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The Sunday Salon: Too Many Books for My Brain

The Sunday Salon.com Last month I read 14 books. So far this month, I finished one. What’s going on here?

I have a theory: I think my brain can only handle a certain number of books over a set period of time. If I go over that number it rebels and decides to fill itself with old episodes of Dorm Life and New Girl rather than pick up many of the books I would like to be reading. Anybody else have that problem?

I don’t know if that’s a real thing, but I do know that I haven’t felt like reading much at all this month. I finished Homicide by David Simon on May 7, and haven’t finished anything since. I’ve been slowly making my way through Catch-22, but I can’t read than during my normal reading time (lunch, before bed) because I get to distracted or to sleepy to get what’s going on.

Anyway, I do actually need to finish a book today — The Storytelling Animal by Jonathan Gottschall for my stop on a TLC Book Tour this week. And write some reviews. And keep working on my plans for Book Expo America. I already made a sweet Google Map with all of the places I might be going, but I still need to work on looking through the schedule to find author signings and whatnot.

But first I’ll probably finish getting caught up with New Girl, which is much more enjoyable than it used to be (see this article in The Atlantic“The End of Adorkable: New Girl Grows Up”). Happy Sunday!

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  • Jessica @ Quirky Bookworm May 13, 2012, 10:12 pm

    I like this theory.

    It explains why this month I’ve only finished a handful of books, but I’ve watched about 17 episodes of Bones on Netflix…

    • Kim May 28, 2012, 1:47 pm

      Netflix is such an enabler for this kind of problem. I can sit down and watch half a season of television in the time it would take to read one book!

  • Kailana May 13, 2012, 10:42 pm

    I am really struggling with my reading, too… I only really got back into it today and I still only finished one book of the many I have started recently… Instead we are watching The Game of Thrones…

    I’ll be curious to hear what you think of The Storytelling Animal. I am reading it right now, too.

    • Kim May 28, 2012, 1:48 pm

      The boyfriend and I watched A Game of Thrones pretty recently. I didn’t get a lot of reading in while that was going on!

  • Kristen M. May 14, 2012, 12:53 am

    I think I have that too. I’ll have a great stretch of book after book and then unintentionally take a week or two off or just very slowly go through a single book that should have been a quick read. Maybe it’s just that it takes time to assimilate new stories into our consciousnesses and we need to catch up at some point.

    • Kim May 28, 2012, 1:49 pm

      That’s how I like to think of it too — there’s only so much a brain can take in before things don’t make any sense anymore. It’s nice to have some idea what my limit is (even if I do miss reading!)

  • Sheila (Book Journey) May 14, 2012, 7:14 am

    I go back and forth too…. rock star months and then, what? A book? No, Gilmore Girls re runs and Battle tetris on Facebook….

    I am trying to stay more consistent, now that two of y favorite shows have just ended for the summer – Survivor and Amazing Race, I should book up again 🙂

    • Kim May 28, 2012, 1:50 pm

      Oh, Gilmore Girls. If that ever goes to streaming on Netflix, I am sunk.

  • Vasilly May 14, 2012, 6:00 pm

    I think having “too many books on the brain” is something that happens to most of us sooner or later. I haven’t finished a book in weeks. 🙁 I hope you’re able to get everything done.

    • Kim May 28, 2012, 1:50 pm

      Thanks, me too!

  • Amy May 28, 2012, 5:46 am

    I had the exact same issue this month! I read a whopping 16 months in April… and by the 13th of this month had read only 1 book! I picked up two photo books of Toronto and read a few shorter books off the shelf which has somewhat helped…

    • Kim May 28, 2012, 1:50 pm

      Yeah, shorter books helped me kick it a little bit too. There’s something really satisfying about finishing book quickly.