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When your reading time is interrupted-what do you do?
- Thread starter SFG75
- Start date
Breaca
Member
I hate being interrupted whilst reading. It's just as bad as those who constantly ask what's going on in a movie when they're watching it at the same time as you. I've taken a lesson from my mum - another avid reader. When interrupted I just glance up - that fleeting moment of 'eye contact' gives the impression that you're actually listening. And I find that I don't need to respond verbally which lets me return to my book with barely a hic-cough. 
pontalba
Well-Known Member
I've a one track mind, and when I am reading, I tend to focus on that and really don't hear what is going on around me. But reading while watching television is annoying to say the least. I can't concentrate (usually). Mostly I am left alone when I am reading since I don't respond (unless its an emergency). Must be the automatic 'brain filter system'. 
My mother is a nuisance, she can't stand not to talk, or moan as it usually is. I'm constantly asking her to leave me alone at least while i'm reading but she always ignores me even if i lock myself in my room. I personally can't stand it and find it totally frustrating, especially when i'm at the climax of a book. She however, along with most of my family, is a non reader so i assume she just doesn't understand how annoying it can be.
Prairie_Girl
New Member
I hope it's ok that I've bumped a couple of older thread tonight, but I feel like replying and no one seems to be posting. If it's a problem just let me know.
Anyway, I think I've mentioned this before but my spouse doens't get the idea that reading is quite as important to me as it is. Sometimes I'll be reading and she'll be talking to me for five or ten minutes and I'll of a sudden I'll come to and be like..."huh?" and then she gets mad. Or she'll be chatting, and we'll talk for a bit, then she'll go back to her book, and I"ll go back to mine, and as soon as I've settled back in she'll start talking again. It's frustrating that last Sunday I read The Time Traveller's Wife in one day, and it's about 500 pages, I started As The Crow Flies the next day, and now it's Friday and I STILL have a hundred pages to go. Stupid work and needing to sleep keeps getting in the way!
Anyway, I think I've mentioned this before but my spouse doens't get the idea that reading is quite as important to me as it is. Sometimes I'll be reading and she'll be talking to me for five or ten minutes and I'll of a sudden I'll come to and be like..."huh?" and then she gets mad. Or she'll be chatting, and we'll talk for a bit, then she'll go back to her book, and I"ll go back to mine, and as soon as I've settled back in she'll start talking again. It's frustrating that last Sunday I read The Time Traveller's Wife in one day, and it's about 500 pages, I started As The Crow Flies the next day, and now it's Friday and I STILL have a hundred pages to go. Stupid work and needing to sleep keeps getting in the way!
SFG75
Well-Known Member
No, there is no statute of limitations when it comes to threads.
I love my wife, I really do. But I just tone her out when I'm reading and I get an annoyed response. She knows not to talk to me when I'm in a deep-reading trance.
Wait until kids are thrown into the mix-you ain't seen nothin' yet.
Prairie_Girl
New Member
Thanks, I'm glad to know it's ok to bump threads, it's annoying when I do a search and then realize it's an old thread and I really want to bump it, but I'm scared people might get upset.
I love my wife too, but she doesn't seem to QUITE get the reading obsession yet.
I love my wife too, but she doesn't seem to QUITE get the reading obsession yet.
mehastings
Active Member
Prairie_Girl said:
Never worry about that! In fact, I think people would be very appreciative of the fact that you search for topics and bump old threads instead of starting new ones on old topics. It is very considerate of you.
WoundedThorns
New Member
stupid school =P
my reading time is generally interrupted by school, so i dont have a choice =( i miss the days of when i'd just read all day when i was younger.. but back then i wasn't taking AP euro =X i wish i had better time management skills...
my reading time is generally interrupted by school, so i dont have a choice =( i miss the days of when i'd just read all day when i was younger.. but back then i wasn't taking AP euro =X i wish i had better time management skills...
Libre
Member
This thread reminds me of the Twilight Zone in which Burgess Meredith plays a myopic bank teller who has a passion for reading. His problem was that his crone of a wife and his blustery boss think his passion is a waste of time - and he has hardly any time to read at all, what with all the interruptions and the hassles everyone is giving him. The only time he has to read is his lunch hour at the bank, when he hides inside the vault to curl up with a book.
One day, while he's in the vault, the world is destroyed by a nuclear holocaust (this IS the Twilight Zone) but our bank teller survives - in fact, he is the sole survivor because he was in the vault. The Public Library is miraculously unscathed, and he's so happy about it, he couldn't even care less that the rest of civilization has been reduced to ashes. He happily catalogues all the books, planning out all the uninterrputed reading he will be able to do, and he's as happy as a pig in you-know-what, until...what do you think happened?
Well, it was the Twilight Zone.
Remember that one?
One day, while he's in the vault, the world is destroyed by a nuclear holocaust (this IS the Twilight Zone) but our bank teller survives - in fact, he is the sole survivor because he was in the vault. The Public Library is miraculously unscathed, and he's so happy about it, he couldn't even care less that the rest of civilization has been reduced to ashes. He happily catalogues all the books, planning out all the uninterrputed reading he will be able to do, and he's as happy as a pig in you-know-what, until...what do you think happened?
Well, it was the Twilight Zone.
Remember that one?
SFG75
Well-Known Member
Excellent story-I could picture the whole thing as I read what you typed. Since creating this thread, I've somewhat come to a good balance between my own selfish desire to have uninterrupted time to read and the other things in life that demand attention as well. I've found that my book reading time has just doubled since joining the board, so I guess I'm doing well in that regard.
I'm pretty good at phasing out when I'm reading and therefore it is generally pretty hard to interrupt me. I do get annoyed when people fail to realise that I am engrossed in a book and continue to bother me until I realise they are speaking to me. I feel like saying to them, "Do I look like I'm doing nothing, here? Can't you see I'm reading? If I wanted to talk to you I wouldn't be reading, I'd be talking!" But I don't say it. Instead, I smile and say something like, "Oh really, that's nice." and then I go back to my book. What is really bad is when they don't take the hint and keep bloody talking. Then I sigh and put the book down and come back to it later. So how do I feel about being interrupted when I'm reading? I hate it, but sometimes it just can't be avoided. The outside world has a way of forcing itself in.
abecedarian
Well-Known Member
Here's a typical scene at my house..in fact it occured just last night.
Dh was reading in the tub(Patchwork Planet-Anne Tyler), I was reading my current book and having to stop and look up words in the online dictionary cause my son couldn't tell the difference between a dictionary and a Rodales Thesaurus. As he hands me the thesaurus instead of the much needed dictionary, he asks ever so sweetly if I would touch his back(effleurage)...<sigh> what's a devoted mom supposed to do. I tell the hubby about his son's request, and he tells me to tell him to find his own wife! Anyhoo, I go out to the living room so I can sit by the kid, and have my book, pen, and notebook in hand-don't ask me how I'm supposed to do everything
I sit down next to the sweet 14 yr old and try to concentrate on this intricately written novel while touching the boy's back while he reads his Charley Bone book. He gets miffed each time I have to stop and write down the word I don't know and the sentence from the book-for context- if you could see this book, you'd understand-Muggle might know! Anyway, I'm not making much progress on MY book..
Across the room two of my teen dds are talking and the older one has a book I don't reckognize(looked interesting) and she preceeds to read me various tidbits from this-it's a HP Guide of somesort..Meanwhile I'm trying to express to them how long each of these sentences in MY book are, and this dd keeps interupting me to tell me what she's reading..Finally I give up and head back to my room for some peace and quiet and my online dictionary
Just think, it could have been worse. My #2 son has me reading Which Witch aloud, and if he'd known I was out there...
Dh was reading in the tub(Patchwork Planet-Anne Tyler), I was reading my current book and having to stop and look up words in the online dictionary cause my son couldn't tell the difference between a dictionary and a Rodales Thesaurus. As he hands me the thesaurus instead of the much needed dictionary, he asks ever so sweetly if I would touch his back(effleurage)...<sigh> what's a devoted mom supposed to do. I tell the hubby about his son's request, and he tells me to tell him to find his own wife! Anyhoo, I go out to the living room so I can sit by the kid, and have my book, pen, and notebook in hand-don't ask me how I'm supposed to do everything
I sit down next to the sweet 14 yr old and try to concentrate on this intricately written novel while touching the boy's back while he reads his Charley Bone book. He gets miffed each time I have to stop and write down the word I don't know and the sentence from the book-for context- if you could see this book, you'd understand-Muggle might know! Anyway, I'm not making much progress on MY book..
Across the room two of my teen dds are talking and the older one has a book I don't reckognize(looked interesting) and she preceeds to read me various tidbits from this-it's a HP Guide of somesort..Meanwhile I'm trying to express to them how long each of these sentences in MY book are, and this dd keeps interupting me to tell me what she's reading..Finally I give up and head back to my room for some peace and quiet and my online dictionary
Just think, it could have been worse. My #2 son has me reading Which Witch aloud, and if he'd known I was out there...
RainbowGurl
Active Member
I'm also the same as mehastings just minus the laundry part
mom2kngr
New Member
I have no real "reading time". I read whenever I can grab a book and read a few sentences to a few pages...LOL My kids always think I should be doing something with them rather than reading. And life is just to hectic right now but I take a book everywhere we go in hopes that I might be able to read some
Libre
Member
SFG75 said:Excellent story-I could picture the whole thing as I read what you typed. Since creating this thread, I've somewhat come to a good balance between my own selfish desire to have uninterrupted time to read and the other things in life that demand attention as well. I've found that my book reading time has just doubled since joining the board, so I guess I'm doing well in that regard.
Yeah, I could see it as I typed too.
Sometimes I think that the Twilight Zone was the greatest TV series ever. Not many bad ones, and so many great ones.
Rod Serling. And so many young actors that would later become superstars - like Robert Redford to name one.
de-DE-de-dum, de-DE-de-dum, de-DE-de-dum....
Da da da DA!