I Haven’t Been Writing Because…

I’ve been reading!

I know all about excuses.  When I went back to work full time, I used the “working mom” excuse for soooooo many things.  “I don’t have time to exercise…I work full time and I have kids.”  “When would I ever have time to go shopping for furniture for that empty room…I work full time and have kids.”  “I would never have time to do Christmas cards…I work full time and I have kids.”  Truth is, I’ve figured out (and this only took me 38 years to figure this out---brainiac that I am) that you can make* time for anything you want to do.   A year ago I didn’t have time to workout, read, or write.  All three are things that I knew I should be doing and wanted to do, and yet I had so many excuses for not being able to do them. 

I’m quite proud to say that I’ve been doing them all pretty regularly for the last few months.  With that said…I still have a few excuses.  Mostly, I’ve been reading so much that I’ve slacked on the writing.  But with good reason!!  I’ve discovered a couple of serious crack books—books so good I’ve neglected many important things in my life…nutrition…family…writing.  So now I’m determined to do some serious writing this week to get the reviews done for my 3 faithful followers out there. 

But in the meantime, so you can be salivating with anticipation, here are the books I’ve finished since my last review:

1. The Help, by Kathryn Stockett  (Inforum Book Club pick---discussion and movie watching was this last Monday night---FUN!!)

2. The Space Between Us by Thrity Umrigar (Book Club for Thinker’s pick.)

3. Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood (Serious Crack book)

4. Blockade Billy by Stephen King

5. The Jane Austen Book Club by Karen Joy Fowler (Coworker book club pick)

6. The Fiery Cross by Diana Gabaldon.  (Even More Serious Crack Book! ) 1472 pages finished in one week.  I loaded the electronic version onto my iPod, (which was really 6091 little pages) so I could take it with me everywhere…but a Crack Book is not without consequences.  About 20 little iPod pages before the end of the book, Adam said to me, in exasperated tones, “Is this one of your book club books?” 

“No,” I smiled sheepishly at him…scratch that…guiltily.

“It’s not?” Head shake, eyes wide… “You’re reading this for leisure?” 

Okay, I read all books for leisure, but I know what he meant here, and I knew what he ways trying to tell me.  You’re neglecting us.  And it was true.  I fed my children PB & J on hamburger buns rather than cook a meal for them on Sunday night because Jamie & Claire had me riveted to the page.    Thoroughly shamed by my husband’s muttered truth, I thanked goodness that I only had 20 more pages left... 

7. I’m about 1/3 of the way through Island Beneath the Sea by Isabel Allende.  (I started this before I started The Fiery Cross…but Gabaldon is more of a crack writer for me, although so far this is pretty good, too.

8. I’m also about ¼ of the way through The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood, which is a sequel/prequel of softs to Orxy & Crake.  This one’s on the iPod, too, so I’m dragging it with me everywhere.

*I've found my time multiplies exponentially if I stop watching TV...so if you need to make some time for yourself...turn off the boob tube.  A book is so much better anyway.