Librarians are accustomed to hearing this comment: “You’re a librarian? What a great job! You get to read all day.”  Uh . . . no, we don’t “get to read all day.” The irony is that librarians are too busy working to have time to indulge what is, for many of us, a favorite pastime. If we’re reading anything at the public reference desk, it’s usually reviews of books, or a book that we’ve been assigned to evaluate. We don’t sit at our desks, coffee cup in hand, legs up on an ottoman, box of chocolates within easy reach, reading a romance  or a mystery, and getting paid for our lethargy. What a fantasy! Yes, I wish the job were that pleasant.

I often felt frustrated because I could never find the time to read my favorite authors or even the latest hot book (think: The Da Vinci Code, the Harry Potter series, Fifty Shades of Grey, etc.). But now that I have more free time to read, I maximize my reading potential by following these simple rules:

1. I am disciplined. I set a goal to read a certain number of pages a day. Otherwise, it’s easy to get distracted by life.

2. I don’t feel obligated to finish a book that is boring. I set it aside and move on to the next.

3. I read at every free moment possible. Have a long wait at the doctor’s office? Read a book. Have a long commute on the train? Read a book.

I even read during the commercials of my favorite TV shows, or when a show gets slow (for example, during those police chase scenes–my mind wanders otherwise),

What would I want with me if stranded alone on a desert island? A book, of course . . . oh,after food, survival tools, sunblock, etc. First things first.