All Booked Up

Reading is an important part of my life. As an introvert, one of the ways I recharge is by reading by myself in a quiet place. I am inherently curious about a wide swath of topics. And because my day job is as a consultant, it’s vital I stay up to date on a variety of issues.

And yet my weekly schedule hardly affords me the time I wish I had to get through the mountains of periodicals, online articles, and books I have accumulated for myself. At this point, my only reliable blocks of time are right before I go to bed; up to seven days a week, I might have about an hour between the time I shut out the world and the time I turn out the light.

Enter a recent spate of travel, which has given me big chunks of time for quiet reading. Although all the hustle and bustle has been tiring, how I’ve savored these moments to read:

* A bus trip to New York City bought me about four hours to catch up on old Economist Magazine surveys.

* A train ride to Baltimore was just enough time to skim through a pile of green economy articles I had printed out for myself.

* Taking the train and bus back home from Ocean City in the middle of my family’s week-long vacation (up at the crack of dawn to get into the office by 8:30a, back out to OC by dinnertime the day after), I got through three short books.

* My train ride to Harrisburg for business in the middle of this short stop home got me through a pile of transportation policy articles I had been meaning to get to.

* Finally, my cross-country plane rides to and from San Jose allowed me to plow through four books and a short stack of magazines.

Alas, the refreshment derived from this recharge has been offset by the frantic pace I have kept these past two weeks criss-crossing the country. One of these days, I'll get to read without it having to dovetail with travel. Oh, what a treat that will be.