My mind starts to wander every year as spring approaches, so I'm not surprised that I've had a hard time focusing on Book Chase this week. I guess what did catch me by surprise is that it happened earlier this year than normal - blame it on the exceptionally warm winter we've had here, I suppose.
Even with the horrible news that we've lost both Harper Lee and Umberto Eco in the last several days, I could not force myself to sit down and mark those losses for the record here. I think I'm starting to feel beaten down by the kind of news cycle I see every day from the mainstream media. Television, radio, and newspaper editors seem to believe that if a potential story is not bad news, politically divisive news, or about some half-brained, self-crowned celebrity, then we don't need to hear about it. After a while all that negativity wears a person down.
When that happens, I turn to books for escape, but I don't want Book Chase to evolve into just the place where I post book reviews. I want to talk about all things book related. I suppose the good news is that I'm easily reaching the goals I've set for number of pages read each day and number of books finished per week. And I have almost a dozen book reviews in the can that with one final editing will be ready for posting here.
But now baseball season has started - and I love baseball at every level. I've been known to pull over and watch Little League games if I drive by one of the parks and see cars in the parking lot. I watch my grandson play 40 or 50 middle school games a year, and I support the local high school team. I drive to College Station (90 minutes each way) to watch Texas A&M home games or down inside Loop 610 (45 minutes each way on a good day) to watch the Rice Owls play. I make several Astros game a season. In other words, I have it bad.
And there are only 24 hours in a day. As much as I love this time of year, I can't imagine how I got it all done before I retired last May. The lesson? Time is precious; make the most of it.
The news has been nothing but bad lately. Very sad about Harper Lee and Eco, both such fine authors. Lee wasn't so unexpected but I was surprised by Eco. I hope baseball season supplies you with plenty of uplift :)
ReplyDeleteI definitely have a case of Spring Fever, Stefanie, a bad one.
DeleteFound myself planning a road trip to FL from SC to catch a Spring Training game or two. It is indeed that time of year, and Book Chase is a welcome respite from the negativity the threatens to overtake my news feed. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteRose, I envy your spring training trip. I've never been able to do that myself and it's something I've been thinking about for a long time. I suppose you are a Braves fan? Or not... Thanks for the kind words; I do try to remain positive but sometimes I get overwhelmed by all the bad news that's for real.
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