I've been off books for a couple weeks now and can't seem to figure out why. After Chabon, I polished off A Farewell to Arms which my junior/senior class was reading in school. I've been wondering if Hemingway is the cause of my literary doldrums. I've always loved the beautiful simplicity of The Old Man and Sea - I can see why it got him the Nobel. And I've heard amazing things about A Farewell to Arms. In fact, it's the only Hemingway I've managed to finish in the last decade; For Whom the Bells Tolls fell by the wayside twice and The Sun Also Rises never got off the runway.
So, I more or less enjoyed AFtA - the ending is just so damn brutal but beautiful at the same time, but I haven't gotten into anything since then. I'm reading a non-fiction book (yes, it does happen from time to time) about the Templer Knights. It started out brilliantly, but I've since lost interest (as happens with most non-fictioners). And I haven't felt anything about books since. And this lack of feeling has got me worried. I usually have an aching need to be reading something, to be living in someone else's world or just their head even if it's only for 20 minutes a day. I even have a Didius Falco mystery, my standby series for the last 3 years, sitting on the table ready to go at a moment's notice, yet I haven't so much as looked at the cover.
I went through my comics recently to see if I needed a change of milieu, so to speak, but I haven't really gotten into any of the oldies or any of the unreads yet either. What is wrong? Perhaps nothing is wrong and my mind just needs some sort of reading vacation, though I feel like this explanation is a bit of a stretch. If anyone is reading this and has any insights on the situation, please feel free to drop me a line and let me know what you think. Otherwise, I shall just go around blaming Ernest's overly-stoic depiction of manhood for a while, until I finally find something worth perusing or give up on literacy altogether.
1 comment:
I'm in the same reading rut as you my friend. I got half way through "Maltese Falcon" when I lost interest. Then in India one of the people I rode around with bought me copy of "Living with the Himalayan Masters" written by a holy man named Swami Rama. Sarath said the book helped change his life but I'm still having a hard time sinking my teeth into it.
I have been writing a lot more and that helps relieve some of the "not-reading guilt." It's like being out of sync with a lover. I think only post graduates experience this sense of guilt and infedelity towards books. We were trained to read at least, at least, 50 pages a day and repent if we didn't meet that qouta.
I don't know if you've read anything by Haruki Murakami but he's a great shot in the arm. I highly recommend "Wind-Up Bird Chronicle" and "Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World." His work is extremely entertaining and just deep enough to keep you turning the pages.
Bon appetite Bon MPJ
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