Welcome to my adventures and experiments in creativity. Where writing is like running: sometimes I know where I'm going, and sometimes I see where the mood takes me.


Monday 21 January 2013

Reading Too Much Into It


It’s my own stupid fault.

Stephen King’s 11.22.63 has been on my Kindle for months now. I kept thinking, I’ll just finish that other book first and now we’re two-thirds of the way through January and I’ve got this near-900 page epic to tackle.

2013 marks the fourth year of what I called a ‘Decade of Reading’. I blogged about it when I first hit on the idea – to document everything I read over a ten year period – but have been lax in following it up. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve kept the list, just forgotten to do anything with it (if, indeed, there is anything to be done!).

But now I’m writing more, and late nights spent on words about cinemas in Copenhagen are not conducive to keeping up the reading habit. I’ve not yet failed in my quest to read at least a page of something every day, but there are many nights where it is not much more than a page.

So this year’s list does not look like growing very quickly, and I’ve promised myself not to buy any new books until I’ve read everything I’ve got outstanding.

Except … that doesn’t stop me downloading new reading material. And as I’ve expanded the sources from where I gain creative inspiration, so I have discovered digital books, guides and manifestos galore! All of them free, all of them ready to pour yet more ideas into a head-full of thoughts that I’m trying to simplify.

So far, I’m managing to keep the partition between my newfound work ethic and the ideas of others relatively intact (with the exception of a few leaks, as described in yesterday’s post). But I want to read these guides because I need to expand my knowledge and understanding of creativity.

Having found the time to write frequently, now I feel the need to find more time to read yet more new things! As problems go, it’s not exactly life and death. It’s the product of an over-active mind at best; a desire to absorb new information.

Ironically, when I first envisaged the ‘Decade of Reading’, it was not born of some attempt at self-improvement. It was intended to reflect the simple act of reading itself and the pleasure contained therein. Maybe that can start to change now. Maybe it doesn’t have to be just another Fruitless side project, and can instead act as a measure of the progress I make in my creative ambitions.

As long as I can tame the impatient side of my brain, that is. As long as I accept that I can only consume things at a certain pace. I don’t need to know all the answers straight away. I can learn and grow, and use what I read to build that growth. I’ve tried to do things instantly in the past, and failed.

If I try to do the same thing again, it’ll be my own stupid fault.

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