Sunday Salon: Where does the time go?
Three weekends ago I was patting myself on the back for having read four books in four days. Since then I have finished…drumroll please…one book. Granted, it was Crime and Punishment, but I started reading it in February so, err, yeah.
I have started reading two other books (Mr Chartwell by Rebecca Hunt and The Books of Magic mini series by Neil Gaiman) and got another out from the library that I’m excited about (The Suspicions of Mr Whicher by Kate Summerscale) but I really feel I’ve had a bit of a fail on the finding/making time to read front. Do you ever have weeks or even months like that?
I have excuses of course. We’ve been doing some more work on the house (I know I’ve been saying that since we moved in three and a half years ago; it’s a project), which is time-consuming and only sometimes satisfying, but I keep going to look at the library (the room that’s nearest to being “finished”) and remind myself that it will be amazing when all of the house looks that good. Well, okay, it’ll never all look that good unless we line every room with books and I don’t have that many books. Not yet.
We’re also trying when possible to take advantage of the lovely spring weather that has finally arrived, especially if we can enjoy it with friends. Yesterday we took a boat trip around Bristol Harbour and then hung out in the park. After a few recent speed walks through the park en route to Screwfix it was nice to be the ones stopping and enjoying the park for once!
So I was wondering: what do you do if you notice you’re not getting much time to read? Do you try to change something in your routine to make time? Do you put it down to the book you’re reading not being gripping enough and switch to something else? Or do you just ride it out? Any advice appreciated, because I do not like this pattern!
I’ve had weeks and months like that. Recently what has helped is that I’m taking part of Wednesdays and most of Saturdays (except when I’m working at my part-time job) offline. I’m restricting myself to very little Internet and have been able to find more time to read as a result. So far, it’s been great.
Wat a lot of cables! I guess it’s nice to do a bit on the house at a time. We left it, some things need doing up after 7 years of us living here. Maybe soon. We’re not handy.
Last week I didn’t read much either and I don’t like it. I do try to make some time for reading but I don’t fret about it.
I do think I’m more likely to put aside a book that is just so-so when I don’t have much time to read – well, in that case I really only want to read the best books!
Usually when that happens to me, it’s the book. And not that the book is bad, but for whatever reason, it’s not engaging me. So I switch books!
Enjoy your weekend…love the boats!
Here’s MY SUNDAY SALON POST
Bryan G While that sounds very sensible, for once it has not been the Internet distracting me, hence the complete lack of blog comments from me.
Judith It’s disconcerting, isn’t it, not reading? Must fix this!
Laurel-Rain Thank you, I hope you have a great week.
Yes I agree a bit with Bryan. If you want to get your reading back, sometimes you have to restrict something else (like tv, or computer time, or just procrastination) and make a real effort to focus time on just reading each day.