I just finished a delightful book, The Jane Austin Book Club, by Karen Joy Fowler. It was 250 short pages long. (There were some extra pages that explained Jane Austin's books, and some other stuff at the end, but the book itself was 250 pages.)
It took me TWO WEEKS to read this book. I teach reading. There is just no excuse for this slowness for a person who is literate, has read hundreds (no, thousands) of books in her lifetime, except that I DON'T HAVE TIME to get deeply involved in a book! Not that I CAN'T get deeply involved, mind you.I just can't sit and read, uninterrupted, until the book is over, the plot has been resolved, the dog has died, true love has won out, or the killer is behind bars.
I have to postpone my reading until I can eke out a few minutes for myself to just READ and let myself "get lost in a good book,"as those posters in my classroom say.
I got to wondering this afternoon if anybody else has this problem??? I also realized that it is truly a MIRACLE that I finished this book in "only" two weeks!!!! (As if that isn't pathetic enough, I have to make excuses for myself, now..........)
For a woman who drags a book to bed with her every night, wouldn't you THINK that I might be reading before I starting making those z sounds? Sometimes I lie there, look at the book next to me, try to warm up the bedding, and feel too weak to even reach out and OPEN the book! And when, and if, I do pick it up, I have to prop the book up onto the pillow next to my sleepy head, just to put it in front of my eyeballs. Then, SLEEP GETS IN THE WAY, and most nights the bookmark drops out and I find the unread object right where I left it when my eyes closed.
Here is how the "miracle" of completing a book in "only" two weeks happened, actually. I sneaked-read. Not with a flashlight under the covers. (I would only have fallen asleep and burned out the flashlight batteries, after all.) Not by dragging the book to the bathroom and staying in there until someone shouts out, "Have you taken up residence in the bathroom????!!!!" That doesn't work, and that's not a very comfortable place to read, anyway.
I HAVE FOUND ALMOST 18 MINUTES AN HOUR to read, simply by using the mute button on my TV when a commercial comes on, and reading until the actual program comes back on!!! (See my post about "Hit that Mute Button," and you will know what I think of the persistent commercials for pharmaceuticals, anyway.) I have discovered that I don't need to watch advertising for automobiles, banking, fast food, ANY food for that matter, or ads advertising the program that's coming on next. Not ads for movies, diet remedies, or those beautiful new chocolate ice cream bars (which I confess was the only ad I had trouble muting.....)
OK, so the plot gets a little disrupted. I put my finger on the spot where I looked back up at the TV and just hold it there until the next "reading session" begins. Since the actual SHOW is shorter than the commercials (or so it seems) I can still maintain the train of thought. Try it!
As a proponent of sustained silent reading (that post will show up after I retire,) and reading in general, it has been hugely upsetting to me that I have so many diversions that my favorite pastime has been neglected.........
ESPECIALLY SINCE I HAVE SHELVES AND PILES OF BOOKS that I "plan" to read. I am celebrating a birthday this week, and in order to read all of those books I would have to live for another fifty years, and read, non-stop, for all of them. As this is NOT my twenty-fifth birthday, that is not a probability. Besides, I keep buying more books, so the piles keep growing...........................
What else do I do to find some literary time? I never leave home without a book in my possession.
I am NOT sitting at stoplights, reading, by the way. But I AM reading in doctor's offices, standing in long lines, waiting in the car, during any "spare" minutes of my half-hour lunch period, or waiting to meet up with someone with whom I am having lunch. Standing in a line at the post office goes a lot quicker with a book, and I've seen jealous stares from co-standers, wishing that they had brought THEIR book along!
I've also begun to have the library reserve the audio version of a book I want to read, and use the driving time to and from work to "listen/read." It makes the trip shorter.
Once I retire (I dream.) I plan to spend a portion of each day just sitting and reading. I want to SIT and read. Not read while I walk or watch TV. I want to have TIME to read, and not to have to fit it into something else I am busy doing!
As a child I used to sit in a tree at the end of my street, nestled into large limbs that held me comfortably, and just READ. I loved the solitary-ness (is this a word?) of it.
Yes, I am a people-person, but sometimes just being quietly alone with a good book is the best company, and the time to read, without interruption, would be wonderful......................
