Twilight Zone fans will recognize this in an instant. Burgess Meredith portrayed Henry Bemis, a bibliophile who had all these roadblocks in the way of his one true love. The apocalypse occurs and everything that stopped him from reading is gone. And upon picking up his first book, he breaks his glasses.
I can relate because I have such a backlog of reading right now and so little time to read. My mornings are spent getting stuff done around the house, answering emails, checking on my web sites, etc. I usually write in the afternoons and then the evening is spent with Carjo, watching something on TV or the computer. And then after the Daily Show/Colbert, it’s time for bed.
Here’s my reading list right now:
- Red Country – Joe Abercrombie
- The Last Gunfight – Jeff Guin
- Ganymede – Cherie Priest
- The Last Colony – John Scalzi
- The Black Prism – Brent Weeks
- Cryoburn – Lois McMaster Bujold
- Caliban’s War – James S A Corey
- Windup Girl – Paolo Bacigalupi
- Telegraph Avenue – Michael Chabon
- River of Gods – Ian McDonald
- Half-Made World/Ransom City – Felix Gilman
- Prince of Thorns – Mark Lawrence
- Sisters Brothers – Patrick DeWitt
- Blood & Thunder – Hampton Sides
- Gone Girl – Gillian Flynn
- The Hydrogen Sonata – Iain M. Banks
- The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms – N.K. Jemisin
- Existence – David Brin
- Throne of the Crescent Moon – Saladin Ahmed
It all goes to my ADHD really. I can get pretty flighty if I am not focused on something and a day can melt away in a blink. Except of course for writing, for which I fairly well at chaining myself down. It’s high time I become more like the last figure in the image below.
So I really need to slay this demon and get back to consuming books, without limiting the time spent with the person that matters the most. I think I’ll try trimming some of the useless fat off this schedule and try to limit my goofing off on the Internet. And then maybe, unlike Mr. Bemis, I will have time enough at last.
