I tried to participate in NaNoWriMo in 9th grade, and quickly failed. No commitment, no ideas, and no formal idea of how to structure a plot left me with one of the most embarrassing pieces of dreck to ever come out of my IP address not confined to the pages of LiveJournal.
The idea has languished in the corner of my mind since then, until every November when some news source shares it as though we haven't all already heard of it.
***
So this year, I have decided to make it my own personal National Novel Reading Month.
*That copy of 'The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana' that's been languishing on my shelf since August? Gonna either read the last 100 pages it or give it up by the end of the weekend.
*'The Master and Margarita' that I tried to start back in July? Gonna finish it or set it on fire by the 27th.
*That Carson McCullers Novel I rescued from the dollar bin? Gonna have it half read by the beginning of december.
Now I realize those are a lot of threats, but I have written them all down both in my phone calendar & on the calendar hanging on my wall, & words are the first step on the road to actions! If James Strickland & Simon Hayes can write a publish-worthy novel in a month (& 13,000 other people can complete the task, as happened in 2006), certainly I can read two.
***
I used to be a voracious reader: every Friday my mother took us to the library to pick out the reading for next week, & I was the kind of kid who had to be told to stop reading & go to sleep almost every night. I think I stopped reading novels around the beginning of college, when I was faced with about 300 pages of soul-witheringly dry reading (Women's history since the Civil War! History of Social Anthropology!) per week.
I would find a good novel & consume it every once in a while, but that was usually over winter breaks when I felt the need to keep my quick reading skills up to snuff.
So I'm going to start reading novels again, because I like them, because they're good for me, because interpreting text makes me a better actor, and because opening myself to new experiences makes me a better human.
Right after I finish re-reading The Walking Dead Compendium 1.
3 comments:
I think the amount of reading you have to do in college is enough to kill the reader in anyone. While I was in school, there literally wasn't a moment to read for pleasure, and when I did have a little time during winter and summer breaks when I wasn't doing research for the next semester, all I wanted to read was children's literature. I read a lot of really good stuff, but I don't think I read an adult book for pleasure again until I graduated.
Also, Catan this Saturday night?
Yes, I would love to! I close at work, but I only have to be there until sunset. Should we say after dinner, around 8?
8 works perfectly! I'll give you a call tomorrow to get your address (or we can do it at my place, whichever works best for you).
Post a Comment