The Big Green House

Thursday, September 11, 2003

 

Cereal boxes don�t count

I�ve always enjoyed rooting around in used bookstores. Seattle is a great town for that, as there are tons of bookstores here, new and used. Having been on a budget for most of my life, though, I�ve spent more time scouting the used shelves. Besides, I love the smell of old books. Always have.

So, by this time I have collected a fairly large number of books, about three quarters of which I�ve actually had time to read. Science Girl has just about as many titles as I do, if not more. Add to all our books those that came with Science Manor (quite a few, on a wide variety of subjects), and you�ve got a huge selection of reading material from which to choose, right there where we both will soon be living. Wall-to-wall books. In other words, heaven.

At least, it should be. Only problem is, for some reason I�m finding myself bored brainless by the halfway point (or earlier) of just about every novel I�ve picked up over the last couple of years. Fiction just doesn�t seem to do it for me anymore, for whatever reason. Oh, I�ll go back and read Raymond Chandler for the umpteenth time, and I still drag out the Brautigan once a year or so, but otherwise the extent of my reading lately has been limited to newspapers, magazines, and non-fiction books. (And blogs, of course.)

I�m not sure why this is. Perhaps I�m picking the wrong titles. Maybe my attention span has atrophied from years of watching TV, or it could be that the fiction center of my brain is full. Who knows? It does irk me a bit, though, since novels and such have been a source of great pleasure for me since I was a pup.

SG says there�s lots of non-fiction at Science Manor, and I seem to recall that being the case as well. So there�s that. And this fiction-phobia I�m experiencing may just be a short-lived anomaly in my reading habits. I hope so, anyway. It�s going to be along winter of staring out the window otherwise.

bmarkey 9/11/2003 09:37:00 PM