The blogger who posts to the The Striped Armchair recently wondered if her readers were monks or pilgrims. Not in a religious sense, but in a reading sense.
The pilgrim carries a book with her wherever she goes and snatches paragraphs and pages as she can...waiting in line, at the car wash, on the bus. Even walking along city sidewalks.
On the other hand, the monk likes to set aside time and savor her reading. Ten minutes isn't even enough time. Thirty minutes to an hour must be allotted or she will not even glance at the closed book on the chair.
I am definitely a monk. (What is the female version of monk? Monkette? Monkess?) I want to be in a comfortable chair or propped up in bed with clouds of pillows before I settle in to read. I find it hard to concentrate with noise and people milling about. I cannot read on an airplane, train, or in a car. At the doctor's office I am too distracted to read even the three-month old magazines. And forget about reading and walking. That would be like chewing gum and rubbing my stomach at the same time. A feat of coordination that I don't possess.
I guess that makes me a definite single tasker. Or very ADD - easily pulled away from the page by whatever is going on around me. Fortunately, I have the luxury of living alone so I don't have to escape to the bathroom and lock the door to snatch a bit of book time. Whew!
Which are you? Monk or Pilgrim?
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