Reading Mode: Off

I haven't been reading for the past couple of months, mostly because I have two modes: Reading voraciously and not reading.

I stopped reading -- at least new books -- when I got heavily involved in putting together Para Imminence, which involved writing and editing. I also started working on my next Wraeththu book, which is a novel I have finally gotten into the right voice to move forward. Back in August I completed the first five chapters. Anyway, I feel like learning about a whole new reality can mess up my focus on creating consistency in the world I'm working on. I can read books set in the same world, so yes, I reread bits of various Wraeththu books, plus books I've read a hundred times like the Nightrunner series (Lynn Flewelling), but nothing brand new.

I've got several books queued to start reading again. All of them are books I started to read but then stopped for various reasons. With L'Amber (Tanith Lee) I simply was not ready to read anything but Wraeththu, which I was in the middle of working with. With Iron Council (China Miéville), I found the first section so difficult and dreadful I wasn't sure I wanted to go on. That was before I was even working on our new book. With Erwin Staub's book on genocide, Overcoming Evil: Genocide, Violent Conflict, and Terrorism , that is so academic and heavy I think small doses are the only thing that will work.

I also have piles of other books I could start reading. It's funny, I have the pile and I just rely on a feeling that tells me when I'm ready to read each of them. I don't go in the order I acquired the books or take into consideration whether somebody is waiting on my opinion of the book or anything. Some books I get in the mail and read before the package has even hit the trash, while others can language for a couple of years. The World Without Us and The End of Nature were like that; I put off reading them because I knew it would be devastating to read, which it was. I wound up writing about both those books in the essay I wrote for Para Imminence, so waiting meant they were fresh in my head when it came time to write an essay. Meant to be!

Anyway, I've got L'Amber in my bag and am going to attempt to get going on it again and hopefully from there leap into other books. Then I'll be in "On" mode.