I’m sure I can’t be the only one. I’m sure there must be other readers who go through this. If not, then I guess I have this hell all to myself.
Reader hell: wanting to read, but having some issues with it. Everyone probably has their own kind. Too many books and not enough time. No books to read (how does that even happen?!). Having read so many bad books and now experiencing discouragement. Losing the book you were reading, or maybe having a small child rip it to shreds. Loving your current book so much that you’re dreading when it ends. Reading a series when you know the next book won’t be out for another 20 years. Etc.
My reader hell? Wanting to read, but having trouble finding time. Don’t even get me started on the 100+ books that have been waiting for years, some dating as far back as 2010, at least.
I’m lucky. My kids actually nap at the same time and my almost 4 year old is still clinging to naptime. This gives me about 1.5-2 hours most days, depending on when my daughter decides to fall asleep. After they go to bed, I get another 1-1.5 hours. Let’s see. That’s 2.5-3.5 hours a day all to myself.
Hmm.
Let’s say 3 hours. Three hours for cleaning, tidying, reading, blogging, sometimes catching a cat nap, and deleting close to 100 emails a day. What can I say? I prefer to read blog posts in the Reader. Most days, I don’t even get to the reading part. Usually because my daughter naps on me and thinks books are toys, so unless I want another type of reader hell, I had better keep all books from her hands.
The worst of it is, I finally got a long awaited book a week ago (a week!) and I’m barely a quarter of the way through. In case you’re wondering, I’m reading Shot in the Dark by Cleo Coyle, the 17th book in the Coffeehouse Mystery series, which is funny because I don’t even drink coffee, but I love these books.
For the past week, I’ve been trying to find a moment, even a minute to read a page, but someone keeps calling for me. Guess I’ll have to keep trying to scrape out time. And hope my daughter is done teething for the time being so I can get some sleep. Then I can read instead of go to sleep.
Here’s to hoping I make it out of my reader hell one day soon.
Do you have one?
The Lily Cafe 
My personal favorite: reading a book and the next one in the series isn’t due to be released for years. By that time, I’ve already forgotten what I read. Great post by the way!
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I totally get that! And then there’s the trying to find time to re-read the last 10 books before the next comes out. Someone needs to find a 25th hour.
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Argh! Kat, I sooooo have this problem. I inevitably hear of a book that sounds wonderful, put it on ‘the list’, and before I’ve had a chance to read it…I hear about another book I’d love to read. The result is: I’m so bamboozled by it all that I end up reading NOTHING! 😂
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Brooke, you are a book collector after my own heart! The best part of following so many blogging authors is they advertise when they have their books on sale…which only means I must get it and lengthen my list! Don’t even get me started with the book review blogs…
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I am in the same boat! I didn’t read start reading again until my first born was 2. She was a miserable sleeper and I ended up getting my nonfiction dose via Netflix documentaries. Now I only read after both girls are asleep (9 o’clock ish). Sigh…. I am with ya!
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It’s so hard to read with little kids running around. Neither of my kids were terrific sleepers, but at least my first let me read when he was up to nurse. I hear you about that 9pm reading time. It’s a good time to read, or so I try to tell myself before I fall asleep!
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😴 😀
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Even without kids, I struggle finding time to read. I can’t imagine the struggle with kids! More power to you…plus, I’m impressed with your consistency in blogging too. So many things demand more time than I think they should. =)
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So true! It’s like everything is designed to take twice as long as it should. And when you do get around to reading, it can be easy to get sucked in and then realize you’ve lost 2 hours! Ha, I don’t know how I even do everything. Maybe my clock is slow!
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