When I saw this post I thought a falling behind was an age related problem.

Im sorry Carolyn, you are such a good sport that I couldnt resist that one. :)

Dont worry about how many books you read. Worry about the quality of those books. Perhaps you are just being more careful in your selections!

Carolyn, I used to be amazed at the vast numbers of books some RP'ers got through in a year plus the evident pride they took in announcing "I read 37 books this week" or even worse "I only read 37 books this week because we were busy at work." I would wonder how I could have found a paid-job like that. ;-)
As Janalyn says, it is quality not quantity that counts. I'm doing well if I get through more than four books a month (although I usually have several 'on the go' at any one time) but, for the most part I am able to remember what the book was about, whether I enjoyed it and occasionally who the author was. And on thinking about this I realise I don't read to 'pass the time' I do it because I want to find out 'stuff' or spend time with an author, or find a new-to-me writer that I might enjoy, so seldom read light-weight novels . . . just re-read this God, don't I sound pompous!

Carolyn, I agree with Vee and Janalyn. What you've read and enjoyed matters more than how many books you can tally at the end of the year.

I looked back at my book list, and found that in the years I'd read fewer books, there seemed to be more literary novels and more non-fiction in the mix than in years when I read a great deal more. This year I logged in 25 more books than I'd read last year, but so many of them were throw-away romances (no offense to romance readers, I do love a well-written one) they hardly counted.

You're certainly not behind choosing quality over quantity. Besides, your total number of books read has mine beat by quite a bit :)

I would agree that for me at least the computer sucks up time that I would otherwise devote to reading. I used to brag insufferably about how little time I waste on television, until I realized I was wasting every bit as much time on my computer. It was a humbling moment.

Rosefolly

And that we tend to get more selective about the books we read as we get older. There are more enjoyable books than there is time to read them. Unfortunately, finding them also takes time.

I know that I read far fewer than I did when I was much younger. As a girl I read practically a book a day. That slowed down in college, and has picked up and slowed down several times during my life as other activities completed.

My DH and I participated in a running group for several years about ten years ago. When I developed various warning aches and pains, I dropped down to the walking group. We all competed in the same marathons at the end. We all crossed the same finish line, just some of us got there faster than others.

The point? I don't think it matters if you walk a bit slower, so long as you are still walking. I don't think it matters if you are reading fewer books so long as you are still reading. The house, the garden? If you are busy and engaged, involved with people and with the world of ideas, In my opinion it doesn't matter just how you go about it.

Rosefolly

I agree. I noticed the same thing for myself for last year, that I read way less books than usual. I realized that part of that is that I had started several books that I didn't finish (I don't count unfinished books) either because I lost interest or I just couldn't get into them and part of it is that I spent way too much time either online or playing solitaire on the computer. I am resolved to spend less time playing solitaire.....

Thanks for the kind words. I did read some big books, but I'm not sure I read too much in the way of quality. I just like a good story, mostly with an interesting murder in it!

I'll take care of you later, Janalyn :)

Good grief, I am lucky to read 30 in a year. You all must be very fast readers. I am not.

The computer is definitely cutting into my reading time. I have to do something about that!

I have a neighbor (retired) who gets all of her chores done around the hosue in the morning so that she can read all afternoon. I look forward to those days.

I also spend too much time at the computer and watching TV. My latest addiction is Scramble with Friends on my phone.

Falling behind.........?

Come to think of it , I haven't finished the list of books to be read before freshman year in college back in '62 !

Yo - I bet Moby Dick was on it.

Janalyn.......I am sitting here chuckling.

Moby Dick and then some !

I imagine my 18 year old eyes glazing over as I opened my mail that sunny summer afternoon and perused the dreadful list of "should have read by now" books !

The only Moby Dick I cared about then was Dick Clark !!

sarah canary, I have a neighbour who has three young school-age children and she says she does all her reading during her breakfast. She doesn't actually prepare anything for the kids and leaves it up up them to feed themselves . . . or not.
I think this might be an eg of 'modern parenting' gone too far. ;-(

Vee, our mother cooked breakfast for us only on unusually cold winter mornings. I think that children getting their own breakfasts by school age is very common, at least here. Most days she got us up (a task in itself), then we got our own breakfast of cold cereal and toast. On the way out the door we lined up, she checked that we had our schoolbooks and lunches or lunch money, then we all said our morning prayers and were out the door running to catch the school bus.

After we left she washed the dishes, put a load of laundry in the washing machine, and then sat down for a good read.

Rosefolly

I also spend time on the computer that I used to spend reading. I remember one of my great pleasures was when my kids were at school or camp. I played tennis most mornings and would come home, make some lunch and plop on the sofa out on my porch to eat and read for awhile. I also read a lot when I was lying around my parents pool or on the beach.

This post makes my life sound as if all I did was read and loll around. Believe me, that was not my life! It's too bad that I reach for my laptop now as often as I reach for my book.

Rosefolly, I think these days many children in the UK are lucky to get any breakfast and schools are doing a roaring trade in 'Breakfast Clubs' as it is easier for 'working' parents to drop them off early unfed . . . and pick then up late after the 'After School Club'.
I think you and I probably come from much the same generation and over here, when I was young, despite rationing, a cooked breakfast was still the norm. We never even had cereal in the house as my Father considered it would be healthier to eat the cardboard packet rather than the contents and he had no idea then how laden with sugar and salt it was.
BTW in the UK all cereal is 'cold', unless you pour hot milk on it.

What happened to porridge? !
Or oatmeal? Cream of wheat? Cream of rice? Maypo?

What has happened to the homemaking skills of these young people?
Children inhabiting a cyberworld.....raised by day care workers , fed by cafeterias at school.
My heart breaks for them.

Yes, I'm that ancient.
I want June Clever to be everone's Mom, I guess.

My mother taught school, but we had a country-style hot breakfast every morning. One morning she had overslept and woke me to get breakfast while she milked and got in the eggs. (My dad was a farmer/livestock dealer but "didn't do" milking.) Anyway, we had a gas range which I put a pan of biscuits into and applied a lit match to the proper little place in the oven, but evidently I had brushed against the knob earlier and the gas was on. It blew the burners off the stove and broke a couple of window panes, the noise from which certainly brought my mom into the house on the double. Fortunately, all it did to me was singe the hair on my arms and scorch my pajama sleeves. She never did ask me to do that again for some reason.

For my own daughter, I alternated scrambled eggs and oatmeal mornings. She ate without complaint, but now she won't touch oatmeal with a ten-foot pole.

Carolyn, the lengths some people will go to in order to avoid cooking. Perhaps it would have been better if you had milked the cows ;-)
You Mother certainly must have had a very busy life, I just wonder how many modern females/housewives would be prepared to do all that. I know of several 'friends' (in the loosest sense) who never even got out of bed to check that their kids had fed themselves. When one such person was phoned by her daughter's school to come and collect the child who had fainted during lessons, the Head asked her what the girl had had for breakfast and the Mother replied "I have no idea, I wasn't up" before she realised a Black Mark had just been put after her name in the Parenting Book of Shame.

I feel compelled to put in a good word for mothers who are struggling to do a difficult job under trying circumstances, often berating themselves mercilessly that they aren't capable of fulfilling a June Cleaver fantasy.

I personally know a number of working mothers who get up in the morning, supervise their children getting ready for school while getting themselves ready as well. Some cook a breakfast, some have their children get their own breakfast, while some hand their children some kind of food-like breakfast product, heavily advertised and what the children have been brainwashed into preferring. They then drive their children to school (or day care if the children are too young for school), then go to work. If they are not single mothers, usually the father picks them up after school/day care. This chore is frequently shared. In any case, whether they pick up the children themselves or a partner does it, the mothers come home to supervise dinner and homework then fall exhausted into bed that night. In my high-pressure, high-expectation part of the country, weekends are dominated by extras for the children - language school, sports, music or dance lessons, or extra tutoring, along with what ever social life the children or parents may have. Most mothers whom I know work full time, many in demanding professional careers, and most of them also take their role as mothers very seriously. They are often simply exhausted.

I am sure that there are indeed any number of lazy mothers who neglect their children's well-being, but honestly I think most mothers do the very best they can, often under trying circumstances.

Rosefolly