Reading Habits

Lately I have noticed I have been doing a lot less pleasure reading. I read atleast an hour out loud a day to the kids so it is not as if I was not reading but I have just not gotten into any good books lately. It is odd for me. Then today when reading my RSS feed I clicked over to look at my statistics. That is when I discovered this

"From your 82 subscriptions, over the last 30 days you read 4,860 items, starred 0 items, shared 227 items, and emailed 1 items."

So I have been reading a lot online haven't I? In 30 days I have read almost 5000 articles and/or blog posts on the computer. To be sure I just skim many of these - some only the first paragraph or so others I fully read. Usually everything I share I read in full. So even just that is about 8 articles a day in full. When I do the math for those my RSS feed says I read that would be over 150 a day. There is no way that is accurate. I guess maybe I read that many headlines in a day and decide what to read in more detail.

So in the past month I have added over 200 items to my Tenniel's read list over on the right hand column. Guess it gives you a peek into what interests me the most. It also gives me an easy place to store all my favorite things I have read in the past year or so. When I wanted to buy Serona a pair of headphones I went back through my shared items to find the Cnet review of the pair he liked. Useful for someone whose brain tries to keep up with too much information.

I recently read the article about how my generation is reading less but I really wonder if we are or if our reading interests have just shifted? As winter settles in there is nothing like a good book on my lap to read through. Though I would be willing to consider the Kindle if the price ever comes down to something more reasonable. Each winter I read atleast a classic a month - usually I start with Austen helps me think about the finer things in life during a season when it can be so dreary here in MN.

How about you? Do you read news online? My kids asked the other day why the paperboy never comes to our door and I explained I do everything on the computer for my news. That did not surprise my kids since I spend a decent amount of time on there.

Do you have an RSS feeder? If you use Google Reader you too can look at your statistics and be amazed at how much you read. Do you read a lot of books for pleasure? I find often after reading to the kids all day I just don't want to pick up another book but I am happy to read about what is going on in the world.

I also find I go through data fasts. I need to just disconnect for awhile especially after there is a lot of depressing news. Sometimes I just say nothing on the computer but email and that is good. Other times I will only allow myself to read my rss on my blackberry when I am otherwise waiting or wasting time. Sometimes I limit which subscriptions I will read - only blogs of friends and family, or only tech news (my single biggest time suck - I subscribe to lots of tech and science blogs that I find interesting). Anyway I was still surprised at quite how much data I actually peruse over the course of a month!

Peace,
Tenniel