Hello and welcome back to Contemplation. We’ve had 3 weeks off while I’ve been trying to get back on track. Work has been incredibly busy and as I mentioned previously, a little bit stressful. Thankfully, my weekends have been full of fun (which I’ll share with you later this week), although I haven’t had time to pick up my camera and go out shooting in such a long time and I miss it dreadfully.
So on to this week’s prompt: What’s the next book you’re going to read?
Are you a reader? I used to read voraciously! At least one book per week, often more. When I started working as a specialist I seemed to read all the time – on planes, in hotels, as an outlet on the weekend to switch off the job.
But now, all that has changed. I hardly ever read anymore. It something that I really want to change about myself. I can’t really pinpoint when I stopped, it may even be a conglomeration of things – easier and cheaper access to the internet, individual screens on airplanes, iPads, photography,blogging, Netflix.
Sometimes, I think I’m too tired to read – at the end of the day, it’s easier to stare at a screen than to read a book. Isn’t that outrageous? But sometimes, I think that’s true. It’s easier to be fed entertainment than to work on it. It’s a bit of a copout, isn’t it?
I do read blogposts, I read a zillion emails every day, but to give myself time to sit down with a book and delve into the lives of those characters – I can’t seem to do it. I want to! Last weekend, one of my best friends came down and we spent a day building my new bookshelves and unpacking all my books (what an awesome friend!!). We made space on a couple of shelves for my “To Be Read” pile, but two shelves was nowhere near enough. I have well over 150 books that I have not yet read! I clearly WANT to read, I just haven’t been motivated to do so.
So tell me, are you a reader? How do you read? Do you have a process? A cup of tea? a favourite spot? A patch of sunshine? I have come to realise that I used to have reading rituals – the process of settling into your seat on a plane, getting out your headphones, taking your bookmark out and placing it in the back of the book – all of that feels ritualistic when it’s something that you do so often. I always sit on the left of the plane on the way out and the right side of the plane on the way back (good grief). And when I used to read at home, I would make a coffee and curl up in the same spot on my sofa with my little GG (or maybe Buddy way back then) curled up by my side – it was a spot by the window in the sunshine, with fresh air gently moving the white curtains. I can remember it so well.
I think I need to develop a new reading ritual here in my new space.
Ok, I guess I have to tell you which book I’m going to read! I have three books on the go at the moment – The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin, Lover At Last by JR Ward (if a steamy vampire romance novel can’t entice me, who knows what can?) and The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson. So. I will finish one of those, most likely the vampire book. But I will take The Happiness Project on the tram with me.
Sorry again for taking a Contemplation Hiatus, it was very much needed, but I am very glad to be back (as you may be able to tell by this extremely long-winded and chatty post).
I hope you are all well and thank you so much for taking the time to read this. I look forward to finding out what you’re reading next 🙂
Julie Powell – Photographer and Graphic Artist
x desleyjane
Musings of a Frequent Flying Scientist 
I’d love to hear from you!