I wonder if there is something called “Reader’s Block” when I first
thought of the term but apparently there is, and I definitely seem to be
suffering from it. At the onset I confess that I’m not a voracious reader or
anything and the best I ever read in a month was around 5 books. So this rant
may not seem totally justified for a regular reader, but for me the lack of
reading is appalling me and it prompted me to vent out this frustration on my
space. Sure, I read a lot of blogs, short stories, op-eds, articles online but
that does not amount to the actual reading that I have set my sights on for
this year.
I usually set a lofty target every year about the number of books I should
read. I try my best in setting out to achieve it but this year I read only 3
books till now and sometimes it embarrasses me. The GoodReads page tells me
that I’m 22 books behind schedule. Now, I have always been behind schedule on
GoodReads but it never bothered me because I was reading and that target was
just an arbitrary number I chose. I toyed with the idea of lowering the target
just to get myself on schedule but that seemed to be a lousily manipulative
idea and misses the point.
What is painful is that there is no apparent reason for this decline in the
habit. It was not due to a gradual loss in interest, or not having enough time.
On the contrary, I seem to have all the time in the world, but the manner I spend
it is increasingly becoming a cause of concern. It is even more disheartening
since one of the things I enjoy writing is book reviews and my blog and I miss
them dearly.
I shifted my apartment a couple of months ago and packed my modest
collection of 74 books in a carton (half of them unread) and it shames me that
it was left unpacked till date. I have a JustBooks membership which I requested
them to put on hold, simply because I was not making any use of it. I did not
buy a single book this year. I’m at an absolute loss as to what caused this
strange block. I even tried reading eBooks but apparently nothing worked.
When I look back at my modestly prolific days of reading, there was nothing
different from now that I was doing, I was not occupied by any other things to
keep me away from books, in fact the carton lies close to me but I can’t bring
myself to open it. I think I would be embarrassed if I abandon books without
reading them, which is a worse thing to happen than not reading them at all. Even
when I picked up a book and willed myself to sit with it for hours, the task
seemed too tedious and joyless that it felt wrong to read a book that way.
As anyone who suffered a writer’s block will tell you that the best way
is to start writing anything that comes to mind. It is the first and the most
basic step to start again and right now I’m staring at the “Greatest Short
Stories” by Mulk Raj Anand, which I picked up from the JustBooks library. It is
a tiny book and Anand has been a writer I have been reading a bit lately about
and hopefully I should be able to complete this book soon, which in turn, again
hopefully, should get me on track.
Oh I go through this block all the time. And yes, the best way to get over the block is to start reading. But I try to read something completely different from the usual stuff I read. It always works. You write very well :)
ReplyDeleteThat's what I tried here. I usually read short stories online and never pick up a published collection. But this time I wanted to read differently. Hoping to finish it tonight. Thanks for the good words you had to say about my writing :)
DeleteIn fact, I liked your blog enough to subscribe to it :)
DeleteI'm glad you liked it enough to subscribe to it. I hope I won't disappoint you with my posts.
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