Trying to Read While Life Happens
Photo by Christin Hume on Unsplash
Yesterday, after the long day I had, my wife, one of my daughters, and I went to a jazz concert at UNC, something my daughter needed to attend for one of her classes. It was scheduled to start at 7:30 p.m., with the UNC Jazz Band performing alongside special guest Alex Graham. Turns out the North Carolina Symphony was also in town performing in the larger, more modern adjacent theater, which meant it took us extra time to get there. Finding parking was especially hard, but thanks to the kindness of one attendant protecting the neighborhood lots from concert-goers, we managed to find a spot only a few minutes’ walk from the Moeser Auditorium.
The event itself was pretty good, and I enjoyed several songs I heard for the first time despite being played by younger musicians. Some performances were genuinely impressive. My favorite of the night was a piece called Swing in Time , which was so good it took actual effort not to move along with it. That song had such a happy groove and rhythm that staying still felt like some kind of personal punishment. I found myself tapping, swaying, and basically vibrating in my chair the whole time, much to my daughter’s embarrassment, of course. But we had a good time.
When we got home and went to bed, I told my wife this has been a very quiet reading month for me. It’s already the 14th, and I haven’t completed a single book, which is not normal for me. I’m still reading daily, but between my book choices and the fact that I’ve been working late into the evenings for many days, my reading time has been cut down to a fraction of what it usually is.
Some of the books I picked simply didn’t work for me, and after getting through about a third of each, I put them down. As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, it’s been a rough month at work, and I needed something lighter — something funny — to help me unwind at night instead of going to sleep feeling like I was carrying the weight of the world.
I came across Not That Kind of Girl by Lena Dunham. I haven’t watched the show she’s well-known for, but the idea of humorous personal essays sounded like exactly what I needed. Unfortunately, the book didn’t land for me. I didn’t find the essays funny in the way I was hoping. That’s not to say the book won’t resonate with someone else — especially fans of her work — but for me, it just wasn’t the right fit. It’s also possible that I wasn’t in the right mindset to appreciate it.
Another book I started is Alchemised by SenLinYu, which is hefty — around a thousand pages. It’s been interesting so far, though I’m not fully pulled into the story yet. It could just be the circumstances, my inability to fully disconnect from work. But I’m still reading it, and I’m committed to finishing it, likely over the remainder of the month.
The book I’ve been reading the most for the past five or six days is Between Two Kingdoms by Suleika Jaouad — probably not the wisest choice during a stressful time, given its emotional weight, but out of everything I have going, it’s the one I keep picking up. It’s an okay book so far, and I’m certain I’ll finish it today or tomorrow. I’m not sure how I feel about it yet, but I’ve highlighted a few passages that might be useful someday if I ever decide to write an autobiography.
Despite not finishing much, I have been buying books — clearly influenced by my mood these last couple of weeks. A few titles now sitting on top of my stack:
The Art of War by Sun Tzu
The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck by Mark Manson
Greatest Hits by Harlan Ellison
Marina by Carlos Ruiz Zafón
Being Logical: A Guide to Good Thinking by D.Q. McInerny
Enchantment by Katherine May
The Blue Flower by Penelope Fitzgerald
The Melancholy of Resistance by László Krasznahorkai
It’s been a buying spree, even if it hasn’t been much of a reading month.
I also have a couple of graphic novels sitting on my puzzle table (yes, I have a puzzle table in my office), waiting for me to come up for air. It’s been an unusual, chaotic month, but I’m hoping to finish at least a few of these books — many of which have been calling to me for a long time. I miss the feeling of immersing myself fully in my reading instead of nibbling at the edges. That’s something I want to prioritize again, starting tonight.