Lunchbreaks
Ugh, hatred on LJ. I keep thinking about needing to a) save this whole thing and b) go somewhere else. Get myself a real blog? Something. I don't know. But it took me four reloads to make it let me type in the box. Crankifying.
Anyway, what I was going to talk about was reading and productivity on my lunch breaks. As separate and also joined topics.
I read relatively quickly, so I *can* read a significant amount during lunch (today I read Anya's Ghost by Vera Brosgol, a :01 book) or of an evening. Recently I read Thresholds and Meeting by Nina Kiriki Hoffman, in a couple evenings (admittedly they are middle-grade books, so they aren't a huge commitment) which were fabulous. But growing up, most people (namely my mother) recognised that for me, reading wasn't something that you had to push me towards doing. It had to be my treat at the end of doing something good. For a lot of kids I think that might be television, but growing up in the UK without one and a mother who loved to read, books were my reward. But so, it's weird when reading is kind of like work. Because if I have things undone and I am reading, I feel like I'm skiving off and feel guilty. In fact reading often makes me feel guilty and luxurious and indolent. I'm ignoring things! I'm doing something just because I want to! It's all very bizarre.
The other thought I had recently is that some days I go out for lunch and it tends to be about an hour, if a little over, but then the days that I don't, I feel guilty "taking" lunch. If I'm just sitting at my desk, surely I should be working! So I'm *trying* to make myself be productive at lunch, which so far is either to write for 1/2 an hour or to close the computer and read. It's a weird feeling precisely because of the aforementioned guilt about just sitting and reading.
But oh it is nice.
Anyway, what I was going to talk about was reading and productivity on my lunch breaks. As separate and also joined topics.
I read relatively quickly, so I *can* read a significant amount during lunch (today I read Anya's Ghost by Vera Brosgol, a :01 book) or of an evening. Recently I read Thresholds and Meeting by Nina Kiriki Hoffman, in a couple evenings (admittedly they are middle-grade books, so they aren't a huge commitment) which were fabulous. But growing up, most people (namely my mother) recognised that for me, reading wasn't something that you had to push me towards doing. It had to be my treat at the end of doing something good. For a lot of kids I think that might be television, but growing up in the UK without one and a mother who loved to read, books were my reward. But so, it's weird when reading is kind of like work. Because if I have things undone and I am reading, I feel like I'm skiving off and feel guilty. In fact reading often makes me feel guilty and luxurious and indolent. I'm ignoring things! I'm doing something just because I want to! It's all very bizarre.
The other thought I had recently is that some days I go out for lunch and it tends to be about an hour, if a little over, but then the days that I don't, I feel guilty "taking" lunch. If I'm just sitting at my desk, surely I should be working! So I'm *trying* to make myself be productive at lunch, which so far is either to write for 1/2 an hour or to close the computer and read. It's a weird feeling precisely because of the aforementioned guilt about just sitting and reading.
But oh it is nice.