"What do you like to do?"

Someone asked me this question the other day, and usually my automatic response is "I love to read, and etc etc."

However, my response that day startled me, even as I blurted it out- "I used to love to read..."

NOOOOOOOOOOO!!! (That's me howling in protest, trying to stop this "used to" nonsense from happening)

I still love to read, but I have never been so tired of and from reading, and it's only halfway through the semester- urgh! It's one thing to read for pleasure, and another thing to read for school, but to read for graduate school is a whole different ballgame. I don't know  about other graduate programs, but history graduate classes are NO JOKE, especially under the semester system where I take 4 classes in a semester (conditions of my fellowship). Basically I read about one book per week per class. Do the math... ta dah! I read on average, oh you know, only 4 scholarly historical books per week.

Can you blame me for being tired of reading?

I've developed the skill of learning to read different books quickly:

•  For most books you read the introduction closely especially where they go "I argue... chapter 1 (summary)... chapter 2 (summary)..." then skim the rest of the book. [YES! These are the books I love] 
• Other books don't have such a nice introductory outline, so the next best thing is to read the beginning and end of each chapter. 
•  The rest you have to read the first few chapters before you figure out how to read the remaining chapters quickly. 

I've come to the point where I can read about one book a day, and that's not even the fastest speed. (Apparently you are suppose to read one book in about 3 hours... CRAZYFREAKING NOWAY)

On the other hand, I am having the time of my intellectual life. I love most of what I'm learning from my readings, though there is this class I... this is for another post.

Phew! I didn't mean for this post to be about my reading habits, but I was just so sad that my love for reading has... "evolved."