Lightening My Reading Load

I love reading and learning from the great works of literature. Anna Karenina. All of Austen. James Baldwin. Dostoyevsky.

But, this week something changed. Shifted. 

My anxiety and the stress of caring for my loved one through cancer has taken a toll in a major way and one night I decided around 10 pm after finishing Mary Barton by Elizabeth Gaskell (so sad and depressing), to download a lot of holiday romance and cozy mysteries.

I struggle sometimes with "lighter" reads. And I don't say "light" to mean anything other than the heavy mental brain energy needed to sink into the classics.

It is important of reading what you feel called to read.

In our age of constant streaming, we can be influenced by what others are reading. The book community has a bad reputation of buying books, and watching others read books, and not actually reading the books. I am not saying that to say be careful of over watching book hauls and adding to a never ending TBR. 

Nothing makes you better or worse for having read it. When I spend 6 months at a time reading 100% literary fiction and classics, I can sometimes feel a bit of intense weight that I carry around.

Now with my loved one battling advanced cancer, my days are long (haven't slept at all this year), I have made my way to October only haven read deeply intense reads.

I don't (and neither should you) explain away what you choose to read.

It's your reading life. It's your time. It's your energy.

If I have one dollar for every public bookish person who says, "Well, I'm just going to read this trashy book quickly and then back to my real books".

I think cozy mysteries are valid reads. I know that romance novels are valid reads. Sometimes people will try to tell me, "Don't worry, you can read a few throwaway novels, and then get back to Proust".

I kindly let them know that no matter what, there is nothing to get back to. The great works will never leave my constant perusal. I enjoy getting into bed at night with a light book ready to be opened on my kindle. 

It's not that I don't love constantly thinking about what Mary Barton's going to do when it comes to Jem Wilson in Elizabeth Gaskell's novel, I love just going back into a good atmospheric romance or the small town of the cozy mystery world. 

I'm not laying brick after brick on myself. My life is hard right now. I will lean into the Kindle Unlimited subscription and indulge in some extra creamer in my coffee alongside comforting cozy mysteries and holiday romance novels.

I would never part ways with my beloved classic literature, Clarice Lispector's works, or entering into the worlds that Anita Brookner makes, but I will allow myself to get lost in the escapism that lighter reads provide to me.