Wish I was a commuter again AKA Where do you do your reading?

gaf1983

Last year I was working full-time and had a 45 minute bus ride into work and a 60-80 minute bus journey home in the evenings. While the traffic was definitely tiresome, and while some of my fellow travellers dozed, I read. I easily got through a book a week.

This year I am back in college. On the plus-side I'm a 12 minute cycle into lectures. On the minus side, I've found that the time I have for reading has been severely curtailed. Even with the best cycle lanes in the world, I wouldn't recommend reading while on a bike to anyone.

Coupled with the with the added pressures of part-time work, college reading and assignments and the odd bit of sport/tv-watching/newspaper-reading/socialising, I find the time I actually spend reading books very limited. I've never been great at reading in bed either - these days I'll usually switch off three pages in.

Just wondering when do the rest of you find the time to read?

Red Hand

Well, mostly when I am reading at home when I am eating breakfast or supper. Before bed for maybe an hour as well...or when I cannot sleep.

Sometimes, if there is a really unputadownable book and I am not working or have anything else to do, I'll spend most of the day reading. That is quite rare though.

Earthhorse

Do most of my book reading in bed (read magazines, papers etc., during the day, either in the sitting room or at my desk).

Is your college course busy? Could you find time between lectures to head to the library and do some reading (but not course material)?

gaf1983

Yeah the course has been fairly hectic, seems like there's been some assignment or other to hand in practically every week since January. Only breaks between classes are 15 minutes in the morning then an hour at lunch. Even when I do read during breaks it seems like I have study/project work hanging over me that I feel I should be doing instead. Anyway, the course finishes this week so will find a lot more time then.

Shryke

I commute to work. A similar schedule to the one you had. Also I read in bed for a bit before I go to sleep.
If I'm a bit bored or can't decide on something to do then sitting down and reading a few chapters of the book I'm on is always an option and as someone else said, sometimes a book is so good I just don't do much else except read when I have the chance.

BossArky

Usually in bed. Sometimes on the gym bike. The tube. Random other places.

AJG

For some reason I find it hard to read on public transport. But for the past few years I was working as a supervisor in a school and have just done my dip so I've had tons of time to read. Plus I don't watch TV very often. I think if you added up all the time you spent watching TV you'd probably get a little frightened. That time ain't coming back either.

Dades

I read on the DART in the mornings/evenings.
I'd really miss it too if my commute pattern changed.

Too tired usually to read much in bed.

crotalus667

AJG wrote: »

I think if you added up all the time you spent watching TV you'd probably get a little frightened.

+1 some times you just have to say f it and switch the TV off , Im not really working at the moment so I can make spare time , I do some work and once I have all the work done I can sit down and read while the clock counts down to going home time other than that , If im going into town on the train I'll bring a book , If im doing light cardio (normally after a leg day) I'll read on the excise bike usually a magazine (I don’t like the idea of getting a book sweaty), I used to keep a book inside a Tupperware container in the press next to the toilet it made it easy to knock out a chapter although Id advise a book with short chapters other wise you will end up with numb bum

Hrududu

I think if you added up all the time you spent watching TV you'd probably get a little frightened.

Very true. I think there is maybe one program on a night I actually want to watch. The rest of the time is filled up with watching rubbish shows that just happen to be on. Such a waste of time really. I walk to work so I don't have a commute to read on. As a result of this I'm getting through very little. I must make more of an effort.

lilmizzme

I work full time too but the bus journey is only 8mins so no joy there....I used to always read in bed, but am so tired these days i usually only get in a fe pages before im out like a light!

It depends on the book...Im reading Jodi Picoult's books at the moment, and find any spare minute i have in the evenings are spent reading! Her books are serious page turners!

Earthhorse

OP, if you have less of a commute in the morning could you not get up earlier and have a read before your course begins?

AJG wrote: »

That time ain't coming back either.

Nonsense.

What about repeats.

buck65

Lunch time aprox 30 mins.
An hour before bed.
Short stories are the way to go for me, can read a couple a day, I think a novel if it drags , I might be slow to finish it.
Also I have Chekhov's stories on my laptop so when work's quiet I read that but don't tell anyone

www.gutenberg.org

eclectichoney

On the DART to and from work mainly - a little in the evenings sometimes but not every night. Usually I'm too tired!

Earthhorse

buck65 wrote: »

Short stories are the way to go for me, can read a couple a day, I think a novel if it drags , I might be slow to finish it.

Yeah, I find if I don't like a book I read less of it on a daily basis and end up spending more days reading it than a book I like.

FruitLover

Always in bed. Problem is, I only go to bed when I'm tired, so I usually only make it through 10-15 pages before I pass out! So it takes me weeks to get through a book.

Silent Partner

FruitLover wrote: »

Always in bed. Problem is, I only go to bed when I'm tired, so I usually only make it through 10-15 pages before I pass out! So it takes me weeks to get through a book.

I do the same but 10-15 pages? I usually get 3 or 4 sentences in before the eyelids start dropping.
I find I've such a useless attention span at times that while I love reading, I read a few pages and then I'm flicking around on the TV or the net or playing guitar.

easyontheeye

on the bog

fenris

Everywhere!
courtesy of textreader on my ipod touch, fills in a lot of the downtime moments and lets me read in bed with the light off aka without disturbing SWMBO!

mawk

fenris wrote: »

Everywhere!
courtesy of textreader on my ipod touch, fills in a lot of the downtime moments and lets me read in bed with the light off aka without disturbing SWMBO!

exactly the same but on my phone. it takes a book or two to get you used to it but after that youre flying, its just like reading a normal book. i have the full discworld collection on it at the moment and im ploughing through it pretty fast. waiting for busses, on the can, while herself looks at shoes.. all those little moments add up pretty fast

dee8839

I'm in the same boat really, I have just gone from an hour long commute each day to a ten minute walk, so I've gone from at least a book a week to an ever increasing pile of must-read-this-when-I-have-a-chance books. I go so long without getting a chance to read that the (excellent) book I'm reading at the moment has mysteriously disappeared in the week I left it unattended in my room - damn it, that was a great book! :mad:

When you're going home at the weekends from college do you have any bus journey then? Like I'm in UL but live in Galway, it was a handy 3 hours reading time some weekends!

Hrududu

When you're going home at the weekends from college do you have any bus journey then? Like I'm in UL but live in Galway, it was a handy 3 hours reading time some weekends!

That would be when I get the majority of my reading done. I don't head home too often though so I'm making more of an effort in the evenings. But those train trips home are deadly, when I'm in the middle of a really good book they fly by.