I survived reading deprivation
I finally finished George R.R. Martin’s A Storm of Swords yesterday. I have quite literally been reading it for the last two months-I started it when I was visiting my parents in New York back in May. An excellent book in an excellent series but my God I am glad to finally be done with it.
I probably would have finished A Storm of Swords several days ago, but I was delayed by a week of “reading deprivation” where I didn’t read anything much longer than a facebook status update. No books, comics/manga, or articles of any kind. I subjected myself to as part of week four of The Artist’s Way and I can safely say that it was not a pleasant experience. According to The Artist’s Way, reading can be used as an escape that allows you to avoid your own feelings. I have to concur. I definitely use reading that way. You might say it’s my drug of choice so going without it for a week was pretty excruciating and my anxiety level was very high. I’m afraid I ended up utilizing a lot of other distractions (watching episodes of Veronica Mars) instead of actually sitting with my feelings or doing anything creative.
Still, I was able to channel some of the energy I usually devote to reading into positive avenues. I did some writing and painting and made significant progress with my apartment cleaning. At the end of the week I took four big boxes worth of junk to a nearby thrift shop as well as tossing a lot of old magazine clippings and other stuff that I’ve stockpiled over the years. Also I was able to put together and send out packages of artwork in a pretty efficient manner. I’m happy (and extremely surprised) that I made it through with only one real slip-I briefly got caught up reading about tropes in Dexter on tvtropes.org (more on Dexter later).
I probably would have finished A Storm of Swords several days ago, but I was delayed by a week of “reading deprivation” where I didn’t read anything much longer than a facebook status update. No books, comics/manga, or articles of any kind. I subjected myself to as part of week four of The Artist’s Way and I can safely say that it was not a pleasant experience. According to The Artist’s Way, reading can be used as an escape that allows you to avoid your own feelings. I have to concur. I definitely use reading that way. You might say it’s my drug of choice so going without it for a week was pretty excruciating and my anxiety level was very high. I’m afraid I ended up utilizing a lot of other distractions (watching episodes of Veronica Mars) instead of actually sitting with my feelings or doing anything creative.
Still, I was able to channel some of the energy I usually devote to reading into positive avenues. I did some writing and painting and made significant progress with my apartment cleaning. At the end of the week I took four big boxes worth of junk to a nearby thrift shop as well as tossing a lot of old magazine clippings and other stuff that I’ve stockpiled over the years. Also I was able to put together and send out packages of artwork in a pretty efficient manner. I’m happy (and extremely surprised) that I made it through with only one real slip-I briefly got caught up reading about tropes in Dexter on tvtropes.org (more on Dexter later).