In Which We Discuss Reading Habits
My writing friend John Wiswell recently posted on his blog with a lament that he found he reads less when he is writing a lot. Well, don't believe me, go check out his post "Reading While Writing" – it's a great read. I got to thinking about this conundrum and decided I needed to write a blog post about it. So one day I will … ha ha, just kidding. This is said blog post 
As a book worm from waaaay back, spending all of my free time reading was the norm for many, many years. In fact, back in the days when I was a consultant and living in hotels or temporary housing, one of the most wonderful things about it was being able to read every evening. At one point, I remember "living" (Monday thru Friday) in San Antonio, Texas and reading at least a book a week which was quite an accomplishment for a slow reader like me. I read everything – classics, literature, mysteries, history and some nonfiction.
When I lived in Mexico, I joined a book club that was part social gathering and part lending library for English-speaking expats living in Mexico City. I relished having a constant supply of books and chatting each week with avid readers, even if their taste in books didn't precisely line up with mine.
All that changed when I got pregnant. You've heard people talk about "mommy brain" or "pregnancy brain" … well, I had it to the nth degree. I was completely exhausted at the end of the work day and even when I wasn't sleeping in the evenings, I didn't have the brain capacity to concentrate on a book. I really began to miss reading, so I compromised. I listened to audio books on my iPod – mostly light fare like Alexander McCall Smith. It took me ages to finish a book but the best thing was that towards the end of my pregnancy when I had trouble sleeping, I could put in my earphones and listen for awhile until I fell back to sleep.
After my first baby came, I had even less capacity for reading and the little time and energy I could muster was dedicated to reading parenting "how to" books … how to care for baby, how to get baby to sleep … you get the idea. I was just starting to get back into the reading habit when baby number two came along and I was back to square one.
It was when my daughter – my second child – was just beginning to toddle that I caught the writing bug. So instead of re-immersing myself in my beloved fiction, I turned instead to books about writing.
Since I began writing, what little free time I have is mostly consumed with either writing or learning about writing. I have read short stories; consuming bite-sized morsels of fiction is much more manageable than investing in longer works. I have also read quite a bit of nonfiction in areas that I need to learn about (some nonfiction book reviews are coming to my blog). But I have read precious few novels.
Having an iPad has allowed me to modestly increase the amount of time I spend reading. My iPad allows me to occasionally utilize those bits of available time during my kids' art class, soccer class, etc. for reading that I might otherwise spend foraging for caffeine or candy bars.
Bottom line is that it's a combination of factors at work. The first and probably most important is just simply lack of free time. The other factor is that when my mind is busy daydreaming about my own characters, setting or story, it's hard to convince myself to jump out of that world and into somebody else's.
I hope that once both of my kids are in school and I have more of a routine, I can squeeze in time for much more reading and writing. I look forward to the day when I can satisfy both sides of my new split personality – bookworm AND writer.
So how about you? Has having an e-book reader changed your reading habits? If you're a writer, do you find that your reading has changed since becoming a writer? Or do you find that your reading habits change as your writing ebbs and flows? Please share!
