Reading Roundup - Week Two

It's remarkable to realize just how much work interferes with my reading time.
Somehow I've got to fix that.
I remember being in middle and high school, and having to sit in class with my current book right there in front of me on my desk, and not being able to read it.
So many times I just wanted to tune out the teacher and open my book to read.
It was almost a compulsion.
When I was going through Admin School down at Camp Johnson, we had this huge women's head with benches.
Not sure why it was so large, everything inside was either cinder block or cement, kind of austere looking. And the camp certainly wasn't pretty, but that's a story for another time.
Anyway, we had taken a test, and once you were done you could leave the classroom.
North Carolina in the fall is still not that warm of a climate to stand around outside wearing a short sleeve shirt under a wooly pully, a skirt, and lovely oxford shoes.
So I took my book and went into the bathroom and sat on the bench to read.
The book was Stephen King's Different Seasons.
I sat down and just read, and read, and read.
All of a sudden I thought, "Wow, what time is it?"
I looked at my watch and realized I had spent an extra 20 minutes or so past the time the test ended sitting in the head engrossed in a novel.
Did I get in trouble?
Nah, my instructors loved me, fortunately.
But I should have realized right then, as a young 20 year old, that work comes first, then cleaning, and then pleasure reading.
Which is why I have little progress to report this week.
I did actually finish a book on January 1st that I failed to report last week: Monica Ferris' Thai Die (4). I had to look at my receipt from Barnes and Noble to realize that I purchased it on December 31, and read and completed it on January 1st.
Good thing I read a lot last week, so I can average this poor week in.
Thai Die was okay, not great. I've read all of Monica Ferris' other Betsy Devonshire books, and I like them pretty well. The series started out very strong, and they are very well-written, but this particular book moves the POV away from Betsy and puts other characters in as the protagonists. Not sure if I'm crazy about that, because I've come to expect Betsy to be the primary character, and if you've read Ferris' other books, you'll be disappointed to know that Betsy's friend Jill makes only one small appearance. A big difference from some of the other stories where Jill is as prominent a figure as Betsy.
This was a better book than Dead Men Don't Crochet, there's no doubt about that, but it was not the strongest book in the series.
Other than that, I'm in the middle of reading 3 other books that hopefully I can get through pretty soon, although I am enjoying them.
It's just this darn "having to go to work" responsibility that keeps stealing my time.....have I talked about this before?
Stop me if I have...