I am a slow reader.  Sometimes I’m a slow reader on purpose, like when I really love a book and want to make it last as long as possible.  I did that with the Magicians trilogy by Lev Grossman.  I only allowed myself 10 pages a day (or sometimes a little more if I was having a particularly bad day).

Other times it takes me forever because I’m distracted.  I start reading and then remember something I want to jot on my to-do list.  And then I remember something I want to Google, which leads me to three other things I’ve been meaning to look up.  So on and so on.

But really, when I look at how many books other people read vs. how many books I read, I consider myself a slow reader.  I don’t do book challenges because I assume that I will fail the book challenge.  I have only completed 10 books since January 1st, which means that I’m on target for finishing 20 new books this year.  (I’m not counting re-reading books.)  A lot of those book challenges aim for 52 books or a 100 books; goals that are completely out of my normal reading range.

And yet, I can’t argue with this post by Lifehacker that Modern Mrs. Darcy posted on her site.  If you set aside five hours, you can finish a book in a single day.  Make it ten hours to account for distractions, and you can still finish a book in a single day.  All it takes is thinking “how much solitude you’ll need, then double it.”  Like setting the phone in another room.  Turning off the computer.  Letting everyone know that you intend to spend the day reading, and then do it.

Oh, and practice interval reading:

Set a timer and read for 20 minutes, then do something active to keep yourself energized for 5-10 minutes. Think of it as the pomodoro method for reading.

I can do that.  I mean, this article is about reading a book for a class vs. reading a book for pleasure, but it’s still good practice to set the timer and keep the time sacred.  Use the 5 – 10 minutes for the Google search (just jot down the thought on a post-it note and get back to the book) vs. interrupting the book to address things during book reading time.

I’m clearly sensitive about my reading speed or I wouldn’t have written a whole post about it, but it also seems like something I could fix (a bit) if I dedicated some energy toward it.

Are you a slow reader, medium reader, or fast reader?

Not sure what #MicroblogMondays is? Read the inaugural post which explains the idea and how you can participate too.

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I called a hotel to make reservations for two dates and was told that they didn’t have rooms with multiple beds available for the first date, though they did for the second.  But when I gave my name to make my reservation, the staff member happily jumped into welcoming me, asking about Josh and the twins.  We always go to the same place so the moment I gave my name, she exclaimed, “I know the rest of your information.  I’ve entered it 500 times.”

She also shifted some people around and made room for us for the first date.  I was grateful, but I wavered between feeling like I deserved to be accommodated due to my extreme loyalty and feeling badly that I was getting something special.  A business benefits from loyal customers, and you build that loyalty by treating someone well, but it makes me wonder how many times I’ve been told “no” at a new place where a longstanding customer was told “yes.”

Do you think loyalty should be rewarded, or do you think all policies should apply to all people regardless of whether it’s their first time or 100th time frequenting a place?

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Are you also doing #MicroblogMondays? Add your link below. The list will be open until Tuesday morning. Link to the post itself, not your blog URL. (Don’t know what that means? Please read the three rules on this post to understand the difference between a permalink to a post and a blog’s main URL.) Only personal blogs can be added to the list. I will remove any posts that are connected to businesses or are sponsored post.

I was listening to an interview with the creators of Black Mirror on Note to Self, and Charlie Brooker said something (around minute 19:45 if you want to click over and listen for about two minutes) that I’ve been turning around in my head for days.

He created a documentary about video games, and he was counting down the most influential video games.

We put Twitter at number one, and people got really annoyed.  Twitter isn’t a game!  Don’t be an idiot!  Well, it is, actually.  It’s a massively multiplayer online role-playing game, in which you play a character based on yourself, but who isn’t yourself, in order to gather followers and points effectively and influence.  That’s what it is.  We’re all playing a role-playing game.  That’s what social media is.

He points out that it’s also a communication tool, but putting these addictive little goals like retweets into the mix or showing your follower count also makes it a game.  Communication tools usually aren’t something you can “win” or “lose.”  But, clearly, some people are “winning” at Twitter, at least as counted by the mainstream.

I am myself on Twitter, but only part of myself.  I don’t say everything on Twitter, only things I think are worth putting up on Twitter.  Which means that — by default — you’re getting a curated version of myself.  You can certainly use Twitter without writing anything on the site or having anyone follow you, but the mainstream use of Twitter does have more in common with role-playing games than a communication tool like a pamphlet.

How many pamphlets come with a number floating over it telling you how many people have picked it up?  You can’t count how many times people have passed along a pamphlet, and you’re not influenced to take one due to seeing that number.  It is strictly a communication tool, and either you want the information or you don’t.

Twitter, on the other hand, has a lot of numbers floating around that guide your hand to click follow, too.

What do you think?  Is Twitter a game?

I cracked up through Joanna Rothkopf’s piece in the New York Times about exacting revenge in creative ways.  She explains reading Dante’s Inferno and the idea of contrapasso:

While reading the book, terrified and exhilarated, I filled my evenings with grotesque fantasies of the punishments I might receive for my unchecked narcissism and offensive beauty. That is, until I remembered that “Inferno” was fiction and that hell was just an invention, designed to make people fear the consequences of their actions, as well as to comfort those who had been wronged without justice.

So she instead points out the ways she seeks revenge in the here and now, including punishing people who try to skip the line in Starbucks by remaining in front of them and then ordering something complicated veeeeeery veeeeeeery slowly.

But I really love the end thought:

Besides, doesn’t every decision ultimately originate at that same intersection of selfishness and altruism, exactly like that summer service trip I chose to take, looking at once to learn about the injustices of the world and to make out with boys? Aren’t we all a combination of totally horrible and vaguely heroic?

Aren’t we?

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Stop procrastinating.  Go make your backups.  Don’t have regrets.

Seriously.  Stop what you’re doing for a moment.  It will take you fifteen minutes, tops.  But you will have peace of mind for days and days.  It’s the gift to yourself that keeps on giving.

As always, add any new thoughts to the Friday Backup post and peruse new comments in order to find out about methods, plug-ins, and devices that help you quickly back up your data and accounts.

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And now the blogs…

But first, second helpings of the posts that appeared in the open comment thread last week.  In order to read the description before clicking over, please return to the open thread:

• “A Vacation Breakthrough that Led to a Healthier, Happier Family & Kindness for All” (Hands Free Mama)
• “Lack of Understanding is a Worldwide Problem” (Infertile Phoenix)
• “Is All This Worth It?” (Countingpinklines)
• “There’s Nothing Quite Like Pregnancy Absence” (Delayed But Not Denied)
• “No Omens” (Lady Part Adventures)

Okay, now my choices this week.

Inexplicably Missing has a post about her mood changing during transfer day.  She realized that hearing the negative side of things (rather than focusing on the positive) was changing her experience with her cycle.  But before she could let the doctor know that she wanted to focus on what was positive about the blastocyst they were transferring, she heard bad news mixed in with the good.  She writes, “So yet again, I left the transfer feeling somewhat deflated. This sucks because in reality, having even just one blastocyst to transfer is a good thing.”

My Path to Mommyhood has a post about a friend getting the adoption agency call and processing her own feelings about being happy for someone else while being sad for herself.  She admits: “It’s a hard balance, this happy-sad dichotomy. I am not any less confident in our decision, and I know that the little voice is the most unhelpful bitch ever. I know we did what was right for us. It’s just so hard to see (and feel) this contrast at this particular moment in time.”

Lastly, A+ Effort has a story about an incident at a museum.  She tells the story in the form of a letter to the museum, pointing out: “I don’t know the volunteer’s name and wouldn’t presume to assign a motivation to his actions, but the impression he gave was that the rules are selectively enforced on the basis of race.”  But it’s the follow-up to the letter, the discussion of privilege extension that gave food for thought.

The roundup to the Roundup: Revenge creativity.  Your weekly backup nudge.  And lots of great posts to read.  So what did you find this week?  Please use a permalink to the blog post (written between June 30th and July 7th) and not the blog’s main url. Not understanding why I’m asking you what you found this week?  Read the original open thread post here.

Last week’s Now I Know linked to an old story (well, Internet old — it’s from 2009) about Wired’s Evan Ratliff trying to disappear, and setting up a contest to see how difficult it would be to start a new life in the digital age.  He writes:

The idea for the contest started with a series of questions, foremost among them: How hard is it to vanish in the digital age? Long fascinated by stories of faked deaths, sudden disappearances, and cat-and-mouse games between investigators and fugitives, I signed on to write a story for Wired about people who’ve tried to end one life and start another. People fret about privacy, but what are the consequences of giving it all up, I wondered. What can investigators glean from all the digital fingerprints we leave behind? You can be anybody you want online, sure, but can you reinvent yourself in real life?

He tries to remove anything “trackable” such as cell phones, credit cards, or toll transponders and see if he can start over without anyone knowing where he is in the world.  (Remember, this was years ago before we got even more trackable.)

An online community of amateur sleuths springs up trying to find out every last speck of information about Evan Ratliff.  In compiling this information, they work to pinpoint possible routes he could have taken when he went on the run or places where he may have slipped up — digitally or in-person — and reveal his whereabouts.

I’m not going to ruin the ending — you’ll have to read the whole article or skip to the end to discover if he succeeds. (It’s worth reading the whole article, I promise.)  And it’s not exactly the same as what would happen if the average person tried to disappear and there wasn’t a bounty on their head encouraging everyone to look for them.

It’s more an interesting exercise in considering all the ways you are being tracked as you move through your day, knowing that the ways have only grown since he tried this in 2009.  On one hand, it’s a little bit comforting thinking that you are pinpointed.  Noticed.  Your existence confirmed.  On the other hand, it’s a little bit discomforting thinking that you are pinpointed.  Noticed.  Your existence tracked and analyzed, usually to sell you a product.

Probably the most interesting article I read all week, and one that I missed when it was written back in 2009.  Thanks, Now I Know!