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Friday, August 14, 2009

time-out

So, I didn't mean to take a hiatus this week. But apparently I have. My last posting was last week Wednesday, and today is Friday. So, oops.

I'm just having a really hard time getting into anything. I pick stuff up, read a bit, enjoy it but not enough to keep reading, or I enjoy it but it doesn't feel like a good time to be reading that particular book. It's just one of those frustrating things. I've got a Ranma 1/2 review stored, so I'll put that up tomorrow, and I'll try to get into something. The P.D. James is good, but not keeping my attention; I've got both Mort (Pratchett) and The Riddle (Croggon) waiting, as well as James Kornfield's The Wise Heart which is Buddhist nonfiction and something I'm looking forward to, but I'm pretty hesitant to start anything that is going to require deep attention right now. I know that either the Pratchett or the Croggon will keep me engaged -- I just have to suck it up, put down the other two books I've been trying to read, and accept defeat. But I always feel guilty when I do that. Especially since I've used both of those books for Tuesday Teasers and I'm not going to end up finishing them right now, even though they are perfectly good. One, Riddle-Master, is more than good; it's amazing, incredible, beautiful, superlative in every good way, but I just couldn't settle. Ever want to sit your brain down in a chair and tell it to take a time-out, after which it should apologise meekly, having come to the realization that it was being a jerk? My brain is being a jerk right now. This post has been my attempt at a time-out.

2 comments:

Mandy said...

Kiirstin: Your posting was missed, but everyone burns out time and again when it comes to reading. I tend to take on too many books at once and then my little baby self gets frustrated and I can't focus on anything. I can go for a month or two without reading a thing. And usually that sense is right; I need to take a break and not feel that just because I work with books I have to knock myself out with reading them back to back.
Anything by Jack Kornfield is generally great. I also love Mark Epstein. Sometimes I just have to go back to my first love, non-fiction, to remember why i love reading in the first place.

Unknown said...

Mandy, thank you! It's nice to know I'm not alone in this. I think that, as you describe, I bit off more than I could chew and just needed to stop for a while. I'm not 100% back yet, although I've been feeling a little more friendly towards reading in the last two days or so. I hope to be back shortly... Until then, I'm staying away from the internet too, which tends to both distract me and make me want to add to my TBR list, which really needs no additions at this point.