EVER EVOLVING READING HABITS

My "To Read" basket, not to be confused with my "To Donate" basket.

A friend wrote a memoir this year, and honored me by asking that I be his first reader. It was riveting tale about a fascinating guy, and yet it took me several weeks to finish it. Partly that was because, contrary to my usual skipping-ahead style of reading, I really wanted to pay attention to every detail on this one, and sometimes read things over several times, with a gap of a few days in between to mull things over. But, as I sat here not long ago, making a mental list of excuses for my tardiness, I had one of those "aha" moments.

The chair pile, ready to be swapped with friends and relatives.

You see, I have lots of writer friends, so I hear and read lots of conversations regarding the changing face of publishing, which seems to have a lot to do with Kindles. After making my list of excuses, I realized there was a whole lot more to it than that.

The sofa table pile -- books I haven't finished, but will probably come back to, or books I have finished, but will probably want to refer to in the near future.

For example, here's how I used to read: I went to the library every two weeks or so, and browsed the shelves. I brought home three or four books each time, and read them one at a time, from start to finish. Occasionally I bought paperbacks at the grocery store. The only magazines I bought also came from the grocery store -- things like McCalls and Southern Living, that were mostly photos and could be flipped through in a few minutes. When the mega-bookstores began to appear on the scene, they became a favorite place to hang out and browse, but I rarely bought much more than a paperback, preferring to jot down titles that looked interesting, and wait to get them at the library. Hardbacks were just too dang expensive to take a chance on, unless they were by a very favorite author and I couldn't bear to wait for them. My only writing was the occasional letter to family or friends, and of course, all my schedules and to-do lists.

The coffee table pile -- books I am currently reading.

In contrast, here are my reading and writing habits now: I typically have a dozen or so books lying around the house that I have started but never finished, plus baskets and bookshelves full of others waiting to be started. I buy them at Hastings, Half Price, Sam's and Target. I order some from Amazon, who sends me almost daily emails with lists of books they think I might like, and I get many from the library, usually by browsing online and then putting them on reserve. I also swap books with several friends and relatives. I came home with a suitcase-full from the Story Circle Network conference in April, and am just now getting around to starting one of them. I also used to get lots of free books from SCN by being one of their book reviewers, but finally let that go when I gave myself permission not to finish any book that hasn't started pulling me in like a magnet by the time I'm a fourth of the way through it. There are just waaaay too many out there, yet to be read, to waste time on one that's just ok.

The to-be-read shelves, containing those that are slightly less compelling than the ones in the to-be-read basket.

Plus, I don't just read books these days. There are now magazines out there for every special interest group you can imagine. I have foodie magazines, organic gardening and urban farming magazines, art journaling and blogging magazines...you name it! I visit Pinterest on-line every two or three days, which has taken the place of all those "picture magazines" I used to buy and tear stuff out of, and I try to visit several of my favorite blogs each day, rotating through the thirty or so that I have bookmarked (the number kinda exploded recently, after I discovered "art journaling" blogs), and I keep discovering new ones to add to the list almost every dang day!

I spend an hour or so each day, before dawn, writing in my ordinary journals, an hour or two writing posts for my two blogs (not to mention all the time I spend scouting for ideas and taking photos for them). Now I'm trying to work art journaling into the routine as well.

I'm taking two on-line classes at the moment, both of which require a good bit of reading time, in addition to the recipe-cooking and art-making time. And, it's not just the lesson reading that takes up one's time, there's also the online community you become a part of with each class you take, through the sharing of comments, asking and answering questions, and posting photos of what you have created -- communities that often last long after the class has ended, or follow each other from class to class!

Last but certainly not least, there is the time spent on emails and facebook. Need I say more? Is it any wonder that I have so much trouble finishing a book these days? But oh my my, how I do love a book that is so compelling, right from the get-go, that it wraps itself around me like a boa constrictor, squeezing out everything else. Books like The Help, Harry Potter, Girl with the Dragon Tatoo, Under the Tuscan Sun and The Lotus Eaters. I could really use another one of those right now. When's the last time you read a book like that? What was it?