Loving literature

There's something I've been craving lately. Luckily for my thighs, it has no calories!

What I have been craving is fiction. Lots and lots of fiction. I want to stop writing and spend the next two weeks doing nothing but reading fiction.

But that feels a bit decadent. Even though I study literature, just sitting down and reading a book seems indulgent. When I was a teenager, I read all the time. I had no problem spending a whole day in my room just reading. What I read was not always the best quality - I did read an awful lot of really bad science fiction that I have since utterly forgotten. In a lot of cases, I know I read the book, I just can't remember what it was about. But the joy of sitting in my room on a Saturday just reading didn't come from what I got out of the books, but out of the activity of reading itself.

But this dissertation process has been beating the love of literature out of me, and I'm coming to the realization that if I'm going to find the motivation to keep going, I need to find that passion again. Since I teach writing and develop training for non-academic workers, that passion can't express itself in my work, so it's got to find a way out through my hobbies.

So finally, over a week into the new year, I have made a resolution. I will read at least 50 award-winning (or nominated) British novels of the last 30 years. This way, I will fulfill my desire for fiction while also staying current in my field of contemporary British literature.

This will also help me fill up the year since my dissertation defense has now been moved at least 8 months into the future. Ao the fiction is a kind of consolation for having my schedule postponed.