Saturday, July 16, 2011

My Drug of Choice

Probably no one ever even looks at my lists of books at the bottom of my blog (well, Kristin, I know you do once in a while - I think you're pretty much the only one who ever comments on it, reads any books I've suggested, and offers me back suggestions - bless you!).  I tried faithfully, for well over a year, to track the books I've been reading, so that I could give other readers out there ideas about good/bad books that they may be thinking of reading.  What I've noticed is that my list stopped in May...and that I only recorded one book read for the month of May.  BTW, there should technically be two books on that May list, but the other one was a sappy, close-to-Harlequin-romance-type that I was too embarrassed to even acknowledge reading so I decided not to count it!

For my one reader who might still look at my book list:  I'm sorry.  I haven't read much more (a little, but not much) than I've listed there...other than the May omission I've confessed to.  Note: I did skim through the latest Charlene Harris, Sookie Stackhouse book last week, but only because I'd read all of the other gazillion or so and the latest was just released (but really...can the series please stop already? I'm sick of having to 'keep up' with her books as they come out and I'm dying to just get to an ending point already. I don't care what the ending is, just that it actually comes to an end).

I'll confide another shocking piece of trivia about me:  Until about ten days ago, I hadn't even picked up a book to read since a few days before we left for Ethiopia!!!  For me, this is a lifetime record of reading deprivation.  I have never, ever, not read over such a long period, or even in any length of period exceeding something like a day.  I always read.  It's my drug of choice.  I'm completely addicted to reading good books (my second choice of May notwithstanding).

In Ethiopia, I actually had a fair bit of time to read at night.  We didn't have the younger kids until near the end of our time there, and I spent a fair bit of time in the later evenings (while Matthew and Geoff were sleeping) just sitting and looking...at what I have no idea.  I'd packed my lovely little Kobo e-reader for the trip, had even purchased a pretty, pink, leather, envelope, slip-cover for it the week before, and it sat on my night table for the entire length of our time in Ethiopia.  The only time it got touched was when we packed up our suitcases to go home.  My Kobo then stayed in that suitcase for a week after we got home, until I finished unpacking!  Since then, it's been sitting on my night table...right beside me now, for that matter.

It's not like I don't have any time for reading.  I do have time.  Less, to be sure, but surely some.  The younger kids are sleeping by 8:00 or shortly thereafter, and I've been trying to get to bed by about 10:00pm (well, lately, closer to 11:00pm, but oh well).  I'm also getting up pretty early, so that I have a little time on my own before the kids are awake and pulling me in all directions.  But I've been spending my morning times doing other things:  tidying; praying; blogging; planning; getting my brain together.  And in the evenings, I've found myself without the emotional energy for my usual means of literary escape until recently, when I picked up my kobo and found all of my long-ago borrowed books expired!  I had to get back into the e-library site and download some books.  I can feel my emotional energy starting to come back a little, and I'm glad because I miss my books...and I think I need to read one or two feel-good, happy-ending kinda books right about now.

7 comments:

  1. I also read your book lists and put books on hold at the library when I get ideas from your book lists. I do miss your book lists but understand your preoccupation with family and day to day life right now. I look forward to those lists continuing one day :-). I guess I have made book suggestions more in person than in comments on your blog. Glad to hear you are thinking about reading again.

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  2. I TOTALLY RELATE!!! I read all the time - drug fo choice is an excellent description. But after the babies, I was in too much of a muddle to think enough to pay attention to anything. It was the weirdest, weirdest feeling. Then it was just the trashy novels... now I'm back to reading a lot more, fortunately, but I read a lot less intense / literary fiction than I used to. I hope that will change in a year or two!

    I loved your post on books at the end of the year - am stll planning to read 'february', particularly! One day soon, I promise :)

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  3. I look at your book list from time to time, though I've never commented. Right now I'm reading Pillars of the Earth, which you recommended to me about 2 years ago! I like to read a lot too, though I'm less prolific than you have been in the past. I remember after my gall bladder surgery I had all these books ready to read during my convalescence (this was before they did gall bladders laparoscopally). I didn't read one of them! The only energy I had for reading was for magazines, and those mainly to look at the pictures! Sometimes there's just too much else going on to participate in the drama and alternate reality of a book, especially a good one! Good books make an emotional claim on us, and your emotional life has been claimed by 3 children with heightened needs, dramas of their own, and their powerfully emotional reality.

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  4. Ruth... I meant to comment the last time you blogged about not reading lately. I am also snafus reader who always has something on the go, but ever since our court trip (until only just recently!), I haven't had the desire or focus to read anything. It felt so good a couple weeks ago (after 6 weeks home, 4 months after our court trip) to finally feel like I wanted to read again and do so. A

    P.S. In the absence of reading, my drug of choice has been Kit Kat Chunkie bars - good for the soul, bad for the body!

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  5. Just so you know, I also head down to the bottom of your blog fairly regularly to see what you've been reading. I especially like that you star the ones you would recommend.

    I know what you mean though. Even when I was at the hospital with Grace doing nothing all day for 8 days, I only got 1/2 a book read, but I had 3 with me. I think it's that when you are emotionally and mentally drained, your brain does not absorb reading well. At least that's what it is for me. I'm glad to hear that you are feeling ready to take up reading again...or at least consider taking up reading!

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  6. I have noticed that your book list has dried up of late :) (you are giving me a chance to catch up on my requested list at the library- many of which have come from you!!!). I hear you on not having the emotional energy to read of late. I figured you are more than busy with the 3 kids, and probably reading about adoption/attachment. I'm sure that you will become prolific again as life settles down. I haven't read much of late either, other than gardening magazines and parenting books (I have Hold On to Your Kids on my night table now), but if you are looking for a light/easy read, I did enjoy these two:
    1) These is My Words- the Diary of Sarah Agnes Prime (Nancy Turner)
    2) The Crowning Glory of Calla Lily Ponder (Rebecca Wells).
    3) Starlight Tours- the Last Lonely Night of Neil Stonechild is also fascinating, and a great book, but not a light read.

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  7. I love your book list too. I just picked up "Left-Neglected" from the library after seeing it on your list.

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