The Slump

After much careful deliberation, I chose 4 fiction books to take with me on vacation (and a few digital photography how-to's, because I swear I am going to learn how to use my camera one of these days). I brought along Richard North Patterson's Exile, which I have been trying to finish since Christmas; Francis Clark's Waking Brigid, which I had already started; Joshua Ferris' Then We Came to the End and Lawrence Goldstone's The Anatomy of Deception. I was looking forward to some uninterrupted reading time, but for some reason I got very little done. I still haven't finished Exile, barely got into Clark's and Ferris' books, didn't even get to Goldstone, and I still don't know how to work that camera. Maybe it was the distraction of the ocean-I mean, who really wants to read a book when you can stare out at the beautiful blue ocean after looking at gray slush for 3 months? Or maybe these books aren't good fits for me. Or maybe it's worse. Maybe it's...

the dreaded slump.

I call it a reading slump. Once in a while I just can't seem to find a book I like. I can't finish anything. I am easily distracted and nothing holds my interest-not a thriller, not a historical novel, not a non-fiction book. I have some theories as to why this happens, but no good solutions. I broke out of my last slump with Sophie Kinsella, but since I have read all of her books and her next won't be here until March, I've got to find something else.

Do any of you ever have reading slumps? What do you do? Any sure bets to bring me out of the slump?

Woe is me...and some other stuff

I apologize again for the lack of posts lately. My reading slump continues and I feel as if I have nothing clever to say about anything. I finished 4 books during the month of March, which for me is terrible. It feels like forever since I last finished an audiobook. I am slowly working my way through Amanda Foreman's The Duchess, which is fascinating, but dense. I've started the audiobook for Erica Bauermeister's The School of Essential Ingredients, but it's driving me nuts so it's only a matter of time before I give up. I'm a little worried about the length of time this slump has gone on. I know it wasn't nearly this long last year, so I'm nervous that maybe this isn't just a slump. Maybe Google really has made me stupid. What do I do?

In the meantime, here are some things you may find of interest...

Al Gore has written a follow-up to An Inconvenient Truth titled Our Choice. While An Inconvenient Truth was focused on spreading the truth about global warming, his latest book will offer ways that we can fix the problem. Due out in November.

Science fiction writer Robert Jordan, who passed away in 2007, left the last installment of his Wheel of Time series unfinished. The novel has been finished by Brandon Sanderson and will be published in three separate volumes. The first volume is due out in November.

An assistant of the late Michael Crichton found a completed manuscript in Crichton's computer files titled Pirate Latitudes. The adventure story is set in 17th century Jamaica and will be published in November.

Andy Garcia is co-writing and directing a movie about the last years of Ernest Hemingway's life. Anthony Hopkins and Annette Bening are in the running to star. How great would that be? They would be perfect for those roles.

Fox has acquired film rights to adapt Alan Weisman's The World Without Us. This will not be a documentary, but a fictional feature based on the ideas in Weisman's book showing an event that would lead to man's disappearance. How uplifting.

Sana Krasikov's collection of stories titled One More Year has won the $100,000 Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature for emerging writers of Jewish literature. Dalia Sofer, author of The Septembers of Shiraz, has won the $25,000 Sami Rohr Prize Choice Award.

The Bookstall in Winnetka has several very famous authors coming this month, including Alexander McCall Smith on April 29th! Take a look at their website for a list of all the authors appearing.

Running With Books Enemy #1: Winter

My apologies for so few posts lately. But I have been quitting just about every book I start. Pillars of the Earth: too long. A Mercy: too literary. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo: too many difficult names. Eclipse: too formulaic. The Hemingses of Monticello: too hard. I just can't seem to get into anything. What is wrong with me? Wait a minute...didn't this happen about the same time last year? Let's investigate.... Yes, according to my February 23, 2008 blog post, I was fighting off a reading slump then too. Could this be a pattern? Is it possible that it is winter's fault that I can't stay focused? Could it be that winter is the reason why I'm taking twice as long to finish a book than normal? Blasted winter! Not only do you have to make everything slushy, gray and ugly, ruin my shoes and keep me locked indoors, but now you have to take away the one small pleasure I have? What have I done to deserve such cruelty? Winter, you have not beat me yet. I will push on, with Lauren Willig and Adriana Trigiani, and if all else fails, I will turn to my trusted friend Harry Potter, but I will triumph. And next year, I'm taking a vacation.