I seem perpetually incapable of finishing what it is I'm reading. I have about 20 partially read books laying about my apartment, and what's more is that they are extremely good books. I have always had problem with distraction, but I think also that the more excited I am during something, the more I want to leave it. Whether this is because I don't want to be disappointed, because I want some sort of subconscious reflective period to let everything sink in, or something altogether strange and individual, I have no idea.
Does anyone else have a hard time finishing books?
It's especially strange given the fact that were I to enumerate the page counts of what I have partially read, I believe I'd probably be considered considerably well-read by most accounts.
But what I'm reading now. Absent Magazine, which has a series of poems by Matthew Klane which I have been taken by. Their sense of rhyme and rhythm is very interesting to me. I lately have been focusing very much on the rhythm of my poems. I've experimented with a number of different things, including occasional internal rhyme, and I have a feeling Klane's poems hold some answers for me.
Additionally, I have been reading both Native Son and The Invisible Man for lord knows how long. They are both potentially life changing reads for me. I can't know yet, since I haven't lived much life since having started them. haha.
And finally, Bill Bryson's The Mother Tongue, which has the greatest chance, currently, of being completed. I love the English language, and this book makes me think about and love it so much more, that it seems actually to have the potential to inspire my poetry, despite being a book of non-fiction.
My new job starts in 2 days. We'll see how drastically that affects my writing, my blogging, and my ability to afford (hopefully non-junk)food for the pantry.
I have an extremely hard time finishing books, mostly because I rarely have extended chunks of time in which to read them, and when I only have 15 minutes or so to spare I never feel like reading. Also I lose interest/patience quickly.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad someone else has this problem. I shouldn't be. But I am.
ReplyDeleteSome of the professors I worked with always reassured me that it's never important to finish a book, a lot of them don't even finish their own books. School forces you to "finish books" too often, but you only read as far as you want to take away from it. Sometimes if that's skimming until the end just to reach the end, then so be it. Best of luck (those are a great list of books btw)
ReplyDeleteWell do finish Native Son. It's worth a complete read.
ReplyDeleteAngela, I think that they're right. But a part of me finds it so hard not to finish even a really bad book. It's some weird trait, like how most people won't leave a movie at the theater no matter how much it sucks. But maybe it IS school's fault, yeah. haha.
ReplyDeleteVizionheiry, it's definitely getting read. I actually about about 2/3's of the way through it, and I was blazing through it pretty quickly when suddenly a bunch of things came up and I lost my driving force. It kind of blew my mind, and it's hard for me to place right now exactly what it was (although Bigger is definitely a part of it). Any book that demands me to think about it so much is a keeper, for sure.
Bigger is a wildly complex character. I don't think another character exists in all the literature. Not even Eldridge Cleaver's autobiographical portrait Soul on Ice,
ReplyDeleteAnd no film to this day has truly given this book justice (script writing opportunity folks!) What's amazing is how Bigger is truly Richard Wright himself. Read Black Boy afterward and you'll see the connections.