Dealing with Hydras

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Reading just makes me more conscious of all the other books I need to read.  I'm reading through a book my advisor wrote, and she's simply unbelievable. Each page is filled with footnotes of other sources she acquired in her long research, and each time I come away from a stint of reading it, I have at least three new books I need to buy and another dozen or so I need to find at the library.  It's like getting into a fight with a hydra-- when you cut off one head at least two more take it's place.  Except this is perhaps worse, simply as whenever I read twenty pages, I have about 20 more books I ought to read. The odds are not in my favor.

The other thing is I think I am rather slow at reading.  For an hour's sessions in a difficult work, I can only get about twenty pages read. Twenty! So my pace seems to absolutely crawl.  This is rather hard to swallow as when I read less mind-intensive works, I can absolutely devour them. Well, at least I thought so.

I've mentioned reading War and Peace. It is taking flipping forever. Maybe it's because I'm reading in on my kindle and I can't see how far I've got left.  In this instance, I'm almost grateful for the kindle, as reading that tome in bed at night would be suicide to my sprained wrist. But it does make me question whether I am a fast reader or not.

But then here's another thing. When I finish my daily quota of reading for academic work, I'm tired of sitting. I want to take the dog for a walk, concoct something in the kitchen, learn to bowl in cricket. I don't really want to sit down and read again. In fact, I don't want to sit down, period.

I feel like the tortoise in the race of the tortoise and the hare: plod, plod, plod.

Happy Friday! We're off on Saturday for a birthday so it's travelling again over the weekend, but very much looking forward to seeing familiar faces. Enjoy yours!!

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So, how do you do it? After graduate school or work, do you want to come home to sit down again? How do you manage your leisure reading with the weights of a job or school? Are you like me, and now catch the ten minutes before bed?