Weekly Geeks: The Extra Hour

How you find that “extra hour” to read on a normal day? Do you read for a few minutes here and there? Do you put aside certain nights or times of the day to read?

To be honest, I rarely have an extra five minutes these days, let alone a full hour. What used to seem like a given right now seems like an unimaginable luxury — a whole hour a day to read! To do nothing but run my eyes along a page full of words and get lost in a story!

I read in snippets now. A book is always floating around nearby, though. If I find myself with five minutes until my dryer cycle ends or a friend shows up fifteen minutes late, I grab it and read greedily, practically gobbling up the words the way I gobble chocolate — quickly and furtively, as if at any moment someone will come and snatch away the thing I’m illicitly enjoying.

That’s not to say that I don’t get an hour here or an hour there. Now that the days are shorter and the nights are colder, sometimes I can be found curled up on our very strange couch (the cushions have been known to swallow the unsuspecting) with the gas fireplace whirring away and a book in my hands. More often than not, though, that’s good for only half an hour or so of enjoyment before I find myself jerking awake at some obscene hour of the morning, having fallen asleep with my neck in a very strange position and with my book sprawled open on the floor, my page long lost.

Today is different, though; today, I have time to read. The pressure to find the best possible place and the best possible book is almost indescribable. Would it be best to spend my hour in a coffee house in front of the fire, curled in an overstuffed chair with a hot chocolate next to me? Should I just stay in my own house and enjoy relaxing at home? Or should I attempt to multi-task and bring my book to the laundromat and read while making a dent in my huge pile of laundry? I still have no idea — but any of them would work, I imagine.

What about you, readers? How and when and where do you find time to read?

(Author’s note: Yes, readers, you got two Weekly Geeks posts this week! Both Corey and I were feeling inspired…ah, the beauty of having a co-blogger!)

Kate