A Question of Balance
As of the end of Q1, I have read 27 prose books. In all of 2017, I only read only 47 prose novels. What changed?
Alas, I'd like to tell you that I have magically figured out a new way to organize my life so that I have more time to read, but the answer is far more prosaic. Last year I didn't go on any vacations in Q1, but this year I had two, which accounted for seven books all by itself between plane flights and lying by pools. This is one factor. Another is that I have gone to dramatically fewer movies compared to the same time period in Q1 of 2017. By way of comparison:
Movies Q1 2017 - 28
Movies Q1 2018 - 9
Books Q1 2017 - 14 prose, 1 comic
Books Q1 2018 - 27 prose, 5 comics
Only three of the 2017 were from CIFF starting in March (i'ts not until later this week this year), so the upshot is that I essentially traded 19 movies for 17 total books (concerts were essentially even YOY). Whether or not this is actually a good trade is of course heavily dependent on the books and the movies in question. As it happens, I saw a lot of the recent Oscar bait in late 2017, so I had less I wanted to see in early 2018. I've been somewhat more rigorous about my recent reading and enjoyed a very high percentage of the books I've read this year. So this time around, it's a good trade off. Since I didn't actually unlock the mysteries of time (alas), it is a terrible predictor of future events.
On a side note, I can't understand people who get bored during retirement and go back to work. I'm fairly confident that given reasonable health and finances, I can could read at least one book every single day and see at least every mainstream movie that I had even the vaguest desire to see in the theater, plus quite a few arthouse films. Maybe I'd get bored with that at some point, but it seems like that would take years to reach that point, especially since I'd presumably be doing some other things too.
Alas, I'd like to tell you that I have magically figured out a new way to organize my life so that I have more time to read, but the answer is far more prosaic. Last year I didn't go on any vacations in Q1, but this year I had two, which accounted for seven books all by itself between plane flights and lying by pools. This is one factor. Another is that I have gone to dramatically fewer movies compared to the same time period in Q1 of 2017. By way of comparison:
Movies Q1 2017 - 28
Movies Q1 2018 - 9
Books Q1 2017 - 14 prose, 1 comic
Books Q1 2018 - 27 prose, 5 comics
Only three of the 2017 were from CIFF starting in March (i'ts not until later this week this year), so the upshot is that I essentially traded 19 movies for 17 total books (concerts were essentially even YOY). Whether or not this is actually a good trade is of course heavily dependent on the books and the movies in question. As it happens, I saw a lot of the recent Oscar bait in late 2017, so I had less I wanted to see in early 2018. I've been somewhat more rigorous about my recent reading and enjoyed a very high percentage of the books I've read this year. So this time around, it's a good trade off. Since I didn't actually unlock the mysteries of time (alas), it is a terrible predictor of future events.
On a side note, I can't understand people who get bored during retirement and go back to work. I'm fairly confident that given reasonable health and finances, I can could read at least one book every single day and see at least every mainstream movie that I had even the vaguest desire to see in the theater, plus quite a few arthouse films. Maybe I'd get bored with that at some point, but it seems like that would take years to reach that point, especially since I'd presumably be doing some other things too.