Guilty pleasure
April 28th
I don’t know how much time I have left, but I do know that no matter how long I will live — it won’t be enough to read all the books I want to read. It seems that for each book I read, I buy two or three more. I have a quite nice collection already of physical books, but mostly what I buy now are e-books. Cheaper, more convenient to take with me loaded on a reader everywhere I go, and more environmentally friendly. I read everything — from the Ancient Greece classics to the modern experimental prose. Fiction or non-fiction, popular or obscure, it doesn’t matter if only they fit my needed criteria. First of all — they need to be on a subject of particular interest to me but can be only vaguely connected to that subject. Second — they need to be profound or interesting or fun — preferably all three at once. Third — they need to hold my attention — a boring book with pointless words will not do, no matter how well-rated or clever it is. And I no longer have a need to finish a book once I started reading it. If I realize that this book is no longer fun to read and every page becomes a chore, I just grab the next one from the pile.
But I also need a break once in a while. Not from reading per se, but from being involved intellectually and emotionally in what I read. I just need the fun, but mindless fun at that. And that is where the sci-fi books come in. Not all the sci-fi, which in itself is rather a vague description of an idea. There are sci-fi books like books by Stanislaw Lem or Dan Simmons or Liu Cixin or Iain Banks or Kim Stanley that require a lot of effort to follow and understand. But there are so many more that are simply pure fun with occasional deeper interest. Those books are a perfect interlude between more serious reading, and they never fail to make me feel better. Anything from the classics like Ray Bradbury or Isaac Asimov or Philip K. Dick or Ursula Le Guin or Frederick Pohl or Strugatsky brothers to modern bestsellers from James S. A. Corey or Greg Bear or Martha Wells or Peter Watts or Alastair Reynolds.
There is always a book from the fun reading pile ready for me when I need a break. And I know, even when I don’t feel particularly well, just a few pages or a chapter will immediately lift my spirits. Sometimes I need to force myself to start reading, but right away, once I do, my mind and my emotions relax and flow with another story. Sometimes just fun is enough.
