Fridays at The Variegated Life: on what I’ve read or am reading …
In the past few weeks, I’ve started and made my way though at least the beginning of some half-dozen books, maybe more. Of those books, the only one that I’ve started and finished is Good Omens, by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett, which I devoured in about twenty-four hours.
And apparently, I am unable to finish reading a book of poetry. Since August, when I started keeping track of my reading, I’ve started many but finished only one, Monologue of a Dog, by Wislawa Szymborska. I’m equally appalled and ashamed.
On Wednesday, I sorted through all of the books I was supposedly reading. Some went back on their shelves, and others went back to the library. The rest I piled into one stack, which I placed on a shelf under our coffee table.
Whatever happens to be on top of the stack is what I’ll read next, until I finish it or decide to abandon it. As new books come in (from the library, mostly; I don’t actually buy books unless they’re keepers or I’m unable to borrow them from the library or a friend), I’ll add them to the stack, but I’m not going to read anything new until I’m done with whatever I’m reading now.
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What I’m reading now: an interview with poet Chase Twichell in a back issue of Rattle. It’s a reread; I want to revisit what Twichell has to say about drafting and discovering the essence of the poem. Such as:
A student came up to me yesterday and said, “When you write a draft, how many lines survive in the final draft?” And I said, “You mean, how many lines just came out right the first time? None.” “Really?!” “Really.”
This bit from the interview has been on my mind as I learn to tolerate the awful, awful, awfulness of my early drafts. Alas, it’s the only way to get to the actual poem: a commitment to burn through those early awful drafts and middling middle drafts until the language is true.
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So yeah, my commitment problem isn’t just about books. I have a hard time creating new habits, for example. And I have a hard time seeing projects through.
And what gives me trouble is hardly that I’m lazy — quite the opposite. I seem to have an overabundance of enthusiasm. I want to do this! And this! And oh yes this, too! And then of course I end up doing not quite so much as I might otherwise have done, because I was trying to do much too much too much.
For now, though, I’ll commit to working on my commitment problem in just this one area — one book at a time.
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How do you keep yourself committed to creating new habits or seeing projects through — or even just finishing a book?
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I haven’t got any good tips on habit forming, but I will commiserate with you on the desire to start many things. My husband calls it my “Sagittarius Syndrome” because I shoot so many arrows and follow through on so few. But I feel like I’m getting a little bit choosier about how I spend my time, and using that time to focus on the things I want to do.
Not surprisingly, the best tip I know on habit forming (from Leo Babauta, of Zen Habits) is that one should focus on starting just one habit at a time. Of course.
Oooh – the two finishers speak for themselves! I became a big Neil Gaiman fan via my big brother and the Sandman comics. If you get your hands on some of those, they’re very easy to finish…And I love love love Wislawa Szymborska. I really wish I knew how to say her name. I think there are so many books, if one doesn’t absolutely captivate me, I abandon it without a backwards glance. I’ll never get through all the good ones, so why waste time on the probably-good-but-not-that-compelling-ones?
I’m a big believer in abandoning books that don’t captivate me. What really gets me into trouble is when I’m in the middle of reading four or five books at a time, which is easy to end up doing when I’m reading some for class, some for pleasure, some for information …
Sandman is what got me started with Neil Gaiman. As for Szymborska, I don’t know how to pronounce her first name, but her last name (at least as my writing teacher pronounces it) is zim (rhymes with hymn) BORE (rhymes with more) skuh (I have no idea what that rhymes with).
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