Suddenly I remembered why I came here to begin with. A long time ago, before this site and before smart phones, I was enthralled with reading, and I even got one of my double majors in English literature because of this. I say before smart phones because I believe I lost some of my attention span with the advent of smart phones, as cliché as it sounds and as much as it ages me.
So I started this when I started reading again, and I also wanted to start writing more, because for me reading and writing go hand in hand. Shortly afterwards I forgot or got sidetracked, but last year, I joined a local book club to push me to read a little more and to commune with other readers. To be honest, the book club’s genres aren’t ones that I had ever explored before, and have never been terribly excited about, either: fantasy and science fiction. But it did teach me how to start reading again, without having to re-read a page over and over due to my wandering mind, and I thoroughly enjoyed the writing style of one of the books, William Gibson’s Neuromancer, even if I found it difficult to keep up with the story. He had me from the first line, though, “The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel.”
To be completely honest, I also wanted to start reading again because I knew it would help my writing skills. My novel has been on pause for a few years (sitting at roughly 45,000 pages, though, so I would like to resurrect the thing) and deep inside I felt that I couldn’t pick it up again until I started reading again. This was my writer’s block.
And what better monument to reading and writing can there be than the Great Library of Alexandria? A constant reminder of what was lost tied to an endeavor that I personally wanted to find again. And what was lost, and edited for that matter, in that great Egyptian library? History tells us there were stories, poetry, science, math, and more. Maybe one of my next reads should be on the Library of Alexandria.
Recently I’ve also started driving more and have just subscribed to Audible.com for audiobooks, as well. I’m venturing into this world of listening without a syllabus and I decided to pick something lighter than a classic, something with an element of fun, and I want a work of fiction, but outside of the realm of fantasy and sci-fi. So this morning I’ve started with Next Year in Havana by Chanel Cleeton, a story of family, as well as one of romance, and one steeped in Cuban culture, which interests me.
Now to run some weekend errands and get back to the story! ¡Chao pescao!