A few weeks into the new year -- a few weeks after the time I declared my retirement had actually begun -- I started a new file on my computer entitled "Books I Have Read in Retirement." My idea in making the list was that I would not only keep a list of the books but I would also make brief notes about the most important things I had learned from the books. I started it off with a book I had bought for my husband but which I had skimmed, so it didn't take long and there, I had one book on the list! Then, the list sat there unchanged until yesterday. It took me two months to read another book?? And I'm retired, with "reading" being a prime component of my intended daily schedule?
I AM reading. I'm just not doing very well on the books. I find I'm more inclined to take a moment for the quick stuff -- magazines and newspapers -- but often, "quick" turns into "prolonged." That's because I read most of them online, and news online is literally endless. In addition to the local paper, which sends me a daily digest by e-mail, I can read updated news, plus features, from the Washington Post and New York Times, and I have Slate and Politico and SkyGrid apps on my phone. Every time I check e-mail on my computer, the AOL homepage offers dozens of links. If I follow one of them, the page I end up on offers its own links, which leads to more links, and so on. I can read Time magazine on my phone and online I can read an unlimited number of magazine articles. Meanwhile, I've probably thought of something I need to Google or to research on Amazon.com or TripAdvisor, and I'm off to more links.There is always the lure of "just one more link, it'll only take a minute." At the end of a day I can have read thousands of words and never picked up a book.
But the realization it had taken me two months to complete a book startled me. I also came upon a file on my computer I had started in February called "Books I Want to Read in Retirement." I still want to read those books, and I still have a stack of books waiting that I optimistically bought last fall.
Keeping up with the news is important, and the short articles I read are informational and often fun. But time must be budgeted even in retirement, it seems, so I am going to allocate my reading time and make sure some gets saved for books. I've already picked out the next one from my stack, and there are some fascinating ones beckoning. And I've got those two books on retirement that I've started on but got sidetracked from. I promised to pass along tips and ideas from them, and I will. I promise. Now that the "just one more link" lure has been identified, it can be conquered!
I AM reading. I'm just not doing very well on the books. I find I'm more inclined to take a moment for the quick stuff -- magazines and newspapers -- but often, "quick" turns into "prolonged." That's because I read most of them online, and news online is literally endless. In addition to the local paper, which sends me a daily digest by e-mail, I can read updated news, plus features, from the Washington Post and New York Times, and I have Slate and Politico and SkyGrid apps on my phone. Every time I check e-mail on my computer, the AOL homepage offers dozens of links. If I follow one of them, the page I end up on offers its own links, which leads to more links, and so on. I can read Time magazine on my phone and online I can read an unlimited number of magazine articles. Meanwhile, I've probably thought of something I need to Google or to research on Amazon.com or TripAdvisor, and I'm off to more links.There is always the lure of "just one more link, it'll only take a minute." At the end of a day I can have read thousands of words and never picked up a book.
But the realization it had taken me two months to complete a book startled me. I also came upon a file on my computer I had started in February called "Books I Want to Read in Retirement." I still want to read those books, and I still have a stack of books waiting that I optimistically bought last fall.
Keeping up with the news is important, and the short articles I read are informational and often fun. But time must be budgeted even in retirement, it seems, so I am going to allocate my reading time and make sure some gets saved for books. I've already picked out the next one from my stack, and there are some fascinating ones beckoning. And I've got those two books on retirement that I've started on but got sidetracked from. I promised to pass along tips and ideas from them, and I will. I promise. Now that the "just one more link" lure has been identified, it can be conquered!
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