Read any good books lately? Of course not. You're in college, where it seems like no one has any time for reading anymore. The personal stuff always seems to go first. You give up going to the gym, reading, eating well, sleeping, clean clothes, and the most basic personal hygiene, all for the sake of... well, sometimes it can be hard to tell what you're getting in return. What you don't get, however, is much time to "waste" on a book.
The last thing that college students want is more reading. From anthropology to psychology to geotechnical engineering to, of course, English, the average class requires hundreds of pages of reading per semester - and you're taking four or five courses at a time. Hell, ask your professors - they know that you're already not reading what you're assigned. So if you don't have the drive to finish the reading you're tested on, when are you supposed to find the time to read anything else?
If you're really that busy, however, a little unassigned reading can be enough to make you feel like a normal human being again, and it's worth finding the time in your life to keep yourself sane. Some people struggle with sanity all their lives; if all you need is half an hour per day to read Tom Clancy novels, you're foolish not to do it.
(And while I'm on the idea, we could all stand to expand our scope a little bit, too. If you normally read only magazines, pick up the newspaper. If you're used to the newspaper, pick up a book. If you still read books, read better and harder ones. You get the idea.)
Maybe it's only English majors that notice the difference, but college life seems to impose an across-the-board cut on students' leisure reading. I know that I used to tear through books (that's right, multiple books) in an average week; now, I'm always just treading water, barely staying above the waterline of my required reading.
But the only difference is the time. My love of reading isn't gone, nor is the supply of good books - I have a copy of Black House in the trunk of my car that's begging to be read - but the time just isn't there.
Okay, I'll be honest: the time almost certainly is there somewhere, but how can I justify reading novels when I can't force myself to read all of my class material? How can anyone?
Here's the trick: read for yourself during a time that you can't do schoolwork.
This doesn't mean cutting any parties or Simpsons episodes or showers out of your schedule (though eliminating 30 minutes of television per day in favor of reading Through the Looking Glass can only help you). It means finding a time that you could read for pleasure that you can't use to read for school - which often means piecing together lots of small bits of time into something larger. Moreover, it means finding time that you're not embarrassed to spend reading; Monday nights and Friday nights are very different times, and any book that keeps you home for the weekend had better be no less than a work of genius.
If reading doesn't matter to you, then all of this will seem like a waste of your time. If it does matter, you might be amazed at how much time you've been wasting.
The Bathroom
The bathroom is the best place to sneak in some reading time. You can read the newspaper or a magazine while you brush your teeth, wait for the water to warm up, or... well, I won't go into some of the details involved (You're welcome). Suffice it to say that people spend a lot of time in the bathroom, and while you can't use the time to crack open that untouched sociology reading, you might be able to get through a chapter or two of something else. Now if only someone would market waterproof books...
Eating
I refuse to do any work while I'm eating. Meals are my only breaks sometimes, and it's not worth ruining that by reading about the indigenous people of South America. But reading Fight Club while I eat my Toasted Oatmeal squares only makes the experience all the more decadent. Don't watch TV when you eat. Read instead. This is especially appropriate for breakfast, so if you've stopped eating breakfast entirely, maybe you should consider starting again.Downtime Between Classes
Yes, the Daily crossword is stimulating (no sarcasm intended), but an attentive puzzler can usually get that out of the way in a single class. So between 12:45 p.m. and your 1:05 p.m. class, do something with yourself.And to be fully honest: you can even use this time to do some actual work or assigned reading. If you can't stomach bringing a book with you around campus, get some schoolwork out of the way so you'll have more free time later. This works even if you don't want to read at all.
Just Before Bed
Anything you study in the last 20 minutes before you fall asleep isn't going to stick well. Keep a book around, read 15 minutes per night (okay, per weeknight - let's not go overboard), unwind a little bit, and you'll finish it faster than you think.While Waiting For Anything
While you're in the airport, at the shuttle stop, on the T, in line for the shower, watching the clock tick up to 8 p.m. for The Sopranos - if you can't think of something better to do (or if thinking is just too dull for you), whip out a book for five minutes.And if none of these things work, set yourself a deadline. Decide that you will finish a specific book within a specific time (two weeks?). If you fail, punish yourself severely - corporeal punishment works best.
