Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Slump. Please help.

I am in a reading slump.
And it's disappointing.
Until recently, I'd always had two or three books going at once. I kept one on my nightstand, one on the kitchen counter and one near the treadmill in the basement.
Now, only the nightstand holds a book and it's gathering dust.
I just haven't had time to pick it up.
Time.
Maybe that's the problem.
I haven't used the treadmill since summer.
I'm always on the defensive in the kitchen these days, trying to keep our very-independent twins from emptying the fridge, pretending to cook on the stove and pushing chairs up to cabinets to get the van keys out of my purse.
I never seem to sleep anymore.
I have too much to do.
But I love to read.
I crave a good novel.
I enjoy the escape.
This is a place where I cannot remain.
It is time to map a new course.
The trouble is that I don't know where to begin.
Do I try to get more sleep, foregoing the measly hour a night I get to hang out with my husband, cuddle, watch silly sitcom reruns and talk uninterrupted?
Do I climb on the treadmill more often, ignoring the editing, writing, cleaning and cooking that tear me in other directions? And, oh yes, our four kids?
Do I remove all glass and hot sauces from the fridge, disconnect the gas from the stove and disable the horn button on my key chain so I can just set the twins loose in the kitchen while I read?
Or am I looking in the wrong direction entirely?
Is it the novels?
Is that the problem?
It seems that over the summer, the novels I picked up were impossible to put down. They pulled me out of my world with so much force that I couldn't resist. Not even four kids, a messy house and a pile of unedited interviews could keep me in reality.
Nothing I've read lately has done that for me.
So, perhaps, it's not the time constraints at all.
Maybe, what I really need is a good book.
Any suggestions?

2 comments:

Writing a Research Paper said...
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Michelle said...

I don't have time to sit down and read a book myself. But Twilight reawakened my inner fiction reader (I read non-fiction for informational purposes, child rearing, health, hobbies...and most of my reading is on the internet). After "Twilight" sucked the life out of me for a day until I finished it (reminding me of why I don't read fiction...it captivates me and I can't carry on with my daily life until it's finished) I knew the remaining 3 books had to be on audio. We subscribe to audible.com and I listen to books on my iPod now. Exclusively. This enables me to do other things and also enjoy fiction. So you could get on the treadmill and listen or iron and listen or watch twin boys in the backyard and still hear an audio book. Hope this helps!