a complaint I have been making for years

[alexseanchai]

Something that's been ongoing a few years is I can't focus on big blocks of text that need particular attention. Like, a novel-length fanfic of something I'm already familiar with I have been able to read without difficulty, but an actual novel, or a nonfiction anything that isn't a collection of shorter pieces, that's different. And this has been bugging me no end because I remember how much I read in high school and I miss that.

In the past three days I have read Till We Have Faces by CS Lewis, Suradanna and the Sea by Rebecca Frainow, and The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by NK Jemisin. Suradanna is a novella, which has still been well into "too long" territory, but the others are novels, and I think Kingdoms is a fairly substantial novel at that. (Not sure. Kindle edition.)

I'm not sure what to make of this but I am pleased.

Comments

[fred_mouse]

As another data point - the more stressed/depressed/anxious I am, the more difficult I find it to stick with something completely new. At the worst, I don't even try reading fic that is more than 20K, because I know that I'll space out.

Given that you've finished moving house, and got your loan sorted, and some other stressful adult things, maybe you have dropped your overall stress level just enough?

[alexseanchai]

hm yeah plausible