reading

Ever since I lost interest in my book group and pretty much stopped reading altogether, I’ve wondered why. I have made speculations, but I still haven’t figured it out. I’ve blamed it on my attention span getting shorter, and that may be part of it, but even when I’ve sat down to read books, I can’t seem to get into them. The authors who used to draw me in don’t have the ability anymore. I used to love Chaim Potok novels. I used to say that I was going to be his Mormon equivalent, because he writes so matter-of-factly about Judaism in his books. His intent seems to be to tell a story with the Jewish culture as a backdrop, not to convert the reader to Judaism, and I loved that about him. I’m not going to compare the story I’m currently working on to his work at all. That's just a status I'd like to achieve someday.

My point is that I picked up a book of his short stories and have read two or three of them. They’re good, of course. I love everything he writes. But I just haven’t felt that draw that I used to feel—the desire to get sucked into a book and not emerge until it’s over. I haven’t felt that way about a book in a long time. I tried Dickens’ Nicholas Nickelby and couldn’t pay attention. Haven’t picked it back up since. I’ve tried more modern novels, like Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight, and thought it was okay. But I haven’t really wanted to read the sequel. This frustrates me, because I really used to like to read. A writer should read. How else does she get inspired?