Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Read 'Em and... Sweat?

A week or so ago, I went looking through some old MeadeHall transcripts, to try to find something related to the email plot I'm currently involved with.

Naturally, I got pretty well sucked into reading them. We had some pretty amazing plots, for a couple of years running, there.

One day last week, in fact, I was so sucked into reading that I felt all whiny and grumbly about having to put them down to go to the gym. But then I thought -- well, my iPhone has a browser. And the cell signal isn't great in the workout room, but it's there. So once I was there and into the groove of things, instead of turning on a movie, I loaded up the 'Hall site.

Selecting links isn't easy on the iPhone (especially on a site like the Hall, where there are lots of links very close to each other) -- and it's even harder when you're moving. But I managed it. And I read. And I worked out. And-

Time sort of slipped away. Before I knew it, the elliptical was bleeping at me and telling me my time was up and that I'd burned slightly more than 300 calories in my 30 minutes. I was panting and sweaty. Much more so, in fact, than usual.

I tried it again the next gym session. And the next. And it kept happening. The deeper I can lose myself in whatever I'm reading, the harder my body works without my even being aware of it, apparently.

I'm glad I've discovered this now, because I was starting to run low on action/adventure movies. My next experiment is to attempt an actual book so I don't have to fidget with the iPhone's screen so much to select links and scroll down through the text. I should swing by the bookstore while I'm off this week and pick up one of those gadgets that holds books open for you.

Being able to read at the gym would be awesome. Especially since the kids make it difficult to find solid blocks of reading time at home. Forty-five minutes to lose myself in a book without having to look up every other sentence? It sounds pretty darned enticing to me, despite the exercise.

I may have finally found my hook.

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