I have been in a rut lately, and not just in the mud on my road. Though I am surrounded by a wealth of books at the library, I cannot seem to find one that grabs my attention. Tired of struggling with this, I decided to steer into the skid and work my way through the new acquisition display, one book after another. Hopefully, I thought, something will gain traction.
First, I needed to remind myself that it is OK–even positive–not to finish a book! Sometimes you just need to back out of that rut and take a different road.
In fact, to keep up with the metaphor, I often pick my way around the potholes and slurpy spots by employing the “ten-page-turn” trick. I skip ahead, read a couple of pages, skip ahead, read, and repeat as needed. If the story pulls me in, I go back and pick up where I started skimming. Otherwise, I move on to the next book.
Given my lack of focus, I thought perhaps a collection of short stories would work. I started Old Crimes by Jill McCorkle but found I was not able to relate to the people populating the pages so I set it aside.
In The Book of Fire by Christy Lefteri, storytelling itself is explored. “There is something about stories that allow us to process the present. We listen to tales of tribulations overcome so that we might survive ours. Children listen to the same fairy tale time and again because there is a puzzle in their hearts that they unknowingly need to solve.” Maybe that is why I'm drawn to mystery series?
I am often caught by a passage or two, even if I’m not enthusiastic about the whole book. A character in David Grossman's More Than I Love My Life recalls, “He would always say, ‘To do even some little good in the world, Vera, you have to really make an effort. But evil, you just have to keep it going, just join with it.’”
Sometimes a description tickles my imagination such as Ed Park’s line in the opening pages of Same Bed Different Dreams: “He’s her former advisor. White hair, black eyebrows, with a mustache that splits the difference.” But I found the plot of this novel to be even more scattered than my thoughts at the moment, so I did not get very far into it.
Ilium, a novel of international espionage by Lea Carpenter, intrigues me—but I was listening to an audiobook set in the same period and found myself confusing characters and conflating plot points. I will return to it soon.
And yet, I am pleasantly surprised by how much I am enjoying this odd exploration, which perhaps mirrors the fits and starts of the coming of spring. Just as I have learned not to take shortcuts on dirt roads in March, I realize that my reading interests have their seasons. Right now, the ground seems to be solidifying under the audiobook of Tara French’s forthcoming novel, The Hunter. I am three chapters in and have no intention of skipping ahead.
Liza Bernard is a voracious reader who enjoys both printed volumes and audiobooks. Formerly co-owner of the Norwich Bookstore, she maintains her connections with readers and writers as the Programming and Marketing Librarian at the Norman Williams Public Library in Woodstock, Vermont.