With the world battling the blues of quarantine, I’m in a boat of pain on my own. Or at least, that’s what I thought until an article on Medium caught my eye. I’m not the only one facing trouble being the committed reader I thought I was.
“I thought this was possibly the worse thing to happen during quarantine apart from chicken not being easily available. Life was hitting back hard. Punch after punch and I couldn’t get my arms up to block the blows.”
Let’s rewind. Three months ago, I was proud of the ability to finish a book a week and post my reviews diligently on Instagram. I’ve started a book-reviewing blog now for Instagram-antis. When COVID hit and work from home kicked in, I was excited. I had five books pending on my TBR and all the time in the world now.
I was wrong.
Turns out I didn’t have all the time in the world. I was working two jobs, taking up online courses, fighting the urge to cry because I was missing home and above all, feeling a bit pathetic. Here I had the chance to read as many books as I could before the humdrum started up again, but I couldn’t do it. When I looked at the novel, audiobook or ebook, my instinct to read what happens next vanished.
I thought this was possibly the worse thing to happen during quarantine apart from chicken not being easily available. Life was hitting back hard. Punch after punch, and I couldn’t get my arms up to block the blows.
Unfortunately, I can’t find the article I read on Medium that helped me feel better about the situation. The article was penned by a woman and reading it helped me realize that she was sailing in the same boat as I. She said that the reason we read is to escape the noise and chaos. This is why reading on the commute to work, in crowded cafes, outdoors or even in the comfort of your four walls (whichever, wherever) urged your fingers to turn page after page.
The chaos is gone. The noise is silenced. Maybe that’s why I am unable to concentrate on reading.
It’s not the noise or will power that I need. I have 100 other things doing butterfly strokes in my head that I wonder about instead. If readers had a coven, and the coven had a law, I would be cast out forever.
My reading challenge on Goodreads kept crying out my name and one fine day, I grabbed the book, opened it and finished it. I was pumped to keep reading and ended up finishing the two novels I had put on hold. I’ve been holding off writing this blog about how was I was feeling and finally got it done!
“This feeling of finally doing something is exhilarating. I can still whine and cry but that wouldn’t get the blog written or the book read, right?”
So, if you are unable to do something you’ve always loved doing, there could be multiple reasons. But blaming the reasons won’t solve them.
Get up. Just do it. (Don’t sue me, Nike. I can’t afford you, anyway)
Recommended reading:
Quarantine Book Club: It’s been impossible for me to read lately. Then I got in the bathtub
XoXo
#WordCrushed 
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