the regretful 'reading habit for a car' trade

tonight, a friday night, i decided to stay home and finish a book that's taken me forever to read. it's not that i wasn't enjoying it. it's just that my reading habit has been very weak and inconsistent as of late. it's a bummer really but i only have myself to blame. i don't wanna be a dude who isn't always constantly in a book. i enjoy reading and the feeling of eagerly anticipating my next opportunity to get back into a book or start a new one.

it's not that i suddenly enjoy reading any less. what happened is i traded in my healthy reading habit for a car. before i had a car, i read on buses and at bus stops. that alone would usually supply me with a good 20-40 minutes of reading time per day. not only that, but finding myself in a position where i began the day reading set a tone. there's nothing better going on at the bus stop so i'd bury myself in whatever book i was currently reading. i'd get to work and be bummed cuz i had to stop. i'd look for opportunities to try and make time throughout the day to read a few pages here, a few pages there.

now i just wake up and go to work. i've started waking up later. i spent years waking up 45 minutes earlier than i do now. and suddenly going back to waking up that early seems criminal. even when i was taking buses everywhere, i always tried to squeeze in as much sleep as possible. the bus just forced me to get up earlier and created a convenient space for reading. i'm really at odds with my own desire for convenience... like the convenience to stay in my warm bed till the last possible second without being late for work.

so tonight i found myself home with no plans. i tried to embrace it by finishing this book once and for all. i'm almost embarrassed by how long it took. but it's over... and it was enjoyable. sure, there were thoughts of me wandering to a local pub, catching a brew, or maybe texting friends to see if anything could be made of tonight. but i fought through all of that and kept reading. and here i am, so satisfied with the results, that i've somehow squeezed multiple paragraphs out of the experience.

reading is cool and i'm a reader. i hope tonight was a step in the right direction and back onto the path of recovering my once healthy and habitual reading habit.