year of the book

All my life I've hated to read. That's not entirely accurate... I don't mind reading, but almost every time I've tried to read something I've ended up getting very bored or falling asleep. Every once in a while (on average about every two years or so) I've been able to find a book that can hold my attention long enough to get through it, but most of the time I can't get past the first twenty pages. The part of this that frustrates me the most is when there's a book I sincerely want to read¹, but due to my near total lack of attention span, I can rarely get past the first twenty pages.

That all changed last year. In April I took an internship in NYC that required me to spend a lot of time on buses and trains. Also, the nature of my career means plenty of time sitting around tending machines while they do the work for you. Plus I was amazed to learn just how much reading you can get done a few minutes at a time during lunch breaks or while waiting for the wife's train to arrive. This year I went from being the kind of guy who reads one book every two years, to being a guy who always has a book with him.

Just during the last nine months of last year I read the following books:

• the last third of Fahrenheit 451
  
• Speaker For The Dead
  
• The Zombie Survival Guide
  
• Eragon
  
• The Road²
  
• Shadow of the Hegemon
  
• Eldest
  
• The four gospels (i.e. matthew, mark, luke, john)
  
• Ender's Game
  
• 1/3 of Ender's Shadow
  
• A Fire Upon The Deep
  
• I, Robot
  
• The Dig
  
• 1/4 of The Bloke's Guide to Pregnancy
  
• first half of I Am Legend

For a grand total of 4350 pages³, just from the books listed here.

1) Like the Lord of the Rings series, for vivid example.
2) A crappy crappy book that offers the reader nothing but disappointment.
3) Which is an approximate number, since I estimated the number of pages I read from each book I read only part of. I didn't count most of my nightly scripture reading, however, so the actual number should be well past 4500.