Reading on deadline

Recently I joined a book club. Or well, me and a few friends started a book club. I love to read but I have discovered that reading under deadline is sucking some of the fun out of it for me.

The first month I was diligent and challenged by the book we chose. It was something I would have never picked off the shelf myself and had paragraphs that lasted for pages. It was tough but I got through it and was proud.

This month we chose a book I already had on my to-read list. An author whose first book I devoured, Carlos Ruiz Zafon, I wanted to savor this book. And so I began reading it, but not quickly enough.

We are supposed to meet tomorrow night for our monthly meeting and I am just a hair over half-way done with the book. Granted February is a short month and I went out of town way too much this month, I lost a lot of valuable reading time.

But I can't help but wonder is this whole reading under deadline thing sucking the fun out of reading for me? What do you guys think? I know some of you read A LOT more than me for your own blogs etc. Do you have tips for me to get over the hump of feeling assigned to read vs. savoring and enjoying it like I am used to?

– Traci Hatling (small-time journalist trying to write about anything else but what she is paid for) Check me out at http://tracihatling.blogspot.com