Do You Read Me??

I get that talking about reading is like dancing about architecture.  Wait, no – or is that talking about music? Anyhow, I’m writing about reading and now you’re reading about reading, so what are we even doing now? 

My reading habits have been all sorts of wack-a-doodle this year.  I made a goal to read at least 30 books before 2015, specifically 8 books between June and September, and I just b a r e l y scraped by on that summer goal because, more often than not, I revert to watching TV when I have a spare moment rather than picking up a hardback.  So frequently, I find myself thinking “Ugh, I wish I had more time to read.  I’m just so busy!” as Netflix automatically plays the next episode of Gilmore Girls.  

After trudging along for two entire months reading one book about nuns during the Renaissance (both topics in which I am exceedingly interested, no less!), I picked up “Mr.Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore” and devoured it in less than two days.  How is that allowed?  After feeling so apathetic and lazy towards reading all summer, somehow Mr. Penumbra single-handedly defibrillated my waning interest in reading and snapped me back into action.  And then after I finished reading about Mr. P, I tried to ride that wave of newfound enthusiasm into new books, only to feel melancholy that nothing else would measure up to what I just experienced.  You know that feeling when you can appreciate something in the moment, but you don’t really understand what you had until it changes and you want whatever you used to have back again?  Like when the first three seasons of Friday Night Lights are all about Dillon High and then all of a sudden the fourth season starts and we have to transfer to East Dillon High and even though Landry was good enough to come along, we still miss Matt and Tim and Smash?  That’s what starting a new book felt like. 

I always appreciate book recommendations from friends and invisible people on the internet, but at the same time, choosing a book is so personal and subjective that you can’t always trust other people, and it really all just comes down to a decision between you + your gut + and how cleverly the cover was designed.  It’s actually a fairly weighty decision and not to be taken lightly!  Do I want to give up hours of my time to this author and her characters?  Will this plotline merit my full attention for the next five days??  I shouldn’t know how to pick a winner – I’ve started about 15 different books this year and given up on them halfway through, not because I feel like a lazybones (though that’s not too far from the truth), but just because I have difficulty forcing myself to finish a soporific story with characters I don’t feel invested in.  

But I do honestly miss reading.  I finished reading the Divergent trilogy the other day, so I'm slowly climbing back on track.  But still.  I want to have a club for reading, not even a book club, (and I’ll probably be the only member) but just a club wherein we sit down and read our books for at least an uninterrupted hour or two a few times a week, electronics and noisy dogs not allowed.  I want to collect titles in the repertoire of books I’ve read, like pocket-sized souvenirs, so that maybe, just maybe, I’ll understand a few more of Rory and Lorelai’s literary references as I spend approximately 122 sporadic hours over the next month and a half finishing all seven seasons of a show I’ve already watched before.