A Full Reading Day

Every once in a rare while I get in a full reading day. Yesterday (as I write this) was one such day. The day before I finished re-reading Tom Clancy’s The Hunt For Red October. I remember it being a good book, but upon re-reading it, it was far better than I remembered. As I drifted off to sleep after finishing the book, I decided that I wanted more of the same. I told myself that in the morning, I’d begin re-reading Patriot Games.

The next morning, as it happened, was a Saturday. The kids had been asking for donuts for a couple of weeks, and so I headed out early to the local Dunkin’ Donuts to get some. It was cold, and the windshield of the car was iced over. While it defrosted, I began listening to the audiobook version of Patriot Games. It was about ten minutes to seven in the morning.

At 9 am the boy had soccer, so we headed out at 8:30 am for the twenty minute drive. His soccer practice lasted 90 minutes and it was cold, so I sat in the car while he practiced. I had my Kindle with me, and since I enjoy Scott Brick’s narration, I continuted listening to the audiobook version of Patriot Games while following along on my Kindle. By the time practice was over and we arrived back home, I’d listened for 2 more hours.

The book was just what I needed. I read more while I ate lunch, and then gave myself twenty minutes more as lay on my bed before taking my post-lunch nap. Once up from my nap, I came into my office, sat on my reading chair, and proceeded to read, more or less nonstop, for the next five hours.

I took a break for dinner, and once dinner was over, I returned to the book. I read for several more hours before finally calling it quits around 10:30 pm. When I looked at the Audible app, I saw that I’d read for about 8-1/2 hours total throughout the day. Usually, when I read this much, it is while driving to or from Florida, with the audiobook playing while I drive. It’s much rarer for me to read this much just sitting at home. But yesterday, I managed to do it.

To put this into some perspective:

• Patriot Games is a 22 hour audiobook; the Kindle edition is 794 pages.
• These days I listen to books at 1.7x speed
• That means that 8-1/2 hour of listening time got me through 14-1/2 hours of the audiobook.
• When I finally went to bed last night, I’d made it through 506 pages of the Kindle edition.

Indeed, for the first time I can remember since I began reading e-books on a Kindle back in 2008, I completely wore down the battery of my Kindle before I finished reading for the day. I’d started the day with a full charge, and sometime around 9 pm, I got a low-battery warning. I switched to the Kindle app on my phone for the rest of the night.

It was absolutely delightful to be able to do nothing but read all day. The problem with days like that is that they are few and far between. While I will likley finish Patriot Games today, it is extremely unlikely that I’ll come remotely close to another 8-hour reading day.

All the more reason to enjoy them when I can.

Written on February 20, 2022.