Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Doc Lit

For some reason, 2010 has been a difficult year for me in one big way: reading. It was almost the end of March before I finally read a book all the way through. That's unusual for me. I usually read a lot. I don't read hundreds of books a year, but I do better than the average. I usually read somewhere between 45-60 books a year. I figure a book a week is pretty good. For some reason, though, the "new year" rolled around and my reading took a nose dive. I blame a good portion of it on my facebook addiction. I also can point to, sadly, my sudden interest in vapid tv such as The Apprentice and The Biggest Loser. I don't know why I got sucked into them, but I did, for shame.

Lately, though, my reading has increased. I think part of it is because the guilt was starting to mount. Doesn't that sound silly? That and I've found some books that have caught my interest. I read a young adult (YA)novel that was just this side of awful and made me lose a little respect for one of the authors, who I heretofor thought was amazing (I'm looking at you John Green). But that might have been enough to prime the pump as they say. Suddenly, I'm picking up all kinds of books and trying to put them in an order that I can read.

Probably my favorite kind of literature to read is what I call documentary literature which is essentially nonfiction, but kind of quirky. For example, I've read books about people who did the and I've read books about over-the-top Scrabble players. I also read a lot of biography, not so much autobiography, but biography. I recently read this amazing bio. I churned through it in less than three days. Right now, I'm reading this little nugget about Adult Fans of LEGO (AFOL).

I particularly enjoy reading about hobbies, particularly hobbists that are "all in" to use a poker term. I enjoy quirky things like that. If nothing else, I'm just amazed at the amount of money those folks will spend on their "passion."

It feels good to get back into books. Its nice to feel the page under my fingers as opposed to a keyboard. The subtle scent of the page. I could wax poetic on the physicalness of reading all day long...