let's talk about one of my personal Literary Monkeys, clawing its way up my back to a prime position of right. next. to. my. right. ear: Book Guilt.
Yes, that's right. Book Guilt.
Fear it.
My Book Guilt regularly rears its ugly monkey like face when I have been indulging in a good session of Mindless Reading. You know what I'm talking about. Mindless Reads are the book equivalents of watching plotless sitcoms or cartoons instead of epically epic epics and award-winning, acclaimed documentaries. Over the last couple of months (digging back into School Work, ick) I've been imbibing in a steady flow of what I consider to be easy reads. Books that require effort, or are exceedingly Large and Intimidating, have been unceremoniously shoved to the back of the bookshelves, where herds of dust bunnies will snarl warningly at me when I forget and reach into the depths, looking for a book where neither high school nor romance is addressed. Lord of the Rings? LATER! Jane Austen? NOT NOW! Little Women? I'LL GET TO IT!
A couple of days ago at the school library, I decided to try to stop the screeching of the monkey at my NASCAR-racer-finds-lost-son-and-fiancee-they-live-happily-ever-after comfortably thin paperback pick by taking out one of the largest non-Twilight fictional books known to mankind: Anna Karenina.
BAD IDEA.
When trying to build up reading from, say, crappy romance paperbacks, one should try to move in small steps. From a romance PB to a mystery PB. From the mystery PB to a High School Hardcover (one of the first three Harry Potters, maybe). From the HS Hardcover to an Emotional Hardcover (say, a Sarah Dessen. THIS IS NOT A SLAM! I love her books with a righteous fire). From the Emotional Hardcover to a Fairly Easy to Read Classic (Little Women, anything about Anne Shirley). From easy classic, move to the Medium Classic (Austen, Tolkien). From the Medium Classic, proceed to the Hard Classics, otherwise known as Almost Anything By An Obscure Russian.
Accompany with lazy weekend afternoons and as little personal hygiene (washing, makeup, dressing) as is possible.
Yes, I see the irony in posting this on SUNDAY, the Ominous Weekend Day Because The Next Day Is Monday So What Is The Point Of Enjoying Yourself Because Tomorrow Might Just Suck. But this gives you time to prepare for NEXT weekend!
There will be more on this Lit Guilt later.
See you on the flip side,
AT/RR/AS
(all these names are starting to screw with my head. Oops! We meant our head.)
