Reading Space

Currently Reading: Columbine

Reader,

I must rescind a few comments from last week's post.  I finally was able to get into Dubliners, and found the last few stories quite entertaining indeed.  The catch is that I needed the time and space to get into Joyce's style of writing, something I hadn't had the chance of last week.

Obvious as it might be, reading at home can be rather difficult.  There are too many distractions around if you aren't particularly interested in the book on hand.  There is the internet, the TV, and video games.  Heck there's even chores such as cleaning that can pull away from reading.  At work, in the break room there can be quite the noisy conversation, often times more entertaining as well than the book on hand.

This week I've spent a lot of time reading in a cafe.  It might not necessarily be cheaper than driving back home from the neighboring city where my fiance and I both work, but it is more time efficient.  We are currently a one car couple, which means if he works at 1:30 and I work at 3:00 I need to ride over with him.  Now I could drive home in the 2 hours and 30 minutes between the two, and it's really only a 15 minute drive, but I allow at least 25 for traffic.  So my 2.5 hour wait gets taken down to more like 1.5 hours with driving home and back again.  So I just stay in the cafe sipping at a (generally) not too expensive drink.

Now sure, Cafes can get rather loud with the conversations as well, but it's also not half as socially acceptable to join a complete stranger's conversation, or listen in.  Besides that, there are less distractions than home, and more time than the fifteen minute breaks and hour lunches that  I spend in the break room.  So I found myself really starting to enjoy Dubliners, and it started to become a quicker read the more drawn in I became.

As such, I must amend my previous comment to establish that to read Dubliners, it might be wise to find a space in which to do so distraction free.

Do you have a place you go to read?
Have you had trouble connecting with a book that you later decided was rather good?

And lastly- I may not work with books, but I feel this guy's pain.  Retail is hard work, and the customer is not always right. 

Until next time,
Rose