glitch25

Not really in specific relation to virus-related stuff, but just as a general thing, I've been trying to push forward my reading. Reading for me sometimes requires a push. It is not a way that my brain likes to consume media, and I find that I struggle a lot with keeping momentum. Once in a while, a book will capture me and I'll suck it down as fast as I can squirrel away time to read it, and others... languish on the virtual shelf, rarely to be touched.

I'm learning to be ok with letting go of unfinished books. Sometimes I start one and think it should be great, and then I find that I'm knee deep into it and struggle to make it past another page. A part of me has always seemed to want to push me to finish it, but it conflicts with the part that summons the energy to do it. These days, when I find that those forces are strongly opposing, I just put the book down and "let it go". I've been making more effort to deliberately feel ok about cutting lose a stagnant reading prospect. On the flip side, it does mean that if I want to read, I'm still having to hunt for replacements. Sometimes that takes more spoons than I want to devote as well.

Reading seems like a good distraction to the regular day-to-day we have, so I've been consolidating and pushing around finding new materials. I cleared out my virtual shelf. I also got a temp SPL card so that I can check out ebooks. I always felt weird about using a library to read, because I read so slow, but I realized that it's mostly ok. If need be, I can reserve a book for longer, or if I find that I need something else, I can let it go and come back to it later. It took a while to get my head on straight with that one. There is this significant obligation-complex in my head that says that because I touched it, I have to finish it before I move on, and I'm working hard to break it since what I get in return is guilt and bad feelings about getting stuck instead of some sense of accomplishment for having dragged myself through it. The state of the world has me trying to be a little more choosy about where I put my emotional energy since it is running in shorter supply.

What specifically is on the plate, you might ask? I'm reading another book by Stephen Baxter (author of a lovely apocalyptic series that starts with "Flood") called "Proxima" about mankind sending explorers to a new planet found in a different system that appears to be habitable and Earth-like. This in response to the Earth-is-dying story. And how some people sent on this mission to begin to colonize a new world are not all there of their own free will. Totally up my alley, and I'm liking it so far. Also, after having a really good time with the latest movie iteration of Little Women, I decided I needed to read the book, since I hadn't. Also liking that one as well, and enjoying the way the newest movie followed it.

I'm also investigating options to scan paper books I have so that I can put them into ebook form for myself. I've NEVER been fond of paper books, and I'd rather go throuh the hassle of scanning them (for those, of course, that don't exist in an ebook format yet or ever) than sit with them and page through them. It's an odd thing, but I'm comfortable knowing it and working through it. :-) I had had a good setup in the past, and then had to format my laptop, so now I have to figure out what apps I was using. I had found some nifty open source apps that do both page photograph corrections (to adjust bend, skew, and text curve) and also to do the OCR. I even had built a test ebook that was working out really well. But now of course I have to figure it all out again. There was a rig floating around in my Facebook ads that automates a lot of that process, and it was extremely tempting. When I don't have to watch every penny I spend, I may consider it if just for the purposes of scanning documents and other old papers and certificates.

Something else I've been looking into is ebook comics. I found an app that allows me to look at regular syndicated comics, but I've also been considering looking into the big chains for digital comic books and the like. Never was much into comic books, but I really enjoy the stories that have been translated into movies, and I want to see if I can convince myself to get past my issues with the format and enjoy the source materials. Time will tell.

How about you? What written/graphic material are you consuming these days, and how do you feel about it?

More info about the "writing" bit later. :-)

So... those of you that know me well already know this. At least, you should. :-)

It has to do with books.

Growing up, I didn't have the fascination with literature that so many did. Reading assignments in class were a big struggle for me. It wasn't that I had any deficiency that prevented or hindered me from the act of reading. I just never cared for it. At all.

As a result, I never developed that love affair with printed medium. The allure of the smell of a book, its pages. The feel of the paper. None of that.

I did enjoy the odd fiction here and there when I was a kid. I enjoyed Lewis' Chronicles. And I chipped away at a bit of Bradbury and Asimov. Couldn't stand Tolkien (still can't, truth be told).

I didn't really read much until I was in college, and then it was still fiction. King, Crichton, and Koonz. I didn't develop an appreciation for non-fiction until much later.

I read many of the classics in school, though. I don't remember a lot of them, but I remember titles.

Most of what I liked to read as a young adult fell into what I liked to call reality-based fiction. Tried a little bit of hard fantasy or hard sci-fi, and it didn't work out for me.

Since then, I've slowly broadened my interests. I really enjoy autobiographies now of all sorts. I still enjoy my brand of fiction, but I also dip my toe here and there in other things.

I've realized there are gaps in some of my classics, and it's been good to re-read some of the ones I didn't remember as well as others that I missed (or passed me by).

And I dig into a variety of non-fiction now too.

Much to the chagrin of at least one sweetie, I tend to eschew the paper medium and deal almost exclusively in Ebook. I've been reading in digital format before it was cool. ;-) Me and my Handspring Visor and OCR'd (or hand-typed *twitch*) copies of things I'd find. Needless to say, DRM has been a major thorn in the side of the freedom of how I read, and while these days, I'm happy to pay for my books, they don't often stay in a locked-up format for long. I don't share them or distribute them beyond a loan to a sweetie when I'm done with it. But I really get frustrated being locked into specific readers or formats.

So reading has really been a different experience for me than many of what I hear from you guys.

The meme wandering around Facebook right now has us posting up 15 books that we like and have been transformed by. It's difficult to admit among my very reading-friendly friends that I feel ill-equipped to do that meme. It feels like the question is completely out of my perspective. It isn't that I don't read. It isn't that I haven't read many of the books on many people's lists. It is mostly that books as a medium just don't move me like they do many of you. Never have. Maybe some day. :-)

I've been ok with that for a long time since I've come to understand it for many years now. But it is still hard to admit publicly. Makes it kinda interesting... :-)

Reading for fun is something that really came to me later in life. It is interesting too, because I learned to read when I was 3ish, so it wasn't for lack of ability. I just never developed the passion of books that so many of my friends found. I also remember really not enjoying reading assignments in school, and it drove my teachers and I nuts trying to work through it.
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