New Year Resolutions

Well, continuing Wootle's question from another threadh here.

Wootle said: Any new years resolutions? Like buy more books?

And I replied:

Well, I already have some coming so that is done.

But in general, my resolution is to continue making time for reading. I rearranged the dining room in our house, which is off of the living room. As the table was seldom used, it is gone, and I moved in a bright lamp and a recliner, setup in front of the window. This is now my reading room, and it has been a success, in that I am reading at least 60 minutes a day now. So I resolve to keep this up.

There are a few key reasons the new reading room works for us. First it is separate, but communicable with the living room. That is, there are wide, sliding doors between the two, so I am still 'in the area', not isolating myself from the family. Second, it is device free, while I can hear and speak to them, I am not competing with the dang time wasting electronic devices in the living room. There is a small radio next to the chair, so I have that one device in there, but that is used so that I can turn on classical at low volume while reading if necessary to drown out the beeps and pings coming from the other room.

I guess that is all there is to it, I resolve to continue to make use of the new reading room this coming year.

-Shawn

I haven't read much the last 2 years, so I want to continue my quest of reading all of Jules Verne's Voyages Extraordinaires. I have to figure out where I left off and get going again. Finding nice copies of good translations has been difficult.

My plan for 2024 is to complete my re-read of Dune including all 6 of Frank’s originals and his son’s two sequels. Just finishing up the prequel trilogy this weekend by Brian Herbert and Kevin Anderson. After that, I hope to read The Book of the Short Sun after reading The Long Sun this year and The New Sun last year.

Shawn - That is a good compromise for your reading room. Good to be somewhat removed from the commotion of the house if you want to get any serious reading done.

I built my house 15 years ago and put my office on the other side of the house, recliner, fireplace and window looking out over our lake. Perfect right!?!

But then now I get the “I’m lonely and miss you when you are in there reading”.

So then I come out and try to read in the living room and she talks to me nonstop and I can’t get any reading done 🤣🤣🤣

But I love her so 😘😘

>4 GOBOGIE: Sounds like she needs a hobby of her own, introduce her to ...............

I have a home office, but not the best place for reading, I need to find a recliner and a window view of a lake.

>4 GOBOGIE: Yep, that is the issue exactly! If I go in a bedroom to read, while conducive to reading, it was not good for family or marriage in the long run. If I'm in the living room, it's impossible for me. So the middle ground has worked. If I need to, I have headphones I can put on, I just let them know they will need to do something to get my attention if they need me.

Let's see now, married 35 years and still fine tuning the house as everything changes around us, as we change as people, and as technology and media intrudes into the house so much more than it did when we were young.

My recliner and window face the ninth fairway. Once a golf ball came crashing through the window inches from my head, and I thought a bomb had exploded until I saw the ball rolling across the floor. I don’t remember what I was reading, but I’m sure I lost my train of thought!

>5 Wootle:

We can all take turns reading at GOBOGIE's lakefront office...sounds like he's unable to use it most of the time, anyway. :-D

>7 jroger1:

And the likely irony is, you probably pay extra, either directly or indirectly, for that privilege, too! Scary, that close of a near-miss!

>9 treereader:
Or, as George Carlin would have said, “No way, folks, that was a near-hit!”

Always wondered if the ball strikers fessed up to their errant shots and paid for the windows or left it up to the homeowners.

>11 Wootle:
In my case they disappeared quickly. Insurance companies say it is the risk homeowners take when they buy on a golf course. The price of a window is usually less than the deductible.

would putting up a light, see through, netting facing the course help? or be worth the effort?

>13 sdawson:
A few neighbors have installed a net in front of their windows, but that would destroy the view. I like looking out of the window and seeing a huge backyard maintained by someone else.

The story of a mathematician and his calculated risk...

I should leave instructions for my wife to finish reading on my behalf whatever book I was reading at the time of impact. It would infuriate me to die not knowing how Martin Chuzzlewit ends.

And here I thought I was the only one dealing with that tension between having a quiet secluded reading spot in my house while still being (somewhat) accessible by my family. I also rotate between reading in the living room with distractions and reading in my office secluded from my family. Family knows I am serious about what I am reading when I close the office door. 😀

>17 Neil_Luvs_Books: Perhaps we have stumbled onto the Great Debate