Post-novel funk

Monday, January 29, 2007

Post-novel funk Current mood: melancholy Brrr. I'm chilly. Whenever I finish a good book, particularly a long one, I am left with a disoriented, slightly depressed feeling. It doesn't matter if it's probably the fourth time I've read it (as is the case now, with Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix), nor if there are more books in the series just waiting for me to read them (as soon as I get my copy of Half Bood Prince back from Aaron). The transition back to normal life never seems to come easily for me. Compounding the problem now is the weather- when it gets cold, all I want to do is snuggle under warm blankets and read all day anyway. I'm glad I did a fair amount of that back when I had the time, because I'm not sure when I'll get the chance again. I read fast, but with constant interruption and having to stop to do necessary things, the book took me a few days to get through. Consequently, I have a lot of minor disaster areas left over from two little boys engaged in unsupervised play. Luckily they avoided anything too disasterous. But I still have my work cut out for me! My return key sticks. I don't remember ever spilling anything on my keyboard. It's very irritating. Geez, I feel unmotivated. By the way, I don't usually like short story collections nearly as much as novels, but I just read a very cool book of short stories by Neil Gaiman. It's called Fragile Things: Short Fictions and Wonders. Any of you that like dark fantasy or unusual, inventive twists will probably enjoy these stories. And I admit it was much easier to finish a book of short stories in my limited, broken time than it is to complete a novel. The stories didn't leave me in a funk, either. Maybe I'll look for more short stories to read. Any suggestions? Oh, PS- my back is better. It hurt for awhile, but I only needed the brace a few days really, and the pain is almost all gone. So I recommend a brace, Tiger Balm, gentle yoga and accepting pain for a little while.