Reading More Books – the Struggle is Real!!

I read a book. I promise.

The problem is that I read an ARC. Then I realized the release date isn’t until mid-June which means I can’t share my thoughts about it just yet. (But . . . it was great and awesome and I thoroughly enjoyed it. So, hooray for mid-June, I guess).

Then I had the brilliant idea to make a logo for this website, which I think is a good idea in concept and in practicality. But, really, I have no background in color management or graphic design or anything that would actually be helpful in this endeavor. To say it has been a struggle would be quite accurate. It might be time to call in reinforcements, aka my neighbor who does all sorts of lovely artsy things and might know what she’s doing about things like this.

I’ve also been trying to put some effort into a writing project I’ve got going, but am suffering from a severe case of “too many ideas and too much disorganization and why can’t these words just magically appear on my computer screen” syndrome.

Irregardless, the problem this week is that I did not read two books, which means I haven’t got anything brilliant – or even quasi-brilliant – to share with you.

And that reminds me of an article I saw about how to read more. For the life of me, I can’t remember where I saw it. If I find it later, I’ll link to it. Here’s what I remember from it:

  • Wake up early to read for 15 minutes in bed before getting up to start your day.
  • Keep a book at your desk to read in short bursts or during lunch.
  • Read at your children’s extracurricular activities.
  • Have several books in progress at the same time, so you can bounce around between them.

Does that actually work? Here are my responses to each of those points:

  • Wake up early? Are you serious? I spent most days wishing I could sleep longer, and the idea of waking up early, getting up to turn on a light, finding my glasses so I could see . . . by the time I did those things, my “15 minutes early” would be more like “2 minutes” early. This means you’re really asking me to wake up 25+ minutes early. Yeah, that’s not going to happen.
  • Keep a book at my desk? Let’s be honest: if I kept a book around me at all times, I would never get anything done. I’d just sit there and read. Which sounds amazing, but is probably impractical. And during lunch? I can usually eat lunch in about 20 minutes. Adding a book to that would be adding hours, because I know I would eat slower, wipe my fingers every time I needed to turn a page, and then I’d forget I had something to do after lunch and would just sit there reading. Again, probably impractical on most days.
  • Read at my kid’s activities? Let me tell you the two things I do at my kid’s activities: talk to other parents, and watch my kid. My kids play the same sports every season, at the same place, so we see the other parents often. Friendships have developed. We commiserate with the struggles of being parents and share stories. We talk. And when we aren’t talking, we’re watching the kids. We watch them in drills. We watch them goofing off and playing tea party when they really ought to be working on ball skills. During games, we probably yell at them to pay attention. If I was to do any reading, I would go into a little bubble – I wouldn’t hear you talking to me, I wouldn’t notice what’s going on around me – and that would just be rude.
  • Have several books in progress? That just sounds confusing. Really confusing. Would I really read more if I was trying to read multiple books at one time? I have a feeling I would get wrapped up in one book, then prioritize the other books and read it until it was finished. Otherwise, I’d have to literally write things down so I could keep it all straight. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for multi-tasking; I just don’t think I would enjoy this.

So, article, thanks for the suggestions, but I’d rather focus on one book, not wake up early, watch my kids play sports, and enjoy talking to my friends. Which means I learned nothing useful from it.

In fairness to the article, each suggestion was provided by one person, so nobody does all of these things. The general idea, I think, is to find ways to designate even just a few minutes a day to reading that you don’t currently. And I think that’s a good idea. 

There’s got to be a secret to reading more without adding hours to the day. My current solution is just “stay up late until you’ve finished the book or literally your eyes won’t focus on the words anymore”.

I spent a few minutes thinking: how do I add reading to the day? And then it came to me: don’t read the book, listen to it. My husband takes this approach visually: why read the book when he can watch the movie? Enter: audiobooks!

I think audiobooks might be an excellent option for most people – if you’re driving to and from work, or riding the subway or a train or what have you, you’ll have built-in time during your day where listening to something is the only thing you can do. I currently don’t have a daily commute, and if I’m in the car there’s a good chance the kids are also in the car, which means I can’t listen to what I’d prefer to. At home, you could listen while cooking or doing laundry  or a host of other things that require you to use your hands but not necessarily your mind.

I’ve never listened to an audiobook. I think my fear is that the voices I hear won’t match my preconceived notion of what a character should sound like. Or maybe I’m just too lazy to carry headphones or cables to listen to things in my car or at home. They are popular options, though, so I probably ought to reconsider. I may not have a daily commute, but I do walk my dog, which would give me plenty of time to listen to something. My neighbor raves about the Harry Potter audiobooks; if they weren’t so darned expensive, I’d give them a try. 

Note to self: get some audio books!

^audible is the audiobook division of Amazon

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