Words, Words, Words

There's nothing quite like cozying up with a good book and a mug of coffee, turning on a reading lamp, and disappearing into a story.

That's what I did the Sunday before last, for eight hours. It was decidedly uncozy.

It should be said that there were a few circumstances that conspired to make the day a miserable experience. I was rather sleep-deprived; I'd had trouble sleeping the previous night, and I hadn't really slept well for the whole week before that, either. On top of that, I was in the middle of a nasty cold.

But these things aren't usually huge problems if I'm doing what I like. And the book I chose was Foundation and Empire by Isaac Asimov, the second book in the Foundation series. I enjoyed the first one quite a bit, so I anticipated that I would like this one, as well. And, at least from the parts I can remember, it was even more enjoyable than the first book (more on that pesky "remembering" thing later).

For the first few hours, the experience definitely lived up to my expectations. It had been a while since I'd just sat down and lost myself in a book for a few hours, and I had forgotten how relaxing it could be. I went into lunch feeling confident about the rest of the day.

Unfortunately, the problems started, as they so often do, as the experience dragged into its 4th or 5th hour. If you've ever tried to study a dense textbook while on a sleep deficit, then you might have seen where this is going: the mental "blips" started.

That's what I call them, anyway. They're those little times where, when you're reading something, you suddenly find that you can't remember what you just read; you certainly looked at the words, and maybe even comprehended them, but all of the information went in one eye and out the other. Usually (for me, at least), these blips cover around a paragraph; that's about how long it takes me to notice a piece of information that is confusing without the context before it.

Whenever the blips start, I take it as a sign that I have to take a break. But I had promised myself, and all of you, that I would do this all day, so I pressed on. As the hours dragged by, the blips expanded to a couple paragraphs, then a page, then two pages. Around hour six, I decided that it wasn't worth it going back to reread whenever this happened, and, as a result, the entire middle of the book (I didn't reach the end) is just a featureless blur in my memory.

On top of this, I began to feel the ill effects of sleep deprivation, sickness, and eye strain. Expectedly, I developed a nasty headache, and, just like when I played video games for a whole day, my eyes were bloodshot at the end of the day.

All in all, this might have been the worst Sunday I've had this semester. On top of being an unproductive and not terribly relaxing experience, I can't even remember half of what I read. At this point, I think I'm just going to restart the whole book.