POLL: How do you read?

I’ve been afraid to post a poll in the past because what if nobody votes? I suppose I will survive. But I want to know: how do you read?

I gave my sister two books for Christmas (Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater and Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr). She scarfed down these books. She always does – she is a super fast reader by nature. But I was really shocked. By mid-morning on December 26th, she had finished both books. And she didn’t spend all of Christmas Day curled up with the books on my grandparents’ couch, either. She’s a crazily fast reader.

I’m fast, too. I started Shiver on Christmas Day evening and finished by the end of Boxing Day. I didn’t spend the whole day reading, either! (Still haven’t started Wicked Lovely, but now that TIB-revised is safely with my agent, I think I will dig in soon.)

Anyway, the point is this: my sister eats up books for plot and character and finish line. She doesn’t admire the writer’s writing. I am somewhere in between. I certainly notice writing style and lovely sentences, but I skim sometimes. I just do.

How do you read? (vote below!) Is skimming bad? As a writer, is it disappointing to spend thousands of hours on a book only to have it devoured in one?