Reading

I like to read, and I like to read about various things - usually, things that really don't have anything to do with my daily life. Sometimes, what I read just fuels a fantasy life -- like the article I just read about Moleskin notebooks, and how excellent they are (also, how you can buy a virtual clone for a quarter the price); I love the feeling of good quality paper, and I love using a good writing implement. Or an article I read about a church that was converted into a home; the idea of a home with soaring ceilings and massive chunks of stone for a walkway, light filtering through stained glass -- I love to muse over that (I think its that kind of thing that fuels my occasional desire to do more with our home, nice as it is.) Or articles about a new style of traffic signal (it looks like an hourglass; I don't like it -- any light that has to be explained isn't quite right, no matter how ingenious), or hydroponic engineering, or how you go about designing a very tall building.

The problem isn't finding these articles. Google Reader, and RSS, does a nice job of that. (Could be better, but not a lot better. Though I hate it when I subscribe to a comic and for some reason the comic doesn't show up in the reader -- the associated text does, but not the comic. Why is that? ) The problem is that when I read these things, I frequently like to slow down, reading -- thinking about the concepts, mulling them (nothing deep, just more than read the words and get done). And all of this takes time. So when I go to GRdr and it says I have over a thousand articles waiting to be read, I get a little stunned. I can't possibly read all of those! So I go and read the comics, and look at four or five articles, and then think well, enough of this. Leaving, oh, nine hundred ninety-plus articles left to read. Or ignore, but at least notice.

There has to be a better way. And sometimes, I think: You're so smart? YOU figure it out. And ideas do occur to me - but implementation?

Ay, there's the rub.