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Mark T. B. Carroll ([personal profile] mtbc) wrote2019-01-05 10:45 am
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Starting to read again

I start this year with a considerable backlog of personal projects and deferred maintenance. Once settled back into my routine I hope to do better at making time for progress on my tasks outside paid employment. I will have more to say on the larger picture but this entry is about a recent promising change.

For much of my life I have read a lot but in recent years hardly at all. Last Saturday I borrowed a couple of science fiction novels from the library, Carey's The Boy on the Bridge and Lostetter's Noumenon and over the following couple of days read them both which is most heartening. I am minded to go back today and borrow a couple more. If I can get back to reading then maybe I can also get back to other activities.

In pencil somebody had briefly annotated the first book with critical comments on its writing: I was amused to find myself agreeing. I reflected on how greatly I value editors: while I write reasonably I am in no doubt that guidance from a half-decent editor would much improve my work. I like clever people providing useful help.

A couple of days ago I recalled a scene from a recent story and tried to remember what it was from; it turned out to be from that first book. The memory may have confused me because it was so visual: I suppose that I must have been imagining the story as I read it and I simply remembered what I had invented. I also have a good memory of a handgun from a dream this morning but I suspect that I appropriated its appearance from one of the movies I saw over the holidays.
wpadmirer: (Default)

[personal profile] wpadmirer 2019-01-05 04:38 pm (UTC)(link)
I love reading, and wish I had more time to read. I need to write more, which conflicts with my desire to read more.

I look forward to retirement when I will have more time for both. Right now working is annoyingly taking up time and mental space.