The perils of a good book

Good books destroy my ability to lead a healthy, productive life. Arghh!

I just returned from an awesome two-week vacation in Oregon and Washington. (I’ll share pictures later.) Right before I left, I began the second book in Robin Hobb’s Liveship Traders trilogy. I was thrilled to be traveling because the long flight meant I’d have six uninterrupted hours of reading. However, it was a 6am flight and I ended up sleeping (which is unusual for me when flying), so I didn’t get to finish the book until the return flight. As soon as I finished it, I immediately began the third and final book in the trilogy. My first full day home, I should have gone through my emails, cleaned out my inbox, and began facing the responsibilities of my professional life… But I didn’t. I just kept reading Ship of Destiny. (Oh, and cuddling my cats, who were thrilled to have us back. I missed them, too.)

Today is my second full day home. After 3 hours in the car to pick up my stepdaughter for the weekend, I immediately returned to Ship of Destiny. A few wonderful hours of reading later, I forced myself to face my inbox as the first simple and necessary task to becoming a useful person again.

Now that I’ve cleaned out my inbox (which also took a few hours) and written a scary to-do list (Noooo!), I’m going to return to Ship of Destiny. Unfortunately, I have about 6-7 hours of reading left, according to my Kindle. This is very bad. I have a lot of work to do… A lot… And it must get done… IT HAS TO. That scary to-do list contains seriously important and time-sensitive responsibilities…

…But ARGHHH all I want to do is read! Damn you, good book series. You completely ruin my ability to do anything else! The only solution is to finish you.

By the way, this is not the first time this has happened. You think I’d learn to avoid reading amazing books within a week or two of needing to be focused and productive. Nope. The books trap me every time. Instead of having the willpower to put them aside, I keep reading. (If the books weren’t so good, I wouldn’t have this problem…)