How do YOU read?

Or also WHEN do YOU read?

It/they is/are one of, the most often asked question(s) of book bloggers – well, at least by me.

I mean, I follow your blogs and your photos and stories on Instagram, and I see how busy you are with both work and family. Then I see a lot of reviews of books on your blogs and wonder when exactly do you have time to read?

Me? In the large scheme of things, or even in the small scheme, I don’t have that busy a schedule. My wife and I are childless, by choice, and I work at a library, but my hours never are over 35 hours. I usually work one Saturday a month and in the future might work a Sunday a month. Often when I work one Saturday month, I have the Friday before it off because our director doesn’t want any of us to work six days in a row or for most of us to go over 35 hours in a week. On Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, I work early afternoons until 8 p.m. Thursday and Fridays, I work day shift.

I still don’t devote that much time to reading each week because I am (by my own admission and my wife’s analysis) weird in that I prefer reading in longer chunks of time. For example, I’m drafting this Friday morning (working tomorrow) and I plan on reading for a few hours this afternoon as my wife, who works night shift, is sleeping. Tomorrow, since I’m working for the middle part of the day, I don’t plan on reading. Sunday, though, I have set aside for reading and commenting on blog posts in the morning and reading in the afternoon, again as my wife is asleep. This week’s selection: All Things Wise and Wonderful by James Herriot.

Now that my wife and I deleted our Facebook accounts, I am finding that I have more time on weekday mornings, especially early in the week, to do other things – than mindlessly scroll through the news feed of mostly people to whom I never talked in real life. So far, I haven’t used the time to read, per se. I have read my morning devotions then; I use the Daily Devotions for Families and Individuals from The 1979 Anglican Book of Common Prayer: “In The Morning” each morning, then “At the Close of Day” each night. I also use the Forward Day by Day Meditation from Forward Movement, a ministry of the Episcopal Church, each morning.

I already have been working on a nightly routine, for example, being off screens and trying to be in bed by a certain time each night. Now I think I need to focus a little more on my morning routine and add some reading time there, especially on the first three days of the week. That said, I am not a (good) polygamous reader so I’ll probably still be sticking to one book at a time, whatever catches my mood or inclination or sometimes what comes in from being on hold at the library.

Briefly, before I sign off, back to my weirdness of only reading in larger chunks of time: In short spurts, my attention is too split. I can’t focus. I feel rushed and I don’t like it. Sometimes I feel that at work and I don’t want to feel that at home too. I’d rather devote a longer stretch of time, preferably at least two hours, if not more, than try to catch reading in between things. I understand that for many of you with children or with other schedules that that reading on the fly is the way you have to read. For me, it just doesn’t work, or at least not very well, when I do try reading in short increments.

So…how about YOU? How or WHEN do YOU read? Please share in the comments or write your own blog post and share the link here. And visit The Sunday Salon either on Facebook or on Deb Nance’s blog Readerbuzz to participate with other book bloggers from around the U.S. and world.