Friday 25 April 2008

A Guilty Secret

I am a very bad reader;
I read late at night when I am tired
and my concentration is poor.

Jean-Honore Fragonard (1732-1806) A Young Girl Reading

I would love to be able to sit down in the day
and devour books as I used to do,
but somewhere along the way I have lost the ability.

Edward John Poynter (1836-1919) Reading

I sometimes snatch a page or two
when I should be making the beds
and occasionally I will sit in the garden
for a minute at lunchtime.

Peder Severin Kroyer (1851-1919) Roses (The Artist's Wife in the Garden at Skagen)

I feel guilty
because it seems a selfish thing to do.
I wish I had known how hard it would be
to start doing things just for myself again;
I might not have given them up so easily.

Sorry - forgot to label this!

MissM does not have this problem;
she reads from the moment that she wakes
until she falls asleep at night.

Perhaps I should persuade MissM to read to me.

George Cruikshank (1792-1878) Tales of Wonder

13 comments:

carrie said...

Sounds like a win-win situation to me!

dragonfly said...

I know exactly what you mean. There have been times, many times, when I have spent an awful long time just sitting on the sofa doing nothing rather than doing something for no other reason than doing something just for me.
My reading is also confined to a snatched half hour before I turn my bedside light off, more's the pity.

carolyn said...

I didn't read for years when the children were young because I couldn't just sit and read and read. I do now, sometimes late into the night and then I can't get up in the morning. I think most Mother's would understand the guilt attached to reading a book from cover to cover the way I long too.

Anonymous said...

So glad you confessed because I have the same affliction. Whenever I sit to read I feel guilty about the things I should be doing. I hate to read a book over a protracted time period too, so I would rather take a whole day to finsih the book. It seems frivilous...when I could be quilting!!

blackbird said...

Guilty Secret: sometimes I have peanut M & M's for lunch.

tess said...

last week when our car was being MOT'd it was such a luxury to have to sit and wait an hour and a half, because I got to read!

Ali said...

Oh how this resonates. Somehow reading never makes it to a priority spot on the to-do list. Actually, that list has an awful lot to answer for.

RW said...

oh yes. For the majority of the year I read before bed. During the summer if we go to the lake; my family knows that I only read. They go flyfishing, swimming, trail riding and I read. But, if we don't go away I don't afford myself the same luxery. I will have to work on that this year. I shall have to created "forced sit down in the garden and read time"

. said...

I used to be like MissM. I drove my mother to distraction!

I do still read a lot, but it's mostly Charlie and Lola or Clarice Bean, out loud - does that count?

Anonymous said...

I regularly fall asleep whilst reading in bed - usually after about two pages. Consequently it now takes forever to get through a book and by the end I've forgotten how it started.

Margaret said...

I'm afraid I've also lost the ability to read at night. I've found that the best time for me to get things done is in the early afternoon--which means I pretty much only get to read on weekends!

Mary said...

Yes I used to devour books when I was younger. I still do - on holidays - I too read and read and read.

Otherwise it is the thing that tips me into sleep last thing at night. Books and daytime tv - two things I can't go near as I go through my day!

For some reason blogging and Flickr do not make me feel guilty!

Eleanor said...

I just want to say that I SIMPLY ADORE this post.