Things That Annoy Me, But Shouldn't

Or any government agency.

 

The National Helium Reserve had a good run.

 

at least we have Congress

 

I'm a rabidly partisan kind of guy in my off-forum life. Not gonna say which party, although I've had loyalties to both, loyalties which have shifted over time.*

But I think that I could agree with my blood-enemies across the aisle when I say:

Spoiler: *

I AM NOT A SWING VOTER DAMMIT!!!!!!!!!

 

More like regress. Or degress. Am I right?

 

No, sir, you are not. As Will Rogers (or somebody) once said, if the opposite of "pro" is "con", what does that make the opposite of "progress."

<dropping someone else's mike>:

 

People that say they love to read but never do because they "don't have the time".

I think they just love the idea of reading.

 

Like Jane Eyre (in the movie or story of the same name) said—she wants to have read all the great books. Not to read them note, but to have read them. Says a lot about her character I think.

 

that describes most people, myself included. Although I have read Jane Eyre.

 

I get that and I feel the same way at times. There are plenty of books that I would like to have read, especially classics, but know I won't spend the time/energy to read. I'm more talking about people who literally never read, go home every day and play video games or watch Netflix all night and then say they would read if only they had the time.

It's okay not to like reading, just stop pretending to haha

 

Wading through Victorian verbiage is like... well, I can't think of anything appropriately challenging. Wading through congealed thigh deep lemon jello, maybe, on an uphill slope with slaloming jello skiers coming straight atcha. No wonder Hemingway was such a hit when he came along.

 

I love to read but I don’t. It’s been a life-long frustration of mine. Reading, to me, feels like a chore. It doesn’t matter how riveting the subject matter, I can barely manage a chapter per day. Don’t ask me to explain. The best reason I can give is that I quickly start to feel tired and drained, and quite often my body starts to ache, usually my wrists and the backs of my hands from holding the pages open. It’s probably truer to say I want to love reading, but can’t.

 

I love to read but dont have time to read what i want

Ive added 3 more books to my "To Read" notebook just this morning and added an audiobook to my app.
(Gotta figure out when to listen to it... I already have a "while at my desk" audiobook and a "Car" audiobook... Maybe ill make it a "lunch" audiobook)

 

Where do you read? Sometimes I can struggle to read in my bedroom/apartment. I'm a better reader when I leave the distractions of my living space like at a park, or beach, or bench on a trail, etc. I don't own a Kindle but that may help with your wrists?

 

Audiobooks are great and I love to listen to them. I'm definitely able to absorb a lot more content because of them.

 

I get that to an extent. In the flat there’s too many excuses for not reading, but reading in public gets you funny looks in my neck of the woods. It’d be fine in France or similar, outside a cafe with a espresso, but not where I live.

 

like on a park bench?

 

I never notice funny looks directed at me while I'm reading, possibly because I'm busy reading. Did have an old guy come up to me once and interrupt my reading to tell me that people who read were "selfish." By that he apparently meant people who didn't focus their attention on him. As a pick up line, it lacked a certain je ne c'est quoi.

 

Yes. Reading on a park bench round my way will get you kicked to death.

 

Ive gotten a few of those... "Must be a good book, you're so focused! [Starts talking about himself and how he hates reading but likes to people watch]" Or "i appreciate the way you read [sits down and starts trying to make small talk about how young people dont read anymore and its attractive to see me so in to my book]"
(Me reading in a public library the next city over from where i work)

Most annoyingly "what are you reading? Id like to know so i can read it with you and we can talk about it over lunch "
(Me on my lunch break in my office AT work.... And it was NOT a coworker)


I used to think i had a pretty good "leave me alone" resting bitch face.... Apparently its not a very good one

 

I once had to sit in a tire shop waiting for my suddenly and inexplicably exploded tire to be replaced and reading from my kindle. It was me, a couple of other customers, and the young woman behind the counter who apparently was bored and incapable of handling that, so she would interrupt my reading every 40 seconds or so with inane small talk (I was the unlucky one who happened to be seated closest to her). Just long enough each time for me to find where I had left off and begin to immerse myself again. No amount of subtle mounting annoyance on my face or in my voice dissuaded her. I was on the point of total chaos, about to politely inform her than I was reading, when my tire was finished and I could thankfully leave.

 

Sounds like an absolute shit place to live.

 

By scousers by any chance? Lol, I'm picturing English punkers from the 70's with giant safety pins through their noses and their hair worked up into colorful anarchic sculptures insulting intelligence, education and taste while stomping you into the sidewalk and occasionally shouting "Oy!"

 

I may have exaggerated for comic effect.

 

We don’t get many scousers in Tameside.