Weekend Assignment #315: The Thief of Time

NOW CLOSED!

Hi, everyone! It's time for our next Weekend Assignment. This one is inspired by some of your responses to Weekend Assignment #314: Summer Reading. Several people complained that they don't have as much time to read as they'd like. Why is that? Let's find out!

Weekend Assignment #315: It seems that we're all too busy these days to get around to everything we'd like to do, even if we had the money and means to do them. Is there a particular activity that takes up far too much of your time, and thus prevents you from getting around to other things?

Extra Credit: What is the #1 activity you wish you had more time for?

To play along with our Weekend Assignment, just write about the above topic in your own blog, and remember to include a link back here. Then leave a link to your entry in the comments below. (We also accept responses posted directly to the comments thread.) Please see our How to Play entry for details. The deadline for this assignment is Wednesday, April 28th at 6 PM PDT. Be sure to check back here on Thursday, April 29th for a roundup of the week's responses, and to see the new Assignment.

For Weekend Assignment #314: Summer Reading, Carly asked what books or genres we plan to read this summer. Thanks to John Scalzi's plug in Whatever and the new blog, we got a bumper crop of responses. Click on each person's name to read the full entry:

Karen said...

My reading - of novels, anyway - tends to happen in fits and spurts. From time to time I pull a book off a shelf, one that I may or may not have read before. Sometimes I read a chapter or three (or more) only to lose interest, and leave it on my bedside table until it's either nice and dusty or makes its way to the floor. Or both. Other times, I get so involved in the thing that one book is not enough. Why read just 700 pages of Harry Potter when I can read several thousand? Yes, it takes a while, but that just means a longer period of enjoyment.

Sherrie said...

As for my summer reading plans...............it could be anything from a cozy murder mystery to a science fiction to a fantasy to a novel. I can read just about anything. I do lots of reading and am also doing lots of reading challenges at my book blog, Just Books.

Carly said...

A couple months ago, a big brown truck pulled up in my driveway, inside of it were dozens of boxes containing all kinds of things. I imagine there were vacuums, and toys, and probably music, all wonderful things, but my box contained books! I LOVE reading, but haven't indulged in it for a while. Because of the forced furloughs, some luxuries and hobbies had to be eliminated. Purchasing new books was one of them. Fortunately, we received a decent tax return this year, and we will be okay again until at least the end of the fiscal year. That might bring it's own bag of horrors, but I will have a nice diversion by way of my new books.

Duane said...

My only hard and fast rule is that my next book is always completely different from what I'm reading now. To illustrate: I've been slowly (very slowly) working my way through the bibliography of Charles Dickens, and at this moment I'm about 120 pages into Great Expectations. Before that, there was (working backwards) a quick read about the history of NASCAR; The Black Ice by Michael Connelly, a police procedural thriller/mystery; Mila 18 by Leon Uris, a great piece of historical fiction; The Colorado Kid by Stephen King, an atypical King work -- more unsolved mystery than horror; and The Barrens and Others by F. Paul Wilson, a book of mostly horror short stories.

New participant Sandrine said...

Actually, I ordered some books from Betterworld books specifically for the summer. I ordered a guide book to Florence. Yes! I'm going to Prato, just outside Florence, in August, all by myself. I'll have two plane journeys and 6 whole days there with no children to worry about. Ok, I probably won't be doing that much reading, as it's a conference, and also, I'll be wanting to look around a bit. But still. I've ordered books. I ordered books I've already read, many times, just because it was Florence. So I ordered A Room with a view. And Where Angels Fear to Tread. And Howards End. (Nothing to do with Florence but I quite fancied re-reading it and it just so happens I didn't bring any of my E.M.Forster books to Turkey with me. But let's face it, by the time the books are out of the box I'll be half way through them. So maybe I need something more substantial.

New participant Stephen said...

Actually, it’s kind of sad to admit what I’m excited about: I’m excited about finishing The Gathering Storm over the summer. I say it’s sad because I got this book as a gift from Dear Wife over Christmas 2009 (Thank You Dear Wife!), and I’ve been reading it ever since then. That’s right: I’ve been reading this book for nearly four months! What has happened to me? When I was a younger man, and still in either High School or College, I used to be able to devour one of the “Wheel of Time” books in a matter of a couple of weeks. I’ll tell you what didn’t happen: it’s not that the book is boring. It’s been an enjoyable read so far (I’m on chapter 20), especially when the book has focused on Egwene.

New participant Kaitlyn said...

To be perfectly honest, I’ve never quite understood the concept of “summer reading.” I decide what to read in the summer, basically, by what’s next on my list of unread books (or what I’m feeling a real urge to reread)–the same as I do every season. I’m trying to remember what I brought to read the last time I was at the beach (which was actually during the autumn). There was a book of short stories–maybe short stories by women authors?–that I actually left at the house because I didn’t care for it. Herland by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, which I was expecting for some reason to be dry and slow but was both easy to read and laugh-out-loud funny, so I guess that was appropriate beach reading.

Mike said...

I'm pretty much a Sci-Fi and horror reader. I don't really stray from those two genres very often. A lot of that is out of fear of wasting my time. There is nothing worse, to me, buying a book and hating it from the start. Well, except maybe hating a book halfway through and getting pissed off at the end. That happened to me very recently by an author I normally like. I won't name him because this is a rare occurrence. But, if it happens again, watch out!

Florinda said in comments...

I don't have a post for this assignment - and I'm a book blogger, so how wrong is THAT? But truthfully, my reading habits don't change much with the seasons. This summer, I'll be reading a mix of general fiction, memoirs, and books that qualify for a couple of the reading challenges I'm doing, and I'll be posting reviews of them all on my blog. It's just my thing :-). I may be reading more e-books, though, since I'll be traveling a fair amount and they're so much easier to pack!

New participant "tommyspoon" said...

When the air heats up and gets heavy with humidity, my brain turns to mush. I slowly put away the biographies and histories and heavyweight fiction that I normally relish. And then out comes the thrillers and the horrors and other pulpy stuff that makes it onto the NYT Best Selling Paperback list. I used to be ashamed of this phenomenon, but have come to embrace it as I have grown older. Even my late Father enjoyed a literary "amuse bouche" from time to time. Nothing wrong with a little brain candy!

A big welcome to our new participants, Sandrine, Stephen, Kaitlyn and "tommyspoon"! We hope you'll stick around. Thanks to everyone who played along this week. We hope to hear from you again soon!

I'd also like to thank John Ottinger, who left a suggestion in our Teachers' Lounge thread for a future Weekend Assignment. Please keep the suggestions coming, folks. You may well see your topic idea in these pages sometime soon, and find yourself lauded as the weeks "guest professor."

Happy writing!

Karen