Focus, energy, reading, hobbies, entertainment...

[moominmuppet]

This random ramble was a result of an overlong response to a comment in a previous post.

I'm just trying to sort out why I really haven't picked up a book in more than a month. I often read voraciously, to the point of obsessively, actually. When I was younger, that was even more true. I'd fall asleep in classes because I'd stayed up 'til dawn to finish a book. I'd get ancy if I didn't have one on my person at all times. I was probably reading, on average, a couple of hundred pages a day.

That pattern still reappears in my life pretty regularly, but it isn't the constant it used to be. I'm curious about what changes in my life effect it.

I read a lot when I'm depressed or when I'm stressed about practicalities in my life. Classic escapism, and I tend to gravitate toward fantasy fluff with nice happy endings. I often find myself rereading series in that mood.

I read when I'm in the mood to expand my knowledge or understanding in some realm or another. That's generally a pretty up but semi-introverted and calm mood. It's the same mood in which I get really involved in hobbies, and activism work, and the like.

I read to find beautiful images and neat ideas to play with in my head. Bouncy/trippy/libidinous/artistic/playful moods.

I don't generally read much when I'm feeling socially overwhelmed, or when I'm wrapped up in thought about events and developments in my own life. I think it's that the more that's going on in my personal life, the less emotional energy I have for getting caught up in the emotional lives of fictional characters. It's not a matter of time. I find myself spending at least as much time just standing around as I used to fill with chapters here and there. I've had hours free, and could have read through all of them (didn't end up doing anything more useful). When I'm in that kind of mood, I write, or talk, or think, or sleep specifically because I want to dream, but I don't read, because my mind's already busy with something. That's very much been the case recently. I've been spinning over a number of different things, several of which are substantial enough to leave me seriously flustered and discombobulated all by themselves, many others of which are just adding to the general level of weirdness in my life.

Huh. Probably more to poke at regarding this, but it's the end of the day, and I have to run to patient-instructing.

Comments

[mfcentral.livejournal.com]

I did some writing this weekend, I'm getting a better handle on the voice and perspective I want to use for the first novel. So I just have to work on keeping my head in Rachel-space, thinking like a sadomashochistic lesbian can be quite fun.
jw

[mfcentral.livejournal.com]

hmmm, i reelly shoold use spehl chek more often so as to not look lyke a complete idiot.