Reading – A Guilty Pleasure

I have stacks of books in my office. Two bookshelves full, I don’t know how many ebooks loaded up on my tablet, and a ton more on my wish list. But lately I just can’t bring myself to sit down and read.  I read a TON when I was younger.  My Dad would beam when he’d walk in the room and see me curled up with a book. It didn’t matter that it was Stephen King’s Graveyard Shift. I was reading, and he loved it.

It’s actually been going on for quite some time. Years. Reading has become a (VERY) guilty pleasure. To me, there always is something more important to be doing than Stretching out with a book. Even when it’s relevant to something I’m doing, or studying. Cleaning, laundry, yard work, all the minor fixer upper projects I have planned, I put them first. I always need to be doing something productive. I constantly multitask. Reading has become equivalent to laziness, even though I know it’s not.

I love reading and I miss it. Fiction or non-fiction, reading feeds your brain. Reading improves your writing. Like photography, there are so many things I want to learn more about. And I can’t wait to get back to it.

Luckily, my husband enjoys reading, and we’ve decided to set aside Thursday evenings to indulge in books. I can’t wait. After dinner, the TV will stay off, and I’ll finally allow myself this pleasure. I wonder what it will be like, if I’ll fight the urge to get up and clean something the whole time.  We’ll see.

Doctor Sleep is my target.  I read the first few pages and really did get sucked in, but the Productivity Ogre stepped in and I’ve never picked the book back up. This was weeks ago. I’m looking forward to diving back in.

How about you? Are you a diehard bookworm, or do you face similar issues with allowing yourself the “downtime”?