During college and almost all of grad school (a total of more than 10 years), I finished exactly two books: Freakonomics and Walter Cronkite's autobiography. (And then he died a week later at the age of 92.)
It's not that I'm anti-reading... I generally read magazines cover-to-cover (including letters to the editor and the yearly sidebar that tells you the magazine's readership), and I keep up with a lot of blogs. There were a few books I started reading, but never finished, including Stephen Fry's autobiography. Based on my most previous experience with completing an autobiography, maybe it's a good thing for Stephen Fry's health that I never finished his book. For some reason, I used to find it hard to commit to reading a full-length book. Even if I did try to read, I felt that only non-fiction, where I might learn facts that are potentially useful for trivia night, was worthy of my time.
I kept up this avoidance of books all throughout grad school, until the very end. My lease was up, and I only needed two more months to finish my thesis, so instead of renewing my lease for another year, JM kindly let me crash at her apartment. It's important to note that aside from being a biology major in college, JM was also an English major, so she had hundreds of books along her shelves.
As everyone knows, when you have to do something that you don't want to do, you'll find anything else to do to procrastinate. (For example: http://imgur.com/2K1nO) The internet is an excellent vehicle for procrastination, but unfortunately, JM didn't have internet at her apartment. And her TV has no channels. And her apartment was clean enough. And her cat sleeps all day. I spent one afternoon arranging the plastic containers in her cupboard to make sure they all had matching lids. (But you can really only do that once.) I spent another afternoon organizing her receipts, bills, and letters from her grandfather. (And once they're in their separate boxes, you just keep following that system.) But I digress....
At one point, I was so bored of working that I picked up a short fictional book ("Eat When You Feel Sad") that one of JM's friends had lent her, and starting reading. The story and the style of writing was so strange that I kept reading just to get to the ending. I didn't like the book, but I finished it. When JM got home from lab, she was obviously disappointed that I didn't make progress with my writing, but at the same time a bit incredulous that I voluntarily finished an entire book.
From that day on, I would pull books from JM's shelf that seemed interesting:
Before finishing off Harry Potter, I took a short hiatus to read the Hunger Games trilogy, provided by CB. I realized that this was the first time I read a book before the movie came out. (But I still cried like a baby when that girl died in the movie.)
About two months ago, I bought myself a Kindle, on which I've read five books:
-T
It's not that I'm anti-reading... I generally read magazines cover-to-cover (including letters to the editor and the yearly sidebar that tells you the magazine's readership), and I keep up with a lot of blogs. There were a few books I started reading, but never finished, including Stephen Fry's autobiography. Based on my most previous experience with completing an autobiography, maybe it's a good thing for Stephen Fry's health that I never finished his book. For some reason, I used to find it hard to commit to reading a full-length book. Even if I did try to read, I felt that only non-fiction, where I might learn facts that are potentially useful for trivia night, was worthy of my time.
I kept up this avoidance of books all throughout grad school, until the very end. My lease was up, and I only needed two more months to finish my thesis, so instead of renewing my lease for another year, JM kindly let me crash at her apartment. It's important to note that aside from being a biology major in college, JM was also an English major, so she had hundreds of books along her shelves.
As everyone knows, when you have to do something that you don't want to do, you'll find anything else to do to procrastinate. (For example: http://imgur.com/2K1nO) The internet is an excellent vehicle for procrastination, but unfortunately, JM didn't have internet at her apartment. And her TV has no channels. And her apartment was clean enough. And her cat sleeps all day. I spent one afternoon arranging the plastic containers in her cupboard to make sure they all had matching lids. (But you can really only do that once.) I spent another afternoon organizing her receipts, bills, and letters from her grandfather. (And once they're in their separate boxes, you just keep following that system.) But I digress....
At one point, I was so bored of working that I picked up a short fictional book ("Eat When You Feel Sad") that one of JM's friends had lent her, and starting reading. The story and the style of writing was so strange that I kept reading just to get to the ending. I didn't like the book, but I finished it. When JM got home from lab, she was obviously disappointed that I didn't make progress with my writing, but at the same time a bit incredulous that I voluntarily finished an entire book.
From that day on, I would pull books from JM's shelf that seemed interesting:
- Bringing Down the House
- If I Die in a Combat Zone
- Moonwalking with Einstein
- Moneyball
- The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
- The Code Book
Before finishing off Harry Potter, I took a short hiatus to read the Hunger Games trilogy, provided by CB. I realized that this was the first time I read a book before the movie came out. (But I still cried like a baby when that girl died in the movie.)
About two months ago, I bought myself a Kindle, on which I've read five books:
- The Tragedy of Pudd'nhead Wilson
- Me Talk Pretty One Day
- Ender's Game
- The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay
- Breakfast of Champions
-T
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