Reading
Before I started working my day job and before I got super focused on my art career I used to read 4 or 5 books a month. Mostly at night, reading an hour or 2 before bed. These days I’m reading only reading about 15 minutes a night. Although some nights I’m too tired to even open the book and on a rare occasion I can stay awake a half hour.
I’m reading fewer and fewer books so a few years back I decided to focus on reading art books, mostly artist biographies. I’m really enjoying these books but I was missing the variety of books I used to read. I didn’t want to prioritize more time for reading so added books on tape to not miss out on the latest best seller. I listen to these in my studio when I’m working at a task that doesn’t require a lot of movement and thought.
Designing and assembling my compositions is a lot of up and down between my sewing machine, iron, design wall and cutting table and I have to think about where I cut the fabric to get the effect I want so I find I can’t concentrate enough to listen to a book. I either miss large chunks of the book or I make mistakes that are time consuming to fix. I sometimes listen to music and sometimes not during this part of my process.
Stitching together the layers of my final piece requires hours and hours of zen like repetition. A perfect time to listen to books. I’ve been spending 40-100 hours a month finishing a backlog of work in this manner so I’ve listened to a lot of books recently. My library has an amazing collection so I don’t think I’ll run out of good choices anytime soon but if anyone has suggestions for good books please leave me a comment and I’ll check it out.
Having just finished the Georgia O’Keeffe memoir last night next up on my art reading list is another O’Keeffe biography, Georgia O’Keeffe: A Life by Roxana Robinson. It gets good reviews so I’m looking forward to it.
I also still need to finish Matisse The Master by Hilary Spurling. I only have about 100 pages left so I will get back to it soon. I am enjoying this book, but it is a bit dry and tends to put me to sleep fairly quickly. I probably need a few hours of time when the sun is up to finish the book.
But first I’m going to take a break from art related books and read Life on the Refrigerator Door: Notes Between a Mother and Daughter by Alice Kuipers. I put it on hold at the library and it just came up. It seemed to be a book that would lose something listened to on tape and looks like it’ll only take about 30 minutes to read so I should be back to O’Keeffe soon.
My favorite book on tape recently has been Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman’s Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia by Elizabeth Gilbert. While I had issues with some parts of the book (you can read some criticisms of it on amazon). I didn’t let the flaws get in the way of the captivating story. The author read the book so more of her personality came through in the reading and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It’s on my list of books to listen to again if I run out of ideas for other books, not likely to happen soon as I just returned from the library with 7 more books to listen to.
I guess this means I should get to the studio. Unfortunately tonight that isn’t an option, I’ve got to put in some overtime for the day job, and listening to books on tape while writing requirements doesn’t work out so well, for either the book or the requirements.
Posted by Lisa in: Book Reviews and Comments
Dear Lisa,
Your blog today was a moment of recognition! I felt like your twin in our efforts to recover reading time and book selection.I seemed to constantly be reading art books but missing out on the current excellent fiction and conversations about books that my daughters were always discussing.
One of my daughters suggested a site ,
http://www.shelfari.com. It may interest you . Look for my name as Starhawk.
Helen
http://www.helenharrispaintings.com
Hi Lisa, glad to hear that I am not alone in being too tired to read at night anymore. I have the Matisse book waiting, plus biographies of Thomas Eakins and Edward Hopper, and about a hundred other chick lit books.
I envy you being able to follow books on tape. I can’t follow the story by listening, I have to see the words. This is a secret-my kids have been reading to me each night for years and I have pretended to follow the story, but really I never have any idea about what they are reading!
Eat, Pray, Love was one of my favourite all time books. Such a great read
Lisa, I applaud you for getting through the first Spurling book (The Unknown Matisse) and almost finishing the second. I consider Matisse a kindred spirit and I don’t think I even made it through 50 pages of the first book. I suppose Spurling and I aren’t soulmates. But I did feel the love for Gilbert and Eat, Pray, Love. I can easily say it’s one of my favorite books of the last ten years. Another book I have loved picking up for moments of smiling is Encylopedia of an Ordinary Life by Amy Krouse Rosenthal. I love her humor and take on things we come across every day–if only we would notice.
Helen, thanks for the pointer to shelfari – looks like a good place to get recommendations!
Tracy, I won’t tell your kids.
Melody, I agree – so much to think about when reading Eat, Pray, Love.
Alyson, thanks for the recommendation – sounds like a fun book.
Another audio book artist! I love to listen to an audio book while I’m working on repetitive studio tasks. My recent favorite has been Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver (borrowed from the public library!). I have Eat, Pray, Love on my waiting list. Thanks for the recommendation.
I used to read a lot too … and I haven’t been for awhile. I have almost finished the latest Harry Potter book – but that is not to everyone’s taste. Most nights now I haven’t been reading for 10 minutes, never mind my old hour or two.
~ Diane Clancy
http://www.dianeclancy.com/blog
I think you would like Animal, Vegetable, Miracle since you have a garden and can some of your own food. If you like history and adventure Shadow Divers by Robert Kurson is really good and my favorite on tape is Water For Elephants. It has 2 really good readers. I get to read a lot with books on CD while sewing and in the car.
I have a house full of books and yet seem to have stopped reading novels altogether – mainly because I’m asleep within two minutes of getting into bed these days! Which is great in one way but I do miss the reading.
Having my structured study around various art topics is helping me work my way through various art books – biographies and reference books – and I think I’m actually enjoying them much more because it feels more purposeful.
But I hadn’t ever thought about listening to books and yet it seems so obvious – I’ve only ever listened on long car journies where I know they are terrific for whiling away the hours. I think I’m going to have to go and see if I can find any of the ones I like!