Some universities observe “reading days” – a break of several days between the end of classes and the start of semester exams intended to allow students to focus on reading and studying. I don’t have exams coming up, but I am a bit behind on work-related reading, so I’m taking a few days off from work to work on getting back on track.
I’m scheduled to report for jury duty first thing tomorrow morning. The last time I was summoned, in the spring of 2009, I was selected to sit on a trial and spent most of the week at the courthouse, which meant daily calls in to the office to let them know I wouldn’t be back to work just yet. Since my county has a “one day/one trial” rule, if I’m not seated on a jury by the end of the day tomorrow, my service will be done. If I do get picked again, I’ll be there till the trial ends, which I hope will be within the week.
Anyone who’s ever been on jury duty knows that it involves a fair amount of time sitting around waiting for things to happen, and that makes it a very good time to catch up on your reading. I decided I’d like to have more than one day to do that – and I could make certain that I would, regardless of how long I was at the courthouse. I’m taking this entire week off – the days I’m not at the courthouse will be vacation time, and I intend to make use it to observe my own “reading days” (although I want to get some writing in there, too, and spend some time re-organizing TBR Purgatory!).
I need to get to work on next month’s reading and reviewing for Shelf Awareness for Readers. My group read of The Handmaid’s Tale is officially underway as of this week. I’ve got some very appealing ARCs whose pub dates are either recently past or coming up soon that I’d like to dig into, and, of course, there are always the paid-for and eternally patient inhabitants of TBR Purgatory. The SA reading and the group read are my priorities for the week, but I’m looking forward to some quality book time during the next few days! Wish me luck – I’ll let y’all know how it goes in next week’s Salon.
