okay, so i’ve got a shelf and a half full of books that i’ve bought over the course of the last couple of months and i haven’t been able to crack them open and start reading them…Â so, here’s my question.Â
how do you find the time to read?
i don’t think i’m a horrible manager of my time, but there’s always room for improvement. what i’m really looking for is finding an hour or so a day to just read… but the problem is, there isn’t an hour in my day to read! so, how do you do it? how do you organize your day in such a way that allows you the time to read?
please help! i’m looking for all the good suggestions you have… (you can keep your bad ones!)
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man i sacrifice lunch and sleep to read. i also get quite a bit done on the toilet, because i’m a rather pensive shitter.
so you’re telling me that the book that you let me borrow–that i have yet to crack open yet–was with you in the bathroom with your pants around your ankles?
you let me borrow a marked book?
that’s a little disturbing.
rest assured that every book you borrow from me has “done time.”
I don’t know Monts–I think your best reading days may be in the past. I feel your pain. I come home from work and transition into daddy for the next three hours until 8:30 when the kids go to bed. Then I’ve just got to sit and do nothing for at least an hour. By then it’s 9:30/10:00 so I may read for a half hour or hour at the most, but then it’s time for bed because you’ve got to do it all again tomorrow.
Although, Gentry is right. It’s amazing how much reading could get done on the crapper, but that is usually my magazine time.
1. Don’t feel guilty.
2. Acknowledge you will never read enough.
3. Don’t feel bad about reading brain-dead stuff.
4. Skim like mad.
5. If a book sucks, toss it. I have a 30 page rule. If it doesn’t grab me by that point, I quit. If it’s a highly regarded book I extend that to 50. Life is too short to waste on a bad book.
6. Prioritize your reading. And then schedule it.
Jeff also reads for 4 hours every other Saturday when making biodiesel. If there isn’t a social event on a given weeknight, he’s in his reading chair (quite literally). There are many nights he reads from the time he comes home to the time he goes to bed taking the book with him while eating and to the bathroom. Sometimes the book even goes to bed with him and he sits up reading until he’s falling asleep. I’ve curtailed this last one a little because I can’t sleep with the light on. He does this on weekends, too. The things that prevent Jeff from reading are: social events, work, telephone, dog walking, internet and church (listed in order of most loathed first & most loved last).
Jeff takes books to social events so that when he gets bored he can read instead. These events include: weddings, recitals, receptions, parties, and anywhere that we might show up 5 minutes early and he has a chance to read.
Wow, what about his poor wife?
Scott, that’s some good advice. I especially like your 30 page rule. Why should I force myself to read an entire book just because a) I was stupid enough to buy it or b) someone told me “I simply must read this book?”
One of my frustrations with my current employment is being obligated to read volumes of books that I would never choose to read on my own (like my current reading “How We Got the Bible”). It has made reading a burden instead of a leisure.
let the record show that i love my wife much more than books. moreover, i wish i could read like her. she chews through books like termites through timber and smokes books like a junkie hitting the rock.
two more things: i also read during work. i take advantage of my breaks and, if there is any down time, i prop a book up where my boss can’t see it and start readin’. i also read while watching baseball and most shows on television (the office and the closer excluded).
i’m with rags when it comes to magazine reading while i’m stinkin it up… i hate to “mark” my books.
these are some good suggestions guys. thanks… hopefully i can start doing some of this stuff and actually start reading more. i especially like the 30 page rule! that helps a ton… i’m tired of trudging through terrible books.