Pleasure reading

So I'm in the heart of my semester at this point in time. I'm getting paperwork together to prep for my thesis, I've finished major presentations and now get to begin to start looking ahead to what I'm going to write about for final projects of the semester. I'm also excited to get back into the swing of editing now that I have both time to do it and work in the queue for me to edit.

However, as these two parts of my life keep me fairly busy, there is one little part that falls by the wayside: reading for sheer pleasure. I can always find some time to sneak in web comics or the occasional graphic novel. Hell, I can even inch my way through poetry and short story collections usually, but I don't get to hole up and spend a whole day reading a book. I don't get to take a week and go to the cafe every night to work my way through some great piece of fiction. What might be even worse, I don't even get to work my way through all of those not-so-great works of literature that I would never even consider in a scholastic sense.

What's worse is that, generally speaking, when I have the quiet and solitude to read is usually in the wee hours of the morning. In case you haven't noticed, this is also my prime blogging time, but that's not the point. The point is, I spend so much of my time with work and school stuff reading that by the time I get to this time of night, my eyes are exhausted and the thought of reading more still becomes a bit of a hassle. Maybe I just need to nap more.

So folks, this is my advice on how to improve your life: find what kind of books you like, hole up on your own (with or without music - that's a personal taste) and just enjoy the act of sitting and reading. You can do it privately, though I find that I am very easily distracted by anything and everything around my house. You can do it publicly, but that does tend to lend itself to the distractions that come with the world around you. Wherever and however you choose to, set a mark for yourself. Say you want to read so many pages a day, or so many books in a week or month. It's an easy accomplishment to attain, and it may actually make you appear smarter. Sometimes it can even make you smarter.

If there's anything I miss from working as a substitute teacher, it was the ability (on a good day) to sit and read with moderate interruptions for roughly six to seven hours a day. When I was subbing regularly I was at a book and a half a week on average. Many days, I'd finish an entire novel in the span of a school day. I know it takes a certain type of person, and everyone reads at their own pace, but whatever your pace is, don't forget to READ!

Yeah, I'm being overly dramatic here, but you get my point.