Reading for Me

Hello, my dear readers. It has been a little while since I have last posted. Truthfully, reading has been a challenge this summer. As soon as the school year was completed, I did not want to pick up another book. I wanted to do nothing but sit around and mindlessly think about absolutely nothing. The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on my emotions seem to have found their full expression in my reading life.

I managed to read a book immediately after the semester ended as I waited to leave west Texas for the summer. Since returning to my parents’ home, I have read nothing else. I have tried numerous books, but nothing captured my imagination. I have shifted from fiction to self-help and humor.

Last week, after nearly a month without picking up a book, I finally found something in my TBR that I could imagine reading. What was the genre to rescue me from my reading drought? Biography….a huge departure from my normal reading fare. I’m reading William Sounder’s Mad at the World: A Life of John Steinbeck. I have found the combination of historical events and literary analysis fascinating. (I suppose my love for American literature of the early 20th century is healing my reading life.)

Sadly, I cannot say that reading is a natural occurrence again. I am not finding myself longing to pick up my book throughout the day. Instead, I am setting daily reading goals and treating the reading as an appointment to keep. So I’m progressing slower than I had hoped, but I am thrilled with the fact that I am resuming my reading. As I continue to keep my daily “appointment,” I’m finding that I am looking forward to the mental stimulation that is ahead. Since I know there is a reasonable goal, the work of reading doesn’t seem as demanding. I suppose I need to subconsciously give myself permission to read at a slower pace than normal.

Despite the slower pace, I’m hoping to finish reading the Steinbeck biography this week. Hopefully by then, I will have found something new to grab my attention and continue my return to the love of reading.

Posted in update

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