Saturday, January 8, 2011

Reading Impatience

Too many books... Photo courtesy Photos8.com

I usually never read more than one book at a time. I prefer focusing all my attention on one story and one set of characters. Occasionally I pick up another book in addition to the one I am reading, but I usually end up putting one of them aside until I have finished the other. This has worked fine for many years. But lately I have found myself growing impatient with my current books. Somewhere around the middle my attention start to wander towards my bookshelf and I start thinking about all the wonderful books I am not reading at the moment.

This happens regardless of the quality of the book I am reading. I might be half-way through a fantastic book, but I still want to read something else. Right now I am reading and enjoying a mystery by Jo Nesbø, but I what I really want to read is Curse of the Spellmans by Lisa Lutz. For the most part I manage to ignore the urge to put away my current read and start something else, but I feel like once this thought has taken root I am no longer able to fully enjoy what I am reading right now. I become impatient with the poor book because I want it to end already so I can start reading that other great book. You would think this would make me hurry up and read, but it actually makes me more inclined to ignore the book for longer stretches of time while I plan what to read once I finish (which is very silly, because if I just kept reading I would finish it in no time).

Does anyone else feel this sort of impatience towards the book you are reading? Any ideas as to what could have caused this impatience (I know am getting older, but I am still in my twenties, so I do not think it is age-related...)? Do you think it will go away? I feel terrible for the books and authors I read, because I feel like I am letting them down by not concentrating 100 per cent on them. Dear book, it's not you, it's me...

4 comments:

Rebecca Chapman said...

I sometimes geel it, at least, I find that a lot of time while I am reading a book I am planning what I will read next.

I think its natural, and I wouldn't wonder about it. I think that blogging and spending so much time thinking and talking and writing about books makes us impatient and thats all it is. I am sure it will wear off soon :-)

Mari - Escape In A Book said...

I know the feeling so I would like to think it is perfectly normal. At least for a book addict ;)

Irene Palfy said...

Hihi - that is completely discribing my feelings. :") Reading with a glance a the "to read" pile... ;")

Hilde said...

Good to know I'm not alone in feeling this way! I guess it is hard to avoid when we are surrounded by books and bookishness all the time. My favourite reading place faces my biggest bookshelf; maybe I should try reading somewhere else so I'm not looking directly at my TBR pile all the time. ;)

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