Reading time

[Neely]

What time do/can you place for reading each week?

For me this is something that is quite frustrating, very frustrating at times. Work and home life means that my time is not my own until 7.30pm each week night. From there I can only commit 1-2 hours max for reading per night, as tiredness creeps in. When university starts up again next month I have two nights taken up there as well, of course that is contributing to my understanding, greatly, but it still cuts into my reading time.

I can catch brief periods at work for reading, at dinner etc, but this is not a very productive environment in which to do so, I usually only consolidate what I have read by skimming back a little.

At the weekends I have more time and usually put aside at least 3 hours each day.

Then of course there is my 12 weeks holiday a year, that is when I really am able to devour a lot, especially during the summer break, but that seems like an awful long time away.

So per week probably around 10-16 hours of reading time approximately. I wish this could be more but it can’t for the foreseeable future.

[Saladin]

Well interesting thread, Neely!

I would say i use 0-10 hours on reading for "fun" weekly (that means no compulsory uni-related reading). But in times i dont even got one hour to read what i want to read. It`s to much to do sometimes - school, work and other activities.

[andave_ya]

Tell me about it!! But during the weekend I got a fat lot of reading done...more than I've done in a single weekend in a long while! And it felt so good -- the Illiad and C.S. Lewis and poetry -- that I'm ready to go back to school now .

[LadyWentworth]

I would say 0 - 10 hours. I used to read all the time, but the way that it has been lately, I just don't seem to have any available time to do so. I have actually gotten to the point of designating time to read (generally before bed), but I never do it. As for reading before I go to sleep, it hasn't happened at all lately because it seems that I fall asleep before I can even read one sentence.

[Ghuyuran]

I hate to say it's between 0-10 hours of non-compulsory reading on regular weeks. Learning two foreign languages takes away a lot of my time and even then I feel I'm not serious enough about learning them. I often catch myself starting a new book when I should be doing more studying. When I finally find time to read, I'm tired and have trouble reading the words in front of me.

[JBI]

I went heavy - maybe not 30 + but I down 3 300 page books a week for school, plus all my additional reading, so many weeks it goes that high - yes I have a life, and yes I go outside. But in truth, one is really reading almost every moment of their waking lives, from cerial boxes, to billboards, traffic signs, receipts, you name it.

[Neely]

Tell me about it!! But during the weekend I got a fat lot of reading done...more than I've done in a single weekend in a long while! And it felt so good -- the Illiad and C.S. Lewis and poetry -- that I'm ready to go back to school now .

It does feel good to consume something in a short space of time and I would argue that it is a much more effective way to take in what you read as opposed to small snatches over longer periods.

But in truth, one is really reading almost every moment of their waking lives, from cerial boxes, to billboards, traffic signs, receipts, you name it.

Yes true but I meant in terms of literature of course. I thought you might be pushing towards the 30 mark too.

Supposedly Shelley read huge amounts of material in his youth, according to one biography I read, something crazy like 18 hours a day! OK, that is probably exaggerated a little, but I would like to believe it was close. I know that Wilde was a very quick reader too being able to read a standard novel in about half-an-hour. You could probably have a very interesting thread on this subject alone, I am always interested in the influences and habits of great writers.

[Nightshade]

Hummm I will have to count but I think its upwards of 16 hours a week as a general minimum for my reading occasionally this is work realted because I sometimes have to do rating reading.

[Pecksie]

I have a two-hour commute every day (one hour to and one hour from work) so guess what I do during the trip! My favourite activity is reading like mad (although I occasionally make a usually doomed attempt at dozing off). I also spy what other people read - mostly the Da Vinci Code kind of fare. The only impediment to reading is that sometimes I get dizzy, and, besides, stupid cell phone conversations unsettle me

[dramasnot6]

I am working as a top student at a very demanding university...I really have no pleasure reading time whatsoever. And when I do, I'm too exhausted to read more than the newspaper for an hour. I am hoping to take more English courses in future semesters so that I may justifiably resume reading classic lit on a regular basis.

[motherhubbard]

You know, I’m very often steeling moments in the car rider line when I’m picking up the kids or when I’m stirring a pot or something like that. Once the kids are in bed I have a little more time if I can stay awake. My husband made me a book holder that fits over the controls on my treadmill so I can read while I walk. This has been great. I don’t have to feel guilty for reading instead of doing chores or homework. The reading is pretty slow because I am moving along at a pretty good clip, but I keep a note card under the sentence I’m on so that I don’t loose my place so bad with all of the moving and bouncing around.

[JBI]

Leopardi in his youth actually used to read for nearly twenty hours daily. At age twelve his tutor declared that the pupil had passed him in knowledge, and from then on he went at an unstopping rate of personal indulgence in his family's 30,000 copy library at seemingly unheard of rates, which led him to, in a letter, admit that he had drastically cut back to no more than eight hours a day, a seemingly exclamatory sentence, given his reputation for reading from dawn until the late hours of the night.

I wouldn't attempt that though - his eye site deterorated, and by 18 he had developed a severe hunchback, and other severe health problems, leading to his premature death in his late thirties, and to his darkly brilliant poetry. filled with the self-realization that he had wasted away his youth.

But yeah, I think he takes the metal, especially when you consider he was doing it in more than a half dozen languages, and actually published a History of Astronomy when he was 16 with a 300 book bibliography, amongst almost countless translations.

[Bitterfly]

I placed myself in the ten-twenty hours, without counting all the reading I have to do for work. But it's variable, going down to about two (sad!) when I have a lot of work or spend to much time on the Internet , and going up to fifty + during the holidays. But I rarely remember much of what I read.... what I would give to have a photographic memory!!!
I think Montaigne was a stupendous reader as well...

[Joreads]

I try to read for at least an hour each night but it does not always happen. Sometimes after a hard day at work the last thing I want to do is pick up a book. I do tend to read a lot more on the weekends. It is summer here and I love to read at the beach, although I even do that in winter. 0-10 hours for me.

[Neely]

Leopardi in his youth actually used to read for nearly twenty hours daily. At age twelve his tutor declared that the pupil had passed him in knowledge, and from then on he went at an unstopping rate of personal indulgence in his family's 30,000 copy library at seemingly unheard of rates, which led him to, in a letter, admit that he had drastically cut back to no more than eight hours a day, a seemingly exclamatory sentence, given his reputation for reading from dawn until the late hours of the night.

Jesus that is some reading. I'm guessing the poor lighting didn't help with his eye problem too at the time. I must get around to reading him, for I confess I have read nothing by him. Tut, tut.

I placed myself in the ten-twenty hours, without counting all the reading I have to do for work. But it's variable, going down to about two (sad!) when I have a lot of work or spend to much time on the Internet , and going up to fifty + during the holidays. But I rarely remember much of what I read.... what I would give to have a photographic memory!!!
I think Montaigne was a stupendous reader as well...

You do have a photographic memory, I'm serious, check out my memory thread. (Sort of anyway.) Yes, holiday reading is the best!

I try to read for at least an hour each night but it does not always happen. Sometimes after a hard day at work the last thing I want to do is pick up a book. I do tend to read a lot more on the weekends. It is summer here and I love to read at the beach, although I even do that in winter. 0-10 hours for me.

*******. Just joking! I do love reading on the beach, hell - I love beaches and the sea full-stop. I think an Aussie summer would be too much for me anyway, too hot, I'd burn to a crisp.