“Remoted – Hybrid” – Day 849 (Tuesday) – books

Many books waiting
for my time.

Book Club has been great to get me reading again. In our last meeting, the question was asked about what we like to read, and my answer lately is “whatever the book club says to read.” 

Thanks to the book club, I’ve already read more books this year than in the several years leading up to it. Before this book club with the rule of “fiction, in paperback,” I tended towards non-fiction, including How to Argue and Win Every Time, which was bought during the flirtation with the idea of law school back in 2008 or 2009 and has sat unread on the shelf ever since. I bet if I'd read it, I could have spared myself some lost arguments. There are also most of the Malcolm Gladwell books, several of which have been read, and others which patiently sit, collecting dust and waiting for my time so they can be read.

Today’s Facebook memories for this date in 2012 had a post about a book and an airport. I was traveling back to Clarksville, Tennessee after visiting cousins. The airport departure gate area in California was full of people reading books. A popular title of the time was 50 Shades of Gray, and I spotted many people reading it.

One particular woman sat my departure gate reading 50 Shades. She was already there when arrived, and after I had been there for a while, she got up and made an inquiry at the desk. I heard the airline desk attendant tell her that her flight had already left. She was so engrossed in her book that she missed her flight. I didn’t find that book series to be very well written, but it sure was popular. And it’s always fun to tear into a book that can’t be put down, but pay attention to your flight announcements, travelers.

I really miss being a kid in the summer, off from school with the available time and absence of obligations to just lay around and read all day. Back then, I had a rule that the current book had to be finished before another could be started. Based on the number of half read books in a stack right now, it was a vaulable rule. 

As a kid at home in the summer, I would read in any and every room in the house and also the front porch. I would read in the car on the way to our annual camping vacation, in the tent, and on the beach. At Mummu’s, I was the queen of her second-floor porch, lying on a cot in the sun, reading a book, eating Pringles, and drinking Sprite. Those were good times. 

If only there was sufficient free time as an adult to get through the unread books pile. A couple months should do. Just like summer school vacation.