Still on The Fifth Season, so this is going to be another in progress kind of post. It’s really rolling for me now, though, so I’m probably going to finish it today. Man, how I wish I didn’t fall out of the habit of reading when I started secondary education. Up until puberty, I used to read a couple of books a week, sometimes more. Since then, though, my reading has been periodical and sporadic, which has resulted in a paltry reading speed of fifty pages an hour on average. Depending on how much I’m struggling with the prose, it might be more, or less.
Like I said, though, this particular book has finally started to roll for me. There’s nothing quite like the feeling of having cracked a book’s prose style, world and characters, and the thing feels like it starts reading itself. Whoof, that particular high is one of the best reasons there is for seeking out a variety of genres and voices. There really is nothing like it in the world. Even if you’re not fluent enough to read for pleasure in languages other than your own, you can still find styles so foreign that they can provide something akin to that experience, and it’s pretty dang amazing.
Now, actively seeking out challenging material might seem completely contrary to the speed and ease of reading I started out lamenting here. In the long run, though, I think as catholic a book diet as possible might help immensely — if not with speed, than at the very least with the ease and enjoyment of the experience.
I keep returning to this idea, don’t I? It might be time to do some research; the sociology of literature and sociological criticism is a pretty big part of my current curriculum, after all. But let’s finish The Fifth Season first, yeah?
Writing music: the Gunn-Truscinski Trio’s reissued Ocean Parkway twofer.
Power-Pap 