Books can factor into my gym-scene (finally)

I have made a lovely discovery this month: I actually CAN READ A BOOK while using the arc-trainer and/or elliptical machine at the gym. For a long time I avoided doing this because I tried it once and got stupidly dizzy. I had put the magazine (?) on the useless rack in front of me, so every time I took a step my head would move about six inches while my eyeballs struggled to focus on tiny print. Completely futile. So I gave up, plugged my head-phones into the jack, and mindlessly turned my gaze to the big screens in front of me to take in those oh-so-captivating pixels.

A few weeks ago I tried again. I was right in the middle of an amazing book (Jhumpa Lahiri's NAMESAKE) and I couldn't put it down. So I brought it with me to the gym. This time I held the book very close to my face (well, a normal distance) and didn't use my arms at all to support myself on the machines. And I later discovered that HA, I can read AND work my core muscles more than I usually do. This did mean that I sweat much more than usual and so my sweat kept dripping down into my glasses, which didn't make things all that much easier.... but hey. I can certainly deal with that.

OK, I know that wasn't a terribly interesting little story, but I'm still pretty pleased about the whole situation. This means that I have read...almost six books in the last month! Me happy. All three of Jhumpa Lahiri's books (UNACCUSTOMED EARTH, INTERPRETER OF MALADIES, THE NAMESAKE), Khaled Hosseini's A THOUSAND SPLENDID SUNS, a short book by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (crap, I'm forgetting the name...A DEATH FORETOLD...?), and I'm almost done with LOLITA. Oh yeah, and Camus' STRANGER.

I also discovered the Somerville Public Library. Well, I had always known of its existence but for some reason I never ventured inside. Until...well, a little over a month ago.

'tis been a good month.