Monday, February 9, 2009

Such Is Life... Pass The Chocolate!


I've discovered that there is such a thing as "too much" when it comes to reading...

I'm nearing the end of Abercrombie's First Law series, and honestly, as good as it is, I cannot wait for it to end. The problem might be in trying to reading too much in a stretch, rather than spreading it out more.

But one of my personality flaws is a tendency to dive completely into something, and then pull completely out and dive completely into something else. I've been that way as long as I can recall. Doing things in moderation is not easy for me.

In my youth, it was baseball, baseball card collecting, golf, skateboarding... I dive completely in, saturate myself, ride it for a time, then quite suddenly get bored and pull completely out again. I rarely ever go back.

Doesn't prevent me from still calling myself a golfer, a skateboarder, a baseball card collector.

I spent time drawing cartoons and cartoon strips. I painted. I played the guitar. I wrote songs. Each one I dove into completely, having it become the center of my little world, all spare thoughts and time given to it. Then I'd pull out and move on. Yet, I still consider myself a cartoonist, a painter, a musician, to this day.

I gave myself to pondering and writing my novel. Daily, if I wasn't actually writing it, I was researching it or pondering scenes/characters/conversations. Now, working on it is like chasing a rainbow. Same with the the devotional material I wrote... at least I finished that one before the brakes were slammed on it.

Yet I still proudly proclaim myself a writer.

I went years playing games on my PC, every day, usually hours a day. Every day. This was up until recently, up to my fast in December, I guess. Now the desire has dwindled... the last few days, I've barely even considered playing something, much less actually played. Which bothers me greatly, since I have such a killer gaming rig at hand, and many high quality games. I will likely try and push through this lull, so I don't feel like a complete tool for spending the time and money (and Vye's frustration) getting the thing up and running.

As you know, the last six to eight weeks, I have been reading like a madman. For the most part, I have been loving every minute of it. But as I sit down to write this post, I'm about 50 pages from the end of the First Law series, by all rights a terrific, sweeping, action-packed tale, worthy of inclusion in the library of any fan of the Fantasy genre.

But I'm spent. The thought of finishing the last fifty pages seems now a daunting task indeed - laughable, in light of the hundreds and hundreds of pages I've powered through in the past 48 hours alone.

Will my desire to read wither completely? I don't believe so. I've gone through phases before where I read anything I can get my hands on, and then I'll go 6 months, a year, more, without picking up a book other than the Bible... then I'll read anything I can get my hands on again... so that one seems to cycle.

I've also been a huge fan of pro-wrestling in my day. Now that too sits on the ash heap of discarded hobbies/interests...

Is that all a form of gluttony, do you think? Gorge on something until you vomit? My wife used to love honey BBQ wings from KFC... until the time she ate so many of them, she vomited. Now she can't stand even the smell of them, these many years later. I guess the lesson here is "all things in moderation"... you'd think after all these years, and all these obvious personal examples, I would have learned by now.

I guess not.

I wonder if the same thing will happen with this blog?

Until tomorrow, say "La Vee"...

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I hope not...don't be so hard on yourself....sounds like a powerful book and its been raining for 3 days..thats hard on the brain..I love to watch you get fascinated with things..always have..you see the magic in life and have a wonderful way of pointing it out..your a writer..keep it up...Stella

havah said...

Stop talking about me and pretending it's all about you! Bleh! ;)

Seriously, I do the same thing, although I do tend to cycle through things rather than never do them again. I wonder if there's a medical term for it? Hmm...

Right now, I'm on a hulu-gorge. I'm ploughing through Team Knight Rider (which really should only be watched by 9 year olds) but I can't seem to stop myself. I also realised that Burn Notice reminds me muchly of The Pretender, so I'll be moving onto that next. It's a real waste of the wonderful weather we're having now, but....oh well...I'll just ride it out.