One of my anxieties about moving is that commuting time was my reading time.Enforced sitting for over three hours a day meant consuming book after book.Now I have to carve out time to read.Life has a way of filling the time you have.I say the following fully aware that you’re on the internet now, but one of the biggest time drains is the worldwide web.Humans are curious creatures and the web offers to answer any and all queries.(It still hasn’t come up with a satisfactory answer to the meaning of life, however, IMHO.)Even when I’m working on my current book, a simple fact-check can lead to surfing and before I know it, I’m out to sea.That’s why books—paper books—are such a good option.A footnoted source meant another trip to the library, and libraries led to more reading.
I’m a Goodreads author.I like Goodreads quite a lot, and I actively accept new friends there.In the past I set goals of reading 100+ books per year.Aware back in January that a move might take place, I lowered by expectations.I figured, even without commuting, that 65 books would be attainable in a year.Of course, Goodreads doesn’t count the books you write, only those you read.I had to tell even Amazon Author Central that Holy Horror was my book.Moving, however, is a liminal time.Every spare minute is spent packing.And you still owe “the man” eight hours of your day.That rumble that you feel is the moving truck growing closer.Reading time has become scarce.I fear I’m becoming illiterate.
And Goodreads makes me think of Twitter.I’ll just click over there a while and wonder why I can’t seem to grow a following.Ah, it turns out that you have to tweet often and incessantly, with erudite and trenchant things to say.The birds chirping once a second outside my window can’t even keep up.Problem is, I have a 9 to 5 job, and I’m trying to write Nightmares with the Bible.And there’s just one more fact I have to check.Wait, what’s the weather going to be like today?Gosh, is that the time?I have to get packing!That moving van will be here only hours from now.I need to calm down.The way to do that, in my case, is to read a book.
