What happens when a reader is not reading?
I’ll compare this to eating as I love food too!
It’s the morning & you need to break the fast. You eat. It’s the most important meal of the day.
Then it’s time for second breakfast.
Now lunch hour - I used to take an hour - but more often than not, I’m eating a bowl of something at my desk and not knowing what I ate as I’m still working on an excel sheet.
It’s on to afternoon tea. If I was in England!!
Home for dinner or supper.
We have time in between meals for an appetite to build. We perhaps have something to cleanse our palate.
Maybe you end with popcorn and something on Netflix before bed like me lately as I’m addicted to Riverdale and Grace and Frankie.
If you don’t eat you start feeling weak from a hunger. Right?
When I don’t feel like reading I have a different kind of hunger. I just feel empty without a book. Like lost and without a friend.
But I have too many choices and sometimes none of the books in print edition or on my ipad are jumping out at me saying READ ME!!
So what happens?
I feel a weakness in my vocabulary let alone I start failing at my job. I need to read in order to sell books, recommend stories and keep on top of the pile.
I absolutely get distracted by the news, social media, and more!
Reading is an old fashioned activity done one word at a time and with focus.
I love being on an emotional journey with literature. I love sharing the excitement I have for a novel with others.
I consider the person. For example, the parking lot attendant whose evening shift is lonely. She gets scared by thrillers so I select books for her carefully in order to allow her an escape from the underground lot.
The makeup artist at Global TV loved My Best Friend’s Exorcism. So what do I suggest to her next?!
I feel it’s a big responsibility. We all have a limited amount of time and I do not want to suggest a book that the reader may feel was a waste of time.
First – I need to choose a book to start and/or finish as I have a lot with bookmarks in them.
Second – I will turn off the phone, computer & lastly my thoughts with all the to do lists.
Third – I will find my new reading glasses. Yes. I can see clearer with these little 1.25 magnified glasses but I’m not used to wearing them. I also will have to buy a bulk of them to have in every room that I read in.
What’s your impetus to start again?
I’m going to dive into a new memoir written by Jessica J. Lee called Turning which will be available in bookstores May 2, 2017.
Why this one?
Because the editor wrote me a letter that said, “I think it’s very much in keeping with your passion for nature and environmentalism. I honestly think it’s a book you will love and will quickly get lost in. I know I did. I found myself instantly absorbed by Jessica’s crackling descriptions of swimming with the ice, the staggering power of nature, and the unyielding determination of the human heart.”
That’s the kind of personal and thoughtful recommendation that gets me away from this computer and deep into a story.