Life in the city has been tiring. Work is 1.5 hours away and that means that I am snoozing on the subway so often that my coffee often perks me up in unexpected ways (ie. by staining the clothes I wear on my lower extremities).
But, in my petulant need to come back to reading for pleasure (through hell or page-at-a-time-madness, which is hell), I’ve been reading when I get enough rest to actually focus on the words swimming in front of me. During university, I had the excuse of reading for school to put off my leisure reads, but now, no more! I am an educated adult and I will do as surprisingly many of other TTC riders do on their morning and afternoon commutes: read.
I finished off the heavy American Gods, my first Neil Gaiman, and thoroughly enjoyed it. I’ve always loved mythology – since my first Classics course at the University of Toronto – and loved having the characters react to modern times in this novel. That being said, I should have been prepared for a more morose read than I received. It was depresso. Mucho depresso, and that made it slow going, although it picked up enough for me to finish.
Now I’ve started Little Women, after a futile search in used bookstores for The Brothers Karamazov, and not wanting to buy because this damn book should be everywhere. It’s a funny contrast to all the articles I’ve been reading about the early influence of “women’s work” and how it influences future political opinions for boys with sisters. Curiouser and curiouser, but the two pieces of writing are most definitely at an odds. I guess what I mainly appreciate is being able to read both and analyze them for their merits. No, Little Women might not be the biggest equal-rights text of this century, but it doesn’t have to be. It’s a classic, and I’m hoping it’s not because of the age-old gender roles, but because of the characters and the ways in which they overcome and rise up from their problems.
But I’m only on page 49 so far, so we’ll see. By the way, did you know I’m on Goodreads? Let’s be friends, although I’m not as great at keeping it up as I am Twitter or Facebook, but I try to make sure to keep it updated, especially when I come across a juicy quote or two.
I’m hoping that my next read can be either Manage Your Day-to-Day: Build Your Routine, Find Your Focus, and Sharpen Your Creative Mind, or Adulting: How to Become a Grown-up in 468 Easy(ish) Steps, because HEY-OH quarter life crisis, I’m-a comin’ your way!
Hopefully I will be coming your way (you, reader) much more often than I am now. I’ve more or less gotten settled in my “honey-bunny”‘s and my new place (although there are still things everywhere, except that I’m thinking this is more a result of our general messiness than anything involving lack of space), and work and whatnot, but it’s just a matter of hammering out a routine now.
That routine has clearly involved reading, but now it would be nice to add back some exercise and writing in. Sigh.