working it out

[eor]

derien reminded me the other night that I am mortal, that I only have so many minutes on this earth and that I shouldn't waste them on things that I don't enjoy and aren't productive.

The context was around books. Once I start a book, I want to finish it. No matter how stupid it is. No matter how boring it is. No matter how long it takes me. No matter how much I loath it. I think this comes from 1) being stubborn and 2) having picked up books when I was a young reader that were way beyond my capability and being frustrated by my inability to finish them. So there are very few books that I've started and haven't finished.

But derien is right. Among all the thousands of hours I've wasted, a fair number have been on books that didn't give me either joy or knowledge, just the ability to put a notch in my bookshelf. No more. This weekend I put down "Gravity's Rainbow" after getting nearly halfway through it. I tossed aside two other books that have been hanging around but I know I won't enjoy. This doesn't mean that everything I read will be great, but it means that books are subject to the same calculus as music. If it's crap, I'll call it crap and toss it aside if I'm tired of it.

We won't go into all the time I've wasted watching TV or on the Internet, those can be the subject of another post.