Snack! Goes the Bookworm

What I'm reading now:

Alexander Hamilton - Ron Chernow
The Cowboy and the Cossack - Clair Huffaker
Villette - Charlotte Bronte

What I'm eating now:
What am I not eating?

Let me back up a little.

As you know, the night time is the right time to be with the book you love. Anytime from eleven to midnight will find me crawling into bed with my Kindle, earphones, and assorted library books or paperbacks from my very own Bybeeary. Everything I could want or need, right?

Well lately, I have felt the need....the need for feed.

I am not a bedtime snack kind of person. I prefer to have dinner at six or seven then game over till breakfast. But these past few weeks, I've been going in search of chips, cookies, crackers, mixed fruit and nuts, chocolate...I'm sure there is something I'm forgetting. Oh, right, once there was pie. After the snack, I finally settle down and read for thirty minutes to an hour before falling asleep.

I try to fight this urge to chow down. Some nights I win, but those victories are getting fewer and farther between. Not surprisingly, my clothes are getting a bit tighter.

Why this change? Is it a sign of a weak character? Is it just knowing that the snacks are there and available? Is it menopause putting one last whipping on me?

I think I have finally figured out the answer:

I'm not hungry. I'm tired. I'm staying up too late then trying to fit my reading in on top of that. By that time, my brain wants a boost, a quick boost, which translates to something sweet or salty or both. Crunchy. Yes, God help me, crunchy.

Does this make it OK to snack? It's all for books and reading -- what could be nobler? I can't possibly go to sleep without reading; that would just feel wrong. An early bedtime? Nah. Being able to stay up as long as I damn well want is one of the few perks I've truly enjoyed during these last 3-plus decades of adulthood.

I suppose my best solution would be to prepare for the snack attack and have some healthy snacks on hand like fruit or yogurt. Veggies.

I could also grudgingly agree to give into Mr. Sandman for a while then wake up feeling fine after a short nap, able to sink my teeth into a few chapters at 3 a.m.

I could also drink water while reading. I don't think I would last long, but when I woke up, I would get in more reading time while relieving my protesting bladder.

It's 11:45 p.m. now. I am putting off going to bed, even though I want to get back to The Cowboy and the Cossack for a chapter or two, then finish off the night reading about Alexander Hamilton. But the Cheetos are looming large. Every time my mouth falls open in a yawn, they see an opening.

December: A Slow Start

Silly me. I thought that I was going to blaze into December on a hot reading streak.  Instead,  I am still working on the above book, which I started in the last days of Nonfiction November.

Since I bought Focus, I feel that I must finish it. But I'm having trouble focusing. (I love a little dollop of irony with my reading!)

Hoping to read a few more pages this afternoon, but nap time beckons.

It's not the book; it's me. No way is this going to be a DNF.

Readathon: That 7th Hour

Pages read:  50

Snack:  I love this candy more than any other right now.  It's funny; I saw it in the store and assumed that since they were giving out free samples, it would taste terrible.  I was wrong.  Yum.

The bad news:  I was hoping to finish Shadow of a Bull before the sandman caught up with me, but no such luck.  I'm deciphering the letters, but my brain is too foggy to get the meaning; it's taking two or three tries.  I'll go ahead and give in gracefully and try to be back within a couple of hours.

Readathon: Hour 9

Blogs visited:  2

What I'm reading:  The Onion Field -- One criminal has been caught (the worse one) and the other is still at large.

Pages read:  16

Food:  None

Drink:  A few glugs of water

Complications:   My hands are trembling so much that I keep dropping the book every few seconds.  I hate to admit it, but I need to nap for a bit.  It's not giving up, but it feels like it.  Looking on the bright side, giving in to sleep now will pay off later.

Readathon: Hour 22

In the last hour: Finished Cake Wrecks. Started The Grifters by Jim Thompson.

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Pages read in the last hour: 49

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Total number of books read (so far) during the Readathon: 3

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Snacks: Zero

Readathon: Hours 6-9 zzzzzzzz

In Hour 6, I managed to read 23 more pages of Happy Birthday Or Whatever then conked out. Clearly, I will not remember this as my best Readathon. On the bright side, I'm awake and refreshed well in time for my cheerleading shift, which will be from Hours 12-18.

Readathon: Hours 12 and 13 zzzzz

Yes, it's true. I napped. A deliberate act, but I still feel embarrassed.

Readathon Hour 11: Blog-Hopping Slows To Blog-Crawling

I'm glad I chose to be a cheerleader in the middle hours of the Readathon, because staying alert and focused is becoming more of an effort. It helps to be interactive at this stage. The B's are finished, and now I'm visiting the C's.

My office is a little too comfortable and cozy; I may step out onto the roof (don't worry, it's large and flat) and grab a few breaths of cool crisp autumn morning air. Sundays on campus are great. All the students are either gone for the weekend or sleeping it off and it feels like one's own private kingdom.

Readathon Hour 2: Reading & Yawning

Where am I? I'm in my office. Why? That's where the computer is. What am I wearing? Knit slacks and my beloved Missouri Tigers sweatshirt (the same one I'm wearing in the blog photo). What's in my pockets? Cell phone and a bottle of Visine.

Since the Readathon started, I've been reading How Koreans Talk, which is lively and informative. I'll work something about it into my contest later on in the Readathon when I leave off reading and begin my cheerleading stint.

I'm already yawning, if you can believe that!
Why didn't I take a nap today?
Long story, but some of the blame goes to Season 1 of The Big Valley. Oh, Heath!
Time for coffee.

Page count:
Hour 1: 31 pages
Hour 2: 75 pages