Barcelona: Day 72 : Books .

I haven't read a good book in a longgggg time. Over the summer I went to the Headquarters Library a few towns over from my home and actually perused the sections of different things that I might be interested in. I was pleased to discover that I was actually thoroughly enjoying myself. Perhaps, I thought, this rekindling of a love of books would stick around.


Sadly I was mistaken. When I was little there used to be competitions for reading, which would encourage kids to read. I can't remember if they did it by number of pages or number of books or whatever, but I was more than an avid reader, I can tell you that much. My interest in reading has since peaked and waned, dwindling into nonexistence. Actually, correction: It's not that I don't like to read, but rather, I feel as if I don't have time, or that perhaps I fill that potential reading time with other mindless activities (cough -- tetris friends). It's too easy to get wrapped up in things that you're doing on your laptop.

Curling up and sitting down with a good book is a great way to get your mind off things. I'd even like to write my own at some point, where it's a short story or a lengthy complicated novel. Obviously those would take years, especially since it is probably not my initial priority. I also read quite a bit of articles on the Web, especially the interesting ones that pop up in the Aol top stories.

No one seems to really go to libraries anymore -- it is simply a reluctant alternative to get information that you couldn't first find on the Internet. Whatever happened to the magic of it all? I can remember sitting on beanbag chairs at my local library and reading several books in one sitting. I'm hoping that this greatly benefited my vocabulary and spoken skills, but one can only fathom. After all, isn't that what English class is for?

Now that I'm older, it seems that the list of things I want to do has greatly increased -- and here I am, seemingly with less and less time. At what point does it all stop? Or at what point do I need to step back and weed out some things? I think I've always sort of accepted that I'm going to waste time and planned accordingly. It's amazing how you procrastinate on even the things that you want to do. There must be some sort of problem when we get to this state... I've said it many times before; I'm a work in progress.

After visiting Germany I told myself that I was going to make a true effort to learn German, slowly but surely, by reading books in German. I'm hoping that I stay true to that when I get home. Home, home. To the US. Only time will tell, but I simply must be diligent about staying true to my word. Perhaps the lurking public disappointment of myself in my blog will keep me straight this time...