Monday, January 24, 2011

My Daytime Book

When I was younger, I would often read more than one book at the same time.  In university, it was essential.  But when the boys came along, my reading time was drastically cut.  As a result, I find that trying to read more than one book at a time just doesn't work for me.  I need to stay focused.  That really should be my mantra.  I was not aware of having a focus issue until one evening a couple of months ago when I was doing the dishes while Mike was helping Keegan with his homework. As with most things in day to day life that he doesn't really want to be doing, Keegan often has trouble focusing on one thing at a time.  All we can do is help him realize how quickly things get done when you focus your attention.    As we were discussing this, I rip off the rubber gloves and exclaim, "That reminds me of something."  Five minutes later Mike finds me in the living room reading a magazine and mutters, "I can't imagine where he gets it from."  Huh?  What?  Oh yeah.  Lightbulb flashes.  Since this epiphany, I have noticed this beahviour more than once during my days.  In fact, I am subjecting you to one of those moments right now.  Focus, Tara.  Focus.

Anyways, back to books.  One book at a time for me except under special circumstances of which there are two.  The first:  my fiction-loving-self decides to read a non-fiction book.  Regardless how good that non-fiction book may be, I have to have a novel going at the same time.  Just the way it is.  The second circumstance: my scaredy-cat-self decides to read a scary book.

  
When this happens, I have what I call my daytime book and my nighttime book.  You guessed it.  The daytime book would be the scary book, in this case, Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan's book The Fall.  It is the second book in a vampire trilogy and these are not Twilight vampires, people.  These are the vampires of nightmares.  I can't read this book before bed.  Heck, when I was reading the first book last spring, I remember sneaking out to the backyard for some alone time reading and then running right back inside a few minutes later because I didn't want to be alone.  That's how my mind works sometimes.  It doesn't matter how curious I am about the fate of our vampire-fighting heroes, when the night falls, I'll be snuggling up with Diana Gabaldon's The Outlander.

I decided the vampire book needed a little brightening up so I made a bookmark for it.  It has absolutely nothing at all to do with vampires.





 

9 comments:

  1. Lol...I'm the same way with scary tv shows or books...I don't like to be alone while watching/reading them!

    The bookmark adds a nice little "happy" touch to the book. ;-)

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  2. love the bookmark ;)
    and your focus is good x

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  3. hehehe... that would totally be me too running inside in the bright daylight reading a scary book and not wanting to be alone all of a sudden! i first read the 'sookie stackhouse' series and enjoyed several of them - had to finish them because i'm like that... the first twilight was good, but i forced myself to read through the second because my dad bought my the third as well. hmph.. i haven't picked it up because i've been so busy lately, but i do hope eclipse is better than the last. i don't think i could handle 'the fall.' i can't handle too much scary now....

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  4. love the bookmark! I hear you about focus. My son struggles as well. Keep reading!!

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  5. Oh how I want to focus and read only one book at a time! Focusing in itself is a focus of mine this year:) On that note alone, I appreciated this post.

    I think your two book plan makes sense for getting good sleep! When my daughter was recently reading The Diary of Anne Frank I encouraged her to only read it in the afternoons, and then read an Anne of Green Gables book at night because I was concerned. Apparently, she was fine.

    On the vampire note, I have to tell you that at the library Jane Austen event I went to last Saturday they said there have been three Mr. Darcy vampire books published in the past year alone!

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  6. ha! i just finished the strain two days ago, then finished the other book i was reading (the witch of hebron) today. outlander is one of my favorite books, hands down. i enjoyed the whole series, but the first is still my fave. when i was a teenager, i read silence of the lambs while on a vacation with my family and i had to lay down in bed with my grandma one evening so i could keep reading - i couldn't bear to read it in a room by myself!

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  7. Ha, I think many of us have this problem...not being able to focus as we as mums are such multi taskers!
    With regards to the Drawing Lab, it's definitely a book for ALL levels.
    I'm even going to use it for my Art Camp in the Summer...has some amazing excercises.
    Happy reading!...and drawing.
    HUGS
    Char.x

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  8. holy crap i'm so excited you introduced this book series to me! my husband and i are lovers of vampire lore. like buffy lore not edward lore.

    amazing - thanks for this!!

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  9. My brain can be scattered like this more often than I wish to admit!

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