Guest blogger Mindy Klasky is the author of six fantasy novels, including the award-winning, best-selling The Glasswrights’ Apprentice and numerous short stories. Her latest novel, Sorcery and the Single Girl, is the second book in a series about a love-struck D.C. librarian who discovers she’s a witch. Ten percent of proceeds from the sale of Sorcery and the Single Girl and Girl’s Guide to Witchcraft, will benefit First Book.
I like to think of myself as an organized person. I like to pretend that I meet every one of my deadlines (early, even!), and that I can juggle an infinite number of activities with the perfect aplomb of a well-oiled machine. (Why would a machine juggle? Let me go research that… Wait, I don’t have time to research that. I’ll just have to let the image stand.) And yet, I know that I fall short, all too often.
When I practiced law, I became accustomed to recording the time I spent on client matters. I ticked off my life in six-minute increments, making sure that I was scrupulously fair because someone was paying good money for my time. I realized that my legal practice days were numbered when I sat down to read a book for fun and caught myself looking at my watch, automatically reaching for a pencil to scribble 9:06 (my start time.)
As a librarian and author, my days are less filled with the minutiae of time-keeping, but they are busy nonetheless. I spend approximately 10 hours a day traveling to and from work and completing my day-job. I spend another seven hours sleeping. Toss in an hour for personal grooming and dressing, and another two hours for meal preparation and consumption (fortunately, in the company of family, so that I get to spend some time with loved ones!)
That leaves four hours.
Four hours for socializing. For keeping up on emails with friends and writing-business-contacts. For writing. For everything else.
And yet, even in the rush of cramming as many things as possible into those four hours, I find myself gravitating to reading. I am fortunate enough to be able to buy new books on a whim. I am guilty enough that my to-be-read shelf is a carefully-constructed masterpiece of leaning books. Those books become my escape, my refuge, even in the midst of an otherwise crazy life.
I think about the pleasure that I take in books, the ability to travel to other places, other times, and I am more than willing to invest my four hours in reading. And if I can slip a little reading time into my commute? And if I manage to take lunch at my desk and alternate reading with responding to work emails? And if I share snippets of new books with my family while we make dinner? So much the better.
How do you find time to read? What tricks have you found to make sure that books remain a part of your busy life?
It’s so very hard to be in college and find time to read leisurely. If it’s not a busy period (which is rare), I read a little each night. But I mostly read during breaks (free weekends, holidays, school breaks, etc…). Recently over fall break, I was able to finish Jodi Picoult’s “My Sister’s Keeper” and I was floored. Such a great book. I hated to read it so fast, but it was the only way before the madness of school began again!
A recent cable outage (normally a inconvenience) helped me to rediscover some books on my shelf. I’ve found that simply turning off the television has increased the time and opportunities I have to sit down and read.
I’m grateful that my commute on metro gives me time to read. I also like to keep a book in my purse for impromptu reading opportunities. I find I’m much more patient waiting in line at the grocery store or post office if I can pull out my book and read a couple of pages.