Something new that I’ve adopted over the last year was having a rotation of books on the go. I’m currently reading three books. All different genres. I’ve heard of some people who practice this and they don’t mind it. For me on the other hand, I find that it adds to the endless tabs I have open in my head and it creates a sort of misplaced attention. I like to focus on one thing at a time (even though I’m an excellent multitasker…for the most part).
Going forward and as I finish each book, one-by-one, I’m going to stick with just one book always; letting it consume me for however long before I jump into the next one.
Books give a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and life to everything.
Plato
Rainy days, beach days, traveling, I always have a book with me. It has always been such an easy and beautiful way to get out of my head and into the characters. Allowing my brain to create images and a movie in my head of whatever I’m reading.
Now more then ever, it’s nice to escape reality. With all of the limitations placed on my government requirements, getting lost in a book where the characters can hug and dance and be in crowds larger then 5 or 6 or 10 brings a smile to myself and allows me to think of the not so distant past. Staying away at night and dog-earring romantic quotes or quotes on freedom whisks me away into a meditative state thats not stress inducing. Let me tell you, that is much needed now that almost everything induces stress with current limitations.
That is part of the beauty of all literature. You discover that your longings are universal longings, that you’re not lonely and isolated from anyone. You belong.
F.Scott Fitzgerald
Books can teach.
Books can heal.
Books allow you to practice empathy.
As lockdown’s final denouement plays out, albeit tentatively, we must try to remember the soul tonic our fictional and non-fictional friends afforded us, and despite the return of full diaries and weekends bookended with crowded patios and dancing in the moonlight, we will always need stories to bring us back to life.
How necessary it is to lose ourselves in the make-believe to face the real world once again.
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