Writers have always battled distraction, but there seem to be more distractions closer at hand than there used to be. At least, that seems to be one of the things under consideration in a new entry on Reader of Depressing Books in which the site’s author, Tao Lin lists the daily components of working on his novel: “1. get coffee and drink half of it 2. check e-mail 3. check some other things 4. check my other e-mail and download the manuscript of my novel 5. get up and go to the bathroom 6. sit back down at the computer 7. check e-mail 8. maximize the manuscript of the novel in microsoft word 9. begin to read it 10. feel a little uninspired 11. check e-mail 12. feel bad that there are no new e-mails . . . “