Tuesday, March 13, 2007

Oh, You Lazy Reader, You


Alright, I admit it. I haven’t been reading as much as I should be, or even as much as I’d like to. I’ve just been so darn tired lately. As soon as I get off work, all I want to do sleep. Even on the weekends when I have absolutely no commitment to be anywhere else other than in my apartment all I want is sleep. This past Saturday I did manage to clean and wash clothes and stay awake long enough to see “300" (it’s what you’d expect if you don’t expect too much) but Sunday passed in a narcoleptic haze. I couldn’t stay awake even when I tried, and I did try.

Of course, now I’m beginning to feel the symptoms of reading withdrawal plus I’m getting incredibly behind. It’s also taking me an incredibly long time to finish anything, even for me. Even I know I’ve been working on the same four books for entirely too long. So I’ve promised myself to put some pep back into my biblioaddict step. So, my friends, inspired by The Guardian’s list of unfinished books (http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/books/), I’ve decided that there are a few books on my own reading list that I just need to let go of. The two that will be biting the dust this week are David Eggars’ You Shall Know Our Velocity and Michael Chabon’s McSweeny’s Mammoth Treasury of Thrilling Tales.

You Shall Know Our Velocity wasn’t a bad book but I found it entirely too depressing. If I want to feel that depressed, I’ll throw myself off a cliff. As for Chabon’s Mammoth Treasury, well let’s just say, I didn’t find the tales very thrilling at all. The concept, like that of Collapse, was great but the execution was underwhelming. I won’t toss it into my Bookmooch pile yet but it’s going on the waiting list.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh, I certainly sympathize with you, but for me, I tend to get lazy, reading-wise, around the holidays. I usually find that reading short book will get me back in gear; for me, "Of Mice and Men" worked. But I think we all need to take occasional breaks from reading. It's when I get withdrawl or start feeling guilty that I get my butt to the library and check out some books.

J.S. Peyton said...

Thanks for the advice Brandon. I do have a very slim edition of The Postman Always Rings Twice that I've been wanting to read. Maybe I should sink my teeth into that to get back in the swing of things...

Anonymous said...

Thanks for writing this.