Shortly after returning home from BEA, I remember seeing something about the start of “summer hours” mentioned in reference to the publishing industry.
I’m not sure exactly which “hours” those are, but I did have a job once where we observed “summer flex-time” for several years – employees could work 9-hour days Monday-Thursday and leave at noon on Friday. I was never able to partake, because my child-care arrangements at the time didn’t allow for the extended workday four days a week (but as an aside, flextime is a scheduling option that employers should offer year-round, not just in the summer), but I’m inferring that publishers’ “summer hours” are something similar – at least the “leave early on Fridays” part, anyway.
I think I’ve unofficially slipped into “summer hours” in my blogging recently, as I’ve only managed to post three times in the past week. Part of the lag is due to reviews that I’ve written but can’t post here yet, but there are a couple of other reasons as well. For one, I’m trying to set aside reading time every weekend, and that means I’m not using that time for writing. For another, my own “summer hours” are including increased family-chauffeur duty, and time spent driving isn’t available for reading or writing (yes, I know about audiobooks; no I really haven’t taken that leap yet.) However, the biggest reason is that I’m just not spilling over with things to say right now – inspiration really only bit me once last week (but granted, it bit pretty hard).
Perhaps it’s a sign of where I am as a blogger now, but I think I’m going to embrace the “summer hours” philosophy here and be a little more casual in my posting for a while. Depending on what’s going on, posting activity may be near-daily some weeks, and spotty in others. At this point, however, I’m planning to post reviews as I can, and to keep Sunday Salon posts as a constant (and may actually have more to say on Sundays when I post less the week before – who knows?).
So now that I’ve told you that, you tell me:
- Will you be taking any breaks from blogging during the summer?
- What are you excited about reading this summer?
- Do you listed to audiobooks while driving? Any recommendations for someone who’s thinking of giving them a try?
