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4 days ago
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Reader's Block
Awhile ago I was on a roll, voraciously gobbling down one good book after another, with all the gusto of Cookie Monster attacking a box of Peek Freans. I love to read! I consume books with great enthusiasm and dedication! But the same thing has happened that always happens, after a good long reading roll comes the reader's block.
For over a month now, I just haven't been able to settle on a new book. I have Catch 22, A Prayer for Owen Meany, Gone With the Wind, The Dharma Bums, The Idiot, Junky, a volume of Grimm's Fairy Tales and another volume of Vincent Van Gogh's letters to his brother Theo on my nightstand right now. Just waiting for me to choose one of them and get started. I have picked up and read the first few pages, an introduction, or a chapter of several of them...but nothing is sticking. I grow impatient with myself. C'mon! Those are all solid choices. Books I want to read. So why the blockage?
Maybe I read with such fervour that I just can't commit to my next book while my brain is otherwise engaged. I am reading LotR out loud to my sons each night, and working my way through several non fiction parenting/autism related books when I have a spare moment during the day (Temple Grandin is my hero!). Not that having a non fiction book in progress gets in my way of enjoying a new book, but I think having Tolkien on the go with the little ones might be. I tend to be a monogamous fiction reader...only one book at a time. I get so immersed in each fictional world, that maybe I can't go to Tara while my mind is wandering amidst the mallorns in Lothlorien, even though I'm not reading it for myself this time.
Or maybe it is because of how wrapped up I get, that I need the occasional book break. Time to digest, and get hungry for the next round.
But either way, I hate not having a book on the go. It just doesn't feel right. I've been watching TV before bed instead, and there is nothing on here at 11:00pm when I am winding down. "Real Housewives of Orange County", reruns of "Entourage" that I've already seen a hundred times, "Get Me Out of Here I'm a Celebrity"...I can feel my brain starting to atrophy.
Me needs book.
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Well, just a suggestion, but maybe since your mind is starting to atrophy anyhow, you need to glom on to some Guilty Pleasure Summer Reading. Maybe you just need some candy floss, bubble gum, fun, campy, pulpy-type reads for the summer. Not too much commitment. Y'know, a little One Night Stand Read. Of the type that you wouldn't tell you friends about. Might I suggest a little 'Pride and Prejudice and Zombies"? You heard me. Just wrote an article about it. "It is a truth universally acknowledged that a zombie in possession of brains must be in want of more brains."
ReplyDeleteJust sayin'...
Yup, that was the last Nerdfighters book club book. I've heard it's amusing, but haven't read it. The concept itself is total win though. ;)
ReplyDeleteI usually read something light and frivolous if I can't settle on a realy good book. Something that does't take much brain power to read!
ReplyDeleteIcan't type apparently! That should be a really good book!
ReplyDeleteHi, just wanted to say I've been there. 200 books tagged tbr on my shelves, dozens of great choices to grab, but none grab me back. It comes in fits and starts. It seems after I go through a phase of nothing strikes my fancy, I have a burst of reading and pour through several books back to back. I struggle especially after finishing a really good book, not wanting the next to disappoint. Tolkien is sure to ruin you for a while! I've been enjoying Haven Kimmels books because they are so funny, but am now trying to slog through geography of the imagination, a brilliant but dense nonfiction read. BTW, just picked up Vincent's letters yesterday, another on the tbr pile! Good luck.
ReplyDeleteOh, one last hint, when you can't commit to a grownup book, try young adult. They're fast reads, I recommend the Hunger games!
A fast and frivolous read seems to be the consensus, and who am I to disregard advice from these wise and wonderful women? :)
ReplyDeleteA YA book, hmmmmm... I do have "The Giver" here waiting too. Or maybe I'll delve into some old PG Wodehouse, that's as light and funny as it comes?
have you read the time travelers wife?
ReplyDeletei listen to books and old time radio shows often. here is a link to one of my all time favorite radio shows, Aldous Huxley doing a radio version of Brave New World http://www.archive.org/details/bravenewworld
not the same as reading a book, but it is wonderful to be "told" a story.
No not yet, still waiting on my copy.
ReplyDeleteA radio show to listen to, might be just the ticket. I often listen to HP while I am busy about the house. It is nice to be told a story.
For now I am still bookless...well, fiction bookless. I think my head is just too far into LotR. But I am reading "Acrylic Revolution" by Nancy Reyner. It rocks.