Unshelved by Bill Barnes and Gene Ambaum
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Monday, September 07, 2015

Finally!!!

We've all heard of writer's block. What about reader's block? I used to read voraciously, and even though I didn't have as much time, when I got my Kindle, I read a lot, devouring books, especially as I was still on the bus, so I could read there, at doctors' offices, etc., although I wasn't great at reading at home. Even when I got hit and broke my ankle, I spent that three months at home listening to music rather than reading. Then I got my car, and I was often on the go, and still not feeling like reading when I was at home. I still downloaded books (mostly free), and occasionally charged the Kindle or read short passages from it or out of print books from the library, but generally, no reading from cover to cover.

Then, a couple of weeks ago, I got the print copy of Mindset from the library and started to read it, enjoyed it enough to download the Kindle book using a credit I'd gotten so I'd have it to refer back to when I wished, although that was mainly read away from home. I finished it, and then the other day, while I was at YKWIA's and he was asleep, I read, first some passages from Aristotle, and then a book I've been trying to read for something like four years now, the Charlaine Harris Harper Connelly series finale, Grave Secret. The others I'd read from the library during my earlier reading phase, and then, I got it from the library and just couldn't get into it, even though it was interesting. It wasn't the book, it was my reader's block--I also stalled on Jim Butcher's Small Favor, and I love the Dresden Files. So I eventually thought, well, maybe if they were on Kindle, and neither were available for download from the library, so I got both from Amazon. But, still, even though I was taking my Kindle with me everywhere I went, I'd rarely read.

And then, a couple of weeks ago, about the time I got the Mindset book from the library, I downloaded the audiobook version of Grave Secret from the library and listened to the first few chapters of it. And then I picked the Kindle back up, and started reading the story for myself, and I've steadily read a little, at home, and then the other day at my friend's house, and today I actually sat in bed with the study pillow behind me and finished the last quarter of the book. Yay!

So, not only have I finally finished a fiction book for the first time in, well, a long time, at least a year, I finished the book that I was blocked on, and I finally know what happened to Harper's sister Cameron. So, hopefully I will be able to read without that block in place more and more. It's sad when you're a librarian who loves to read, but simply doesn't ever feel like doing so. Now that's hopefully over.

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