Try Not to Miss Me Too Much
Tuesday, January 19th, 2010
I was joking with a friend recently about how I never appreciated the vacation time I got when I worked for a company. I’d been there long enough that I’d earned four entire weeks—weeks that I never thought were long enough.
As soon as I became self-employed, four weeks of vacation seemed like a very long time. Instead of four weeks, I gave myself one, plus a four-day weekend in the summer. And, if a client needed me, I didn’t leave work. I took it with me.
And don’t even get me started on maternity leave. People who work for companies take as much as 12 weeks off. I gave myself five—and that’s a lot for a freelance writer. I have colleagues who were back at the keyboard just days after pushing a baby through their nethers.
Now, with the economy biting into our income, I can’t afford to take a vacation.
But I need one. I do because I miss something very deeply. It’s my collection of books. My utter adoration of books is why I went into my profession in the first place. The typical bookstore is like Prozac to me. I walk in. I see and smell books. I feel happy.
It seems I can’t walk into a bookstore without walking out with a book or two or ten in my hands.
Yes, I am the one person in the United States who is single handedly responsible for keeping Barnes and Noble in business. If you are a shareholder, you really ought to send me a personal note of thanks. If it weren’t for me, they would have gone out of business a long, long time ago.
As a result, I currently have more than 30 unread books on my bookshelf. Seriously. This is no exaggeration. I looked at all of the books on my shelf this morning, and I thought, “That’s probably $1000 worth of books.”
That’s how many books I have. And I’m not a hoarder. When I’m done with a book, I donate it – either to another book lover or to the library. Still, I have hundreds of books that I either haven’t read or haven’t gotten around to giving to someone else.
Maybe I should give them away as Reader of the Month prizes? How does that strike you?
Anyway these unread books have piled up because I’ve been reading other things, mostly blogs. I subscribe to roughly 25 of them. They include other marriage blogs. They include blogs about topics that I need to know more about (SEO, marketing, cost-cutting). They include blogs written by freelance writer friends and other blogger friends.
It’s a lot to read, and I’m a better, smarter person for investing that reading time.
Still, I miss my books. I miss them dearly.
So, dear readers, I’m taking a break from every reading and writing pursuit except for book reading. During the next two or so weeks, I plan to become better acquainted with:
Committed, by Elizabeth Gilbert
The Condition, by Jennifer Haigh
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, by Stieg Larsson
Freakonomics, by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner
Confessions of a Public Speaker, by Scott Berkum
The Dip, by Seth Godin
Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim, by David Sedaris
It might not be a vacation to a Four Seasons in Tahiti, but it will be a welcome refuge and mental escape nonetheless.
After filling my brain with other people’s excellently crafted words, I know I will come back to blogging, writing and everything else feeling fresher, smarter and more determined than ever.
I’ll miss you, but I’ll see you soon. And when I come back, I’ll have an exciting promotion to announce. For now, let’s just say this: I’m going to give something away that is going to make on lucky woman very, very happy.
In the meantime, I’m hoping you can do something for me. During this time away from the blog, I’ll be putting some thinking into how I can improve it and make it even better. I’d love for you all to share your thoughts on that. What do you want more of? What do you want less of? What parts of the blog really speak to you? What turns you off? What do you want me to add? What topics do you wish I would explore? How can I make this blog more successful? Should I even try?
Let me know your thoughts and suggestions. I’ll do my best to implement every single one of them.
