yes, he really does snore. Loudly.

~DragonHeart~