Saturday, November 15, 2008
Motivational Tools
My friend Tom and I have formed a book club. The unnamed book club functions as follows. We picked five books off our bookshelves (except neither of us could narrow it down to five) that we had purchased because they were classics or we were overly ambitious, one or the other but had not read because they were too intimidating. The premise was that we would read them together. To give you a little background, I love to read, I read all the time, I don't get anything else done because I read all the time (Hint: when you go to school full time, this is a bad thing). I start a book and can't put it down (it's a disease). Anyway, Tom and I pick for our first selection The Brothers Karamazov by Dostoevsky. We set a reasonable goal of 120 or so pages in two weeks. Almost two months later, neither of us has hit that mark. That our book club is not functioning properly is not the point. The fact that I promised not to read anything else until we finished that book is the point. I have turned in projects ahead of time, worked extra shifts, gotten around to stuff around the house I thought would never get done, run errands, etc. I think that Dostoevsky is the best thing to ever happen to me.
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Books can be more than motivational tools. At one point in time, when it seemed terribly important, I was trying to score a high grade in a class taught on a boring subject by an unenthused professor in a monotone. This was also in a time when it seemed far more important to get good grades than good health resulting from sleeping. So I slept in cap naps in this man's class. I did not want to; I simply had no choice. Best of all, this same teacher had written the textbook for his class and had the power to require us to buy it. (As a frustrated writer, I have before this very moment, overlooked thos obvious, albeit slow way, to move my writing to the top of the sales charts) Anyway, for he next four years, every time I had to get to sleep, but could not shut my mind down, I would pull out that same textbook and begin to read. Within a few minutes, I would be unconscious. From this I have learned a few things. First, there is but little behavioral difference bewtween us and Pavlov's dogs. Second, the aforementioned marketing tool for book sales. Third, books can be marketed for better uses than enjoyment, if correctly advertised as a non-sleeping pill sleep aid. Fourth, books are better than drugs because they take less time to recover from, particularly if little is absorbed directly into the mind. Last, they are better than drugs because they are not addicting at all if the right ones are abused. I was finally able, after four years, to foist that book off on another of that man's students. I would have asked him how he liked it, but I never saw him thereafter when he was awake. As I reflect back on that classic, I realize I too have a great fondness for books. I would write more, but instead will sign off for now. I am suddenly exhausted.
ReplyDeleteOkay, maybe I was wrong - you are too much like your dad! ha ha. I of course have no problem with this situation. I just take every day off and read all day. Clean house? nah. Pay bills? Nah. Work on Christmas projects? Nah. Go grocery shopping? Nah.
ReplyDeleteSigh - Okay, neither one of us can deny you my dear.