Get Up

What do snails have to do with chairs, I wondered as I listened to a book speaking about our addiction to sitting and chairs. It turns out that snails and other animals are programmed to move, walk, slither or other in an individual way. He started, by discussing sleeping in class, and having chalk thrown at him. Movement is an integral part of our lives and apparently, and as we have seen, children move a lot more than adults.

I have barely started the book Get Up but I’m writing about it because I find it amusing. There is a typically British sense of humour in the book. It also feels like you’re reading a story, despite it being a factual book, It’s the type of book that you can enjoy relaxing to. Such books are entertaining to listen to. Style is important with audiobooks, because it makes the difference between books within a few days or a few months. Books should be pleasant to listen to.

I set myself the goal, this year, of reading 25 books. So far I have read 24 and I am on track to reaching my goal. The aim was to read an average of one book every two weeks. I see someone else who has read one hundred this year. Two books a week. I know, reading, and standing up are a strange combination, but due to audible and other services you can read, without sitting comfortably. In so doing you can read at moments, or in places that are not associated with reading. During a run for example, or while you’re cooking.

A few months ago I was contributing to a read and review project and I found it interesting until I found that I could simply use my audible subscription to get plenty of books, lending libraries, and specifically Kindle Unlimited. I didn’t mind reading books to give a review until I saw how much was being charged per book. At this point I thought this was far too much.

One reason for this is that I often got PDFs and PDFs are a pain to read because you have to log what page you’re at if you don’t want to lose your page. The second is that I had to do the work of contacting an author, getting them to send the book and then read it within a short time, losing the freedom to read what I wanted, when I wanted.

I would consider dumping Waze for the same reason. A game where you are encouraged to drive to earn points is not worth playing. I prefer for walking, running and other activities to be gameified.