My Reading Material

I'm a bad reader. There I've said it. In fact, I'm a horrible reader. I think about some of my influences as writers/filmmakers and some of their profound influences and it just overwhelms me a little bit. We live in an age where there is just so much content. And with the internet more is being created every day. To call it over saturation would be an under-exaggeration. I find that the books I do read are either on the craft of writing or filmmaking, or for enjoyment more and more I lean towards graphic novels - which is also in part of studying the craft as I'm constantly flirting with the idea of writing a comic. I was never a big comic geek when I was a kid. I had a bunch, mostly because my cousin was a comic geek and passed a lot of his collection on to me. But in truth it just seemed like this vast universe that was impossible to catch up on. Even now I can't be bothered with the storylines that follow the major DC & Marvel characters such as Spiderman, Batman, Superman, or the various X-Men. Sure, I've read some of the big series stuff they've done with those characters, but personally I gravitate towards more singular series comics: Fables, or Y: The Last Man. I just dropped a wad of cash on a bunch of books that I'll comment on more here when I get around to reading them. Hopefully sooner rather than later. I've recently switched my subway-commute time from podcast listening to reading and so I find I am catching up more than I have been in recent years.
I know I should read more novels, and I want to. I've got a stack of them. But it just seems like such an effort. And I hate that I feel that way about it. It could be that between work, family, and side-projects my leisure time is more or less non-existent and so when I do get a chance to absorb content I want to be able to do it in a short period of time and so movies, tv-series, or comics just fit into that a bit better. With a book I want to know I can read it within a few days to keep track of the storyline, and because that's rarely an option, I don't pick them up. It's just intellectual-guilt, I suppose. But I just feel like life is too short to read or watch something that you're interested in only because you know you should be - regardless of its quality or value in society. So I just need to come to terms with knowing that I'll probably never be a well read individual. And that's okay. For me.