One of the things I promised myself to do on this visit to California was to read a book from beginning to end at more than a page a session. With my family around to entertain Stephen, I figured it shouldn’t be too hard. And because of all the fun he’s been having “hiking” in my parents’ backyard, running at local parks and shopping centers, and energetically playing in the living room, Stephen has slept early and well.

I don’t have any excuses for not reading. So why am I struggling?

My brain is on vacation and balks at reading anything remotely related to genetics or parenting (my favorite genres). I started with Anxious Parents - a historian’s perspective on the evolution of parenting styles in the 20th century. I’ve been waiting for more than a year for this book to be available in paperback but despite the anticipation, I couldn’t read more than a couple of pages before nodding off. I guess parenting is antithetic to relaxing on vacation.

I’m afraid I’ve also developed a reading problem. My daily internet reading habit has left me unable to read paragraphs longer than a few sentences or anything longer than five paragraphs total. Having fallen into the laziness of skimming and reading haphazardly, books and in-depth magazine articles make me work a little too hard.

So i’ve settled on a bit of fluff reading - Tom Wolfe’s I Am Charlotte Simmons. My goal is to read 100 pages a day which should make it possible for me to finish it by next weekend. Schedules also seem antithetic to vacations, but without it I’m afraid I will just fritter away my precious reading time.

NB: Speaking of lazy habits, my ears have also been challenged by all the English whizzing around me. I had the pleasure of speaking to Kristina today and she spoke so quickly that I had a hard time keeping up with her! Goes to show that writing styles don’t necessarily reflect speaking styles. On the phone, Kristina seems even more lively and nice. Thanks for calling, Kristina!