Top Ten Tuesday: Things Getting in the Way of Reading

Yup. This is a big thing that gets in the way of reading. Writing posts, formatting posts (which takes far too much time), brainstorming posts, researching for posts (not that I do that much, as you well know), cross-posting, blog hopping, social media promotions, and other various preparations (graphics, coming up with questions)…

Doom scrolling, falling down Youtube holes, scrolling through Twitter, Facebook posts from friends/acquaintances/strangers I hope never to meet…it’s just far too easy to lose precious reading time to them.

As much as I hate to admit it, I’m inching toward the half-century mark, and am not as young as I used to be. Staying up to 2 in the morning with a good book isn’t something I can do 2-3 days a week. Maybe two times a month (but I pay for it the next day!). I can’t even make it past 11 sometimes.

After a long day of work (see below), I frequently don’t have the energy to open a book, and picking up the remote control to zone out for a bit is so much easier. Also, Jeopardy! makes me feel smart often enough to keep watching. As everyone has noted for the last few years, there’s too much good stuff being produced to keep up with it all, but I try. But when I can find the self-control to turn the idiot box off, my reading does go way up.

That’s 8, count ’em, 8 hours a day that I cannot read. That’s a third of every day—what a pain!

…but that’s at least 4 hours a day for audiobooks!

Most of the time, they’re great reading companions—snuggled up on my lap, curled up next to me, or laying at my feet, exuding calm and peaceful contentment while I indulge. But they can also be counted on for things like…needing to go outside in the middle of a pivotal/climactic scene. Wanting to play when I’m wanting to spend time with a book, or insisting that the hand holding the book be the one to provide the required scratches (there’s a reason I call our lab mix “an inconvenient pup”). What would I do without them?

Family members, friends, acquaintances, my wife’s friends/acquaintances…people I don’t know half as well as I should like, and those I like less than half as well as they deserve. Their number seems to be increasing in the last couple of years, and I’m not sure what I’m going to do about that.

Okay, so far—other than the night I was waiting for news on his birth and couldn’t focus on anything—he hasn’t really damaged the reading so far. But he will, so he gets a spot on the list. He’ll actually probably move up to #2, but that’s just theoretical, so we’ll give the spot to his aunt and uncles.

Three sons, one daughter, and a daughter-in-law. I cannot tell you how many hours this group has stolen from my reading time in 2023 alone. Since 1998 when the first of them made their appearance? Countless more. Whether they need to talk about something important, something incredibly trivial, something I don’t care about (which can apply to either of the first two categories, I should add), want to do something, want some help, or just want to goof around. Their desires and my reading time frequently clash. While I have, and will continue, to grumble about it…I wouldn’t have it any other way and I hope they all continue interrupting and keeping me away from books for many years to come. (not that I’ll say that to them)

There is no one I’d rather put a book down for. And no one who takes my grumbling about putting a book down better. She’s also the greatest enabler of my book-buying/hoarding habit, so I’m not complaining, I’m simply describing that she keeps me from reading.

To be fair, I’m frequently the biggest hindrance to her reading as well—especially if I want to read her a great line from my current read or talk about an interesting/great/horrible point. So it evens out in the end.