PAGES TURNED
Harry Potter and The Order of the Phoenix: 302/800
The Guest Cat: 60/136
If I had any kind of plan going in to this challenge it is well and truly out of the window already. I am astounded. Never before would I think of using the term “scatterbrain” to describe myself, but for the past week I have found it nigh on impossible to sit down for a quiet, focused half an hour each day (my initial game plan) without several distractions – and I’m all too happy to chase these distractions down the rabbit hole.
New Year’s Day, sat on a train at the start of a two and a half hour journey home from festivities with my friends, I began to draft my first blog post. Satisfied with the outline, and with a few ideas for future posts stacked in neat bullet points, I tucked my note book away and pull out my phone. My battery life, inevitably, was already in the death-rattle stages (I see you, Apple) – and I found myself dismayed. What would I do for the rest of my journey?
Uh, I don’t know Hannah, read a book maybe?
The blog notes had already taken longer than necessary to write down – I’d been lured away half way through by a video tutorial for making a giant scotch egg, which led to a video tutorial for making a giant chocolate bar, which led to reading my entire horoscope for 2018… naturally.
One of the reasons I’d selected The Guest Cat was due to its compact size; “handbag size”, and in fact it was tucked in to my handbag, ready and waiting. I took it out, put my phone on Do Not Disturb, and managed about a solid fifteen minutes before my hangover decided to have an encore and I needed to close my eyes for a while.
So maybe that was the trick; little and often. Small, easily digestible chunks of reading – this would save me from feeling guilty when getting distracted, and prevent the task at hand from feeling like a chore (which can happen to even the most devoted bookworm). This is working well with The Guest Cat. The story follows the life of a couple in 1980’s Japan who rent a small property on the grounds of a larger house; and the cat that decides to weave itself in to their life (as cats often do). The description is very thorough, painting a beautiful picture, and the pace is nice and gentle. I feel like I dip in and out of the narrator’s life like the eponymous cat… which is a nice way of saying that whilst it is absolutely delightful to read, it is also easy to put down.
However, designating time to The Guest Cat has proved easier than expected it by combining it with another task – I’ve been cat-sitting this week, for a lady whose cat I look after quite often when she’s away. I don’t like the idea of the cat being lonely so whenever I stop by for food and litter tray duties I try and spend some time in the house to give the cat company. I now try to make this coincide with taking The Guest Cat out of my bag and turning at least a few pages – which might explain why I’m nearly half way through the slim novel.
I’d also initially wanted to focus on one book at a time but unfortunately that seems to have worked out about as well as any other plan I’ve attempted to make (book related or otherwise, throughout my entire life). Getting in to bed with Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix sat alluringly within arm’s reach, it proved impossible to resist opening – the pull of something familiar was too strong.
So, yeah, I appear to be going for a scattergun approach for this month, blindly picking up whatever book is nearest to me whenever I remember that I’m supposed to be reading – which, whilst just over a week in to the new year, I haven’t even managed to do on a daily basis. Cool. Nice and organised. I began to feel guilty for my lack of conviction until I remembered the iconic MythBusters quote:
“…the only difference between screwing around and science is writing it down.”
So what if I’m finding it difficult making time to read? If I’m documenting that experience it means I can learn something from it – and what I’ve learned so far is that I most definitely try to do too many things at once. I remember reading recently (in either Nat Geo or Cosmopolitan – both equally reputable sources, I’m sure) that multitasking is a something of a myth; the effort it takes for your brain to change its point of focus uses enough energy to cancel out the benefit you could gain from trying to do several things at once – it is so much more tiring for our brain than we realise. I know personally that if I’m trying to juggle several things at once I will usually find it impossible to make any progress at all, and feel like crap to boot. Then comes the guilt, the comfort-eating and the binge watching of something nice and easy to soothe my tired noggin (recently it’s been Riverdale; aesthetically pleasing but for all intents and purposes Not Good™). Maybe this is why, when I try to pick up a book for a while I can’t seem to focus for long – in this world of instant gratification, I’m out of practice.
Okay, so before this entire post gets away from me: we (because I know I’m not the only one) need to stop punishing ourselves for struggling to do things we decided to do FOR FUN (a new hobby, a new sport, knitting, baking, crossword puzzles, petty theft, etc.). Also, I’m going to aim to cut down on the multitasking, because I think it’s definitely more of a hindrance than a help.
As far as books go, let’s do a little roundup.
Favourite thing about The Guest Cat so far: seeing through the narrator’s eyes the experience of slowly becoming a cat person, and it reminding me of my dad (who still claims to not be a cat person, although there is a cat on his lap as I type this).
Favourite thing about Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix so far: Looking at Harry as someone younger than me, when he used to be my peer. I’m so much more sympathetic towards him now! I mean, it’s one thing having a famous dark wizard wanting you dead, but being fifteen?! I wouldn’t wish that on anyone.
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