My Own Reading Adventure

About 9 months ago, when I began blogging in earnest, one of the things I wrote about was my rediscovery of reading for pleasure. I began to pick up a few books here and there, just reacquiring my taste for the world of words.

This summer, I began to more systematically read through the (many!) titles on my 'want-to-read' list.

By the way, to this end, I discovered a great tool for keeping track of my book lists - Goodreads.com, which is actually a social networking site for readers. The literary Facebook. The idea is to create a network of friends and post book reviews to share with each other, but I have no friends, and I'm okay with that. I have yet to write a review. And that's okay, too. I mainly use the site to keep track of the books I have read, the books I want to read, and the books I am currently reading. Tracking this progress is very satisfying. So now, whenever I hear about a good book (on someone's blog, or listening to NPR, or reading the paper, or wherever), I can find the book on the site and add it to my "to-read" list, instead of jotting it down in crayon on the back of that HEB receipt from my purse whose fate is to be lost forever. Awesome.

Upon checking my progress since July, I found that I have read 10 books in the past 2 months! Wow. This includes a couple of books that I read with my daughter, but still. I'm pretty sure that's more than I read in the previous 5 years (10 years?).

The other day I was telling a friend how I had been catching up on my reading lately and she asked me, "When do you read?" I understood her to mean, "When do you find the time to read that much?" It's a good question. I have 2 kids. These kids have homework and various other activities and needs. I have a husband that I enjoy spending time with. I have a job (part-time, but somewhat consuming). I have a house to maintain. I have bills to pay. I like TV. There's the old man cat (I tell you, he's trouble.) When in the world am I reading?

I read:

• while waiting for the bus that takes me from my parking garage nearer to my office
• while riding on the bus
• while walking up the hill to my office
• while stopped at traffic lights (I NEVER read while actually driving - you've seen people do this, right? I do not.)
• while the kids are otherwise occupied and don't need me (although I have found that when I pick up my book, often that ignites a spark in my daughter who says, "Mommy, let's read my book!" And we do.
• while lying in bed before sleep
  

These are not great spans of time. It's a little here and a little there. Slow and steady wins the race, so I've read.

But time is only one side of it. The other is desire. My husband has a saying: "People do what they want to do." Boy, that little phrase used to irk me no end. (Do any of your husbands have their own pithy observations like this?) Translation: You may say you want to do something, and for sure you even believe that you want to do it, yet you expend no effort to actually do it, meaning you don't really want to do it. Because if you really wanted to, you would.

The bottom line: I do what I want to do. I want to read. It matters to me. So I make it happen.

Apparently, though, I don't want to exercise.