I’m a slow reader

One thing I love about the local library system is that I can check stuff out online and then they send it to me for free. It usually takes a week or two to send the book out, but it’s free so I wait.

A while back I had the library send me Jimmy Buffett’s Where is Joe Merchant?. For reasons I can’t seem to remember I didn’t start reading it until it was due. So I went onto the handy website and renewed it. Perfect. I took the book to the Bahamas and, shortly after horrendously injuring myself, decided to start reading it.

It’s a good book; silly story, even sillier characters, but a good read. The problem is I read slowly. I mean s.l.o.w.l.y. That and I don’t really make time to read, but that can be the topic for another day.

I used to read fast, well faster. Back in college I remember reading The DaVinci Code over the course of a week and Angels and Deamons even quicker. I even read The Client in a 24 hour period because it was due for a law class (which was taught by the teacher mentioned in the article that caused so much controversy).

Anyway, I somehow lost the ability to read quickly. Maybe the internet has destroyed the part of my brain required to do intellectual things like watching the news, reading, and knowing better than jumping off cliffs. Whatever it is, the library is starting to take notice. They’ve told me I cannot renew it again. Evidently three times is too many (yeah, I’ve had it that long, so what?). So I guess I have to read the remaining two hundred pages before the 11th or they send out the Library Police. You’d think that since I’m basically paying for the book anyway through my taxes they’d let me keep it till I’m done. Maybe I can get a discrimination lawsuit out of this. Oh, who am I kidding. It’d take me four years to read the lawyers paperwork.