Emma by Jane Austen Page: 450

I’m happy to have read 230 pages today which is 13 more than my minimum requirement. I’m often asked how I manage to read so much and that inquiry has its kinder forms (I’m so impressed type) and its unkinder ones (I’m sure you’re just skimming type). I think I have unusual challenges but also unusual benefits. The challenges everyone reading here likely already knows. The baby and the toddler, a home to keep moderately clean, meals to prepare, the aftermath of Veritas to deal with, etc, etc. To offset all the insanity that ought to keep me from every reading a single page I have the gift of reading very quickly with a very high comprehension rate. “Normal” reading skill is about 200 words per minute with approximately 60% comprehension. I read at about 500 words per minute with about 95% comprehension. And that makes a big difference. I also almost never watch TeeVee and due to this project prioritize reading above almost every other activity.

My typical reading day doesn’t begin until the boys take their naps. I strategize all morning to make sure they are ready to go to sleep at the same time (not easy when they are at such disparate stages of development). Around 11:30 I lay them down and can count on an hour or two of reading time before one or the other wakes up. I don’t eat my lunch until they wake up in order to avoid wasting a single minute. Depending on the book I’m reading (some are of course slower going than others) and the length of the naps I get between 75 and 150 pages read. Then I have to wait until the boy’s bedtime to finish my daily quota. They usually get put in their cribs around 8pm and Jared takes responsibility for making sure they go to sleep while I cram in another 50 or 100 pages before I have to get my blog post up. Sometimes I have a hard time planning well, so I quit reading before my eyes shut involuntarily.

The weekends are much harder as Jared is home all the time and I’d rather be hanging out with him and he with me. I’m also more inclined to nap on the weekends. Sometimes I take a chunk of time and go hide somewhere and get my reading in but what I really need to do is get serious about taking a lot of time off to read on the weekends. I have around a 6000 page deficit to make up before December 31st! Yikes!

Just today, I think I’ve developed a new strategy for getting extra reading in. The boys really enjoy a ride in the stroller in the early mornings and so I often take them for walks. Good for them and peace and quiet for me. But I discovered last night that I can read while walking. I push the stroller with one hand and hold my book with the other. It slows my reading down quite a bit but as I wouldn’t be able to read at all if I wasn’t out walking, its pure bonus time. I read fifty pages today while walking down to my mother-in-law’s office to drop some things off. It was great, I felt so effecient. Excercise, an errand, peaceful children and Jane Austen; how much better can it get?