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Too much to do, too little time...

Started by delboy, November 30, 2009, 03:53:08 AM

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delboy

So, last night, I finally found time to pick up the novel I'm reading. Managed about half a chapter before my eyes started to close of their own accord and I had to turn out the light and go to sleep. It got me to thinking...

When I were a lad...I used to read loads. Several books a week from the library, summer days outside in the sun devouring Desmond Bagley and Alistair Maclean. Even when I first started work I'd spend many a lunch hour in the coffee lounge reading the latest Stephen King (I remember looking forward to my hour a day in Salem's Lot). But these days it takes me forever to finish a novel. I have so many unread books on my shelf that it's not beyond the realms of possibility that I'll never have to buy a book again.

We often talk, or hear talk, of how the younger generation don't read much. But I have to put my hand up to that, too. I mean, I do read - but not like I used to. I have about six books on the go, at the moment, only one of which is fiction. But I doubt I'll complete them all before Xmas.

What happened? What happened to me? What's happening to the younger generation?

For me, there's simply so much to do these days. So much more than ever before. And there was me believing - for years - that computers were going to give us more time, not suck it all away like some great Dyson on our back. I work far longer hours than ever before. More tiring hours, too, though that may be my age. Evenings I give guitar lessons, take the dog for a walk (lunchtimes, too). I don't do Facebook or the like, but I do like to pop in here and a couple of associated forums - one each for fishing and guitar playing (I've had to give up the cycling one, because it was just too busy) - and suddenly there's an hour gone. The competition last month, the crit group this week will eat up time. Read the paper, watch the news, visit the family, sneak in an evening down the pub with friends once in a while. Learn the guitar. Walk to Tesco and back seemingly every day. Work through reams of paperwork that come from having insurance and mortgages and mobile phones and dental plans and motorcycles. Saturday morning bike ride or a bit of fishing or fixing punctures. Saturday afternoon shopping, especially this time of year. Fix things. Clean things. Mow things. Weed things. Time just evaporates, and when I do get a moment to sit down and read a novel I'm either too tired or feel too guilty because there's something else I ought to be doing.

I don't do computer games, thank goodness. But I see how they eat all the time up that God gives. Same with TV - although the advent of hard-disk recording is great, because you can fast forward to the good bits and knock an hour show down to about ten minutes. Nevertheless, it's no wonder reading is a dying art, and when folks do read they like chapters that are about as long as this paragraph.

As for actually writing...  :(

Derek
"If you want to write, write it. That's the first rule. And send it in, and send it in to someone who can publish it or get it published. Don't send it to me. Don't show it to your spouse, or your significant other, or your parents, or somebody. They're not going to publish it."

Robert B. Parker

Rev. Austin

I agree, but from a 30 year-old's perspective  ;) I don't have my own family or bills to worry about (at the moment) but still find time isn't as abundant as it used to be.  Everything seems to take longer, or soak up more time (like the simple act of checking emails this morning turned into a trawl through miscellaneous websites) - and the internet definitely uses more time than it saves  :smiley: I didn't read properly for a period of about five years, as other things had my attention but nowadays I like to try and read as much as possible, but something as simple as sitting down in a comfy chair to read is absurdly difficult to achieve considering I don't technically have as much on my plate as someone such as yourself, Del.  :cheesy: If time flies when you're having fun, someone forgot to tell me when I should start enjoying myself haha
facebook.com/waynegoodchildishaunted
Stay in touch! I don't mean that in a pervy way.

delph_ambi

The trick is to read one book at a time. That way you get absorbed. Spread yourself too thin, and you don't, so you aren't so likely to drop everything in order to devour the next chapter.

delboy

My trouble, Delph, is that I want to know everything. I adore learning (at least, learning outside of official learning establishments - I was never keen on skool). So midway through a novel I'll read something in the text that gets me to thinking, or I'll see something on the news, and then a quick shuftie at Amazon or a quick trip into the library and then I have a non-fiction book on the go.

Currently (still) reading about the origins of the universe, also string theory, what'll happen when the oil runs out and the political shennanigans currently taking place to try and secure as much of it as possible, just finished an insider's guide to drug dealing, half way through a book on Buddhism, another on astronomy, one on writing and the function of Story, one on neuralplasticity, another on NLP and hypnosis, and I have a pick-up/put-down book on the great writings of Gay Talese. Itching to start a boxing book called Four Kings about Hagler, Hearns, Robinson, and Duran (that was such a great era!), and I have a bunch of short story magazines, New Scientists, and other magazines to peruse as well.

Once in a while I do get down to a single book. But it's a rare joy.

On the plus side, these books are all full of great ideas for writing fiction.

Del
"If you want to write, write it. That's the first rule. And send it in, and send it in to someone who can publish it or get it published. Don't send it to me. Don't show it to your spouse, or your significant other, or your parents, or somebody. They're not going to publish it."

Robert B. Parker

Ed

#4
Valid point, Del. I fell out of love with novels a while back and read nothing but non fiction for quite a while - the world is an amazing place, and although the truth might actually not be stranger than fiction, always, I found it infinitely more interesting. It's only in the past three or four years I've begun to read fiction again. I still love a good autobiography. I very rarely find novels that grab me in the same way.

As for the time issue - I'm the same as you - I spread myself too thinly and find all my energies dissipated. I have been better at focussing my attention on fewer things in recent times, and that helps a lot with productivity. I still have a long way to go, though. :scratch:
Planning is an unnatural process - it is much more fun to do something.  The nicest thing about not planning is that failure comes as a complete surprise, rather than being preceded by a period of worry and depression. [Sir John Harvey-Jones]