Reading

I love to read. Lately though (like, since I began college, 6 years ago), my "pleasure" reading has dropped drastically. Oh, I read a lot of magazines on the toi-let, but where my nightly routine pre-college used to be reading a book for 30-60 minutes before bed, it is now occupied by TV, movies, the Internet, and Sudoku.

I probably only read 3-4 books a year now, which is quite sad. Part of the slowness may be due to me reading more than one book at once. I NEVER used to do this. I actually have four books opened now, with two that I am currently reading. I had been reading The Appeal, by John Grisham, but stopped reading it when I started Pride and Prejudice and Zombies in late June. I have been continually reading Victor Klemperer's 1933-1941 diary for about the past year and half now. I just started 1937. The other book I have open is Sprezzatura, 50 Ways Italian Genius Shaped the World. I am about halfway through, but have not read it for quite some time now.

One positive in my reading habits the last few years is that I am reading more non-fiction works. I have more WWII and history books on my shelf waiting to be read. In the past, I was not all that interested in learning anything outside of school, but since leaving a learning environment, I can't see any harm in continuing to educate myself.

I also have gotten into downloading books from the LA Library (http://audiobooks.lapl.org) and listening to them on my commute. I have listened to quite a few books this way, which probably amps up my total list of books "read" per year to closer to 10.

Looking at the evidence, it seems my independence and technology are to blame for my failing reading habits. I used to sit down with a book in my spare time in front of the TV, outside on a summer day, or at night in bed. Now that I have the world at my fingertips, I have neglected my reading some. I should hope by the end of the year, I will have all four of these books finished... and have since journeyed on to another world of words.