Reading Days

I was recently reminiscing about reading days in college.  What kind of magnificent thing is that--a day entirely devoted to reading?  Without having ever really been in the full time work force, I don't think I really understood at the time what a glorious thing reading is--to have the time--to be expected--to read for hours at a time, absorbing information, thinking, making new connections, having internal arguments with the author, challenging my old assumptions or finding a hunch confirmed, discovering that something I thought I had long understood was quite different or deeper than I had imagined.

As the school year draws to a close, I have plans for a couple of quick vacations, one with friends, one with family.  I also have two weeks of unscheduled anything right now.  I imagine how I'll spend my days--sleeping in, making regular running a habit again, finally taking on postponed projects and completing long-neglected errands. But I also imagine hours of uninterrupted reading.  Bliss!