Busted

Yeah, not “busted” like “found out” or “arrested,” but more like “actually broken.” 

I am a broken reader, people. 

I’m declaring myself officially busted, given that this stuff’s been going on for more than a quarter of a year now. 

(Don’t worry: I’m not in the midst of personal trauma. If I were, I wouldn’t be writing about reading behavior.)

But, it’s true: My reading is scattered and inattentive. 

I feel like a standard non-reading person when approaching a book. I’m behaving like the majority of the population. (This fact actually causes me to make a horrified face and shudder [literally shudder.])

Here’s further evidence that I’m no longer my usual reading self:

1. I’ve been reading the same 3 books for 3 1/2 months now. 

2. The only books (all three of them) I’ve finished during this time were a book discussion book for work, one nonfiction book, and one nonfiction audiobook that magically held my attention. 

3. I’m not placing holds on forthcoming books and then compulsively checking their release dates. 

4. I’ve read exactly one page of the book club book that we’re discussing in a couple of weeks, and that’s all I’m gonna read. I tried the audio, lasted three minutes, ejected that puppy, and returned it to the library the following day. 

5. I am freaked out, but not that freaked out by this behavior. 

It’s disturbing. It’s troubling. It’s strange. 

It’ll end; it always does. But this is the longest stretch of non-reading since I was in library school (no time for actual reading-for-fun in those days; ironic? oh, yeah…) 

Just thought I’d mention it here, since I got nothing in the pipeline these days. When I finish a book sometime next month, I’ll do some excited scribbling about it. Till then, I’ll be acting like a more normal 21st-century American. Heaven help us.