Reading Related Injuries

You guys know what I'm talking about. Reading is a serious sport. With serious injuries. Ever done a marathon reading session where you literally read for like more than 4 hours? I have. While fun, it certainly takes its toll on your body. Here are some reading related injuries that I have incurred:

• Paper cuts: Oh book, why do your pages have to be so thin and sharp? I've gotten blood on library books before. I'm always super scared to return them... What are they going to think??

• Cramped neck and back: hunching over to read a book for hours on end seriously messes up your neck and back. I have had a neck/shoulder injury for the past like 3 weeks. I originally injured it working out, BUT... the injury hasn't healed properly because I'm hunched over a book, hunched over the computer, or leaning on that shoulder while reading a book... bookworm problems, am I right?

• Wrist cramps: From holding the book. You know once your back starts to hurt and so you lay down, but then you have to hold the book up and pretty soon your arms get tired and your wrists start to cramp.

• Headaches: I can't tell you how many times I get a headache if I'm reading too long. Do I put the book down? No, of course not. I get some Tylenol and get back to it!

• Dry eyes: I have contacts so this is a particularly bad issue for me. My eyes dry out so badly if I read too long with my contacts in. Do I take them out and put my glasses on? No, I just blink ferociously, think of something really sad so tears can wet my eyes, and keep on reading.

• Sleep deprivation: We've all been victims of this. That book that you swear you're just going to read one more chapter, but all of a sudden it's 4am and you have to be up in 2 hours for work. Fail. Then the next day, you drink like 6 cups of coffee in the morning to prepare but then end up getting no work done because you're a). constantly in the bathroom because you have to pee so bad, b). too jittery from all the caffeine to do anything, or (my personal favorite) c). too occupied thinking about that awesome book you read last night.

 And that's just the physical injuries... There are mental and emotional injuries as well:

• The characters you ship don't end up together. Feelings: anger, broken-hearted, hopelessness

• Your favorite character dies. Feelings: sadness, anger

• Finishing a series. Feelings: happiness (hopefully if the author didn't screw it up), but then suddenly your happiness turns into depression because you just realized that there are no more books. 

Those are all the book-related injuries I can think of, both physically and mentally. What do you guys think? Have you ever gotten a reading-related injury? Let me know in the comments!