My top 3 reading distractions...

Fact: I love reading (duh).

Also fact: the universe loves throwing distractions at me when I'm reading - doubly so when there's a review pending.

Here's the top three things that (regularly) get between me and my book:

1. The Internet

Oh sweet interwebs, how I love thee but you are the biggest time suck ever - and I'm looking right at you Twitter.  Okay, and Facebook too. And emails. And news websites. And Google Reader.  

It's like I'm scared to miss out on something so every time I finish a chapter, I find myself skimming the net to see what's been happening in the world in the last 10 minutes since the previous chapter ended. Sigh. It's a dependency I know - and it's only got worse since I bought my beloved tabby as now I don't even have to move off the couch/out of bed to do my browsing.

2. The Anipals

I love my furbabies beyond words but I swear they know when I'm up to a critical point in the story (maybe I have a fiercely concentrating face they recognise?) and choose that *exact* moment to annoy me, destroy something or beg for food. 

But then paradoxically I can have had one of those rare moments (see below) when I hit my groove and have been reading uninterrupted for hours, escaping completely into the story and forgetting everything around me, when I am jolted by the sickening realisation it's been *too* long since the furchildren bothered me.  And then that's usually when I find the cushion on the couch has been shredded into tiny pieces of foam and material and flung all over the lounge.  Or the stereo cables have been severed by sharp little teeth. Or the meat defrosting on the bench for dinner is now in the belly of a happily-licking-his-mouth cat.

Either way, they are far too adorable to stay mad at for long - lucky for them :P

 3. Bed

Reading may be my one true love but sleep comes a close second. And because I'm old, the two usually come close together.  Bed is my favourite place to read (so warm and comfy!) but those same things I love about it, I also loathe for they bring on the sleepies - that all powerful urge to put my head on the pillow....for just a minute...and then I wake up three hours later...usually because of the Anipals.

(Being old and needing my beloved sleep also means that long gone are the days when I could stay up til 3am finishing that must-read-til-the-end-immediately-or-I-shall-perish book, get up with the alarm and still be bright eyed and bushy tailed at work. I miss those days).

4. Honourable Mention

Food - if I was a breed of dog I'd be a Labrador: obedient, easily excitable, do anything for food.  If there's something particularly tasty in the house (and by tasty I of course mean from the "eat once in a blue moon" section of the food pyramid) I cannot stop thinking about it until I've consumed Every. Last. Bite.  I'd love to know what the Dukan Diet guy would think of that. (No wait, I wouldn't).

So what about you?  What comes between you and your book? Or are you one of those people I admire (okay and envy quite a bit too) who can shut out the world any time, any place when you're reading?  <- If this is you, please share your secret!