Sunday, July 06, 2008 Estremera: Good sleep vs good read By Stella A. Estremera Spider's Web
BOOKS are stacked in all my living spaces a.k.a. office and bedroom, with repeatedly read books by the window right beside the bed just within reach when sleep seems elusive. The repeatedly-read books play a key role in this eternal struggle between a good sleep and a good read.
In this kind of work, you only have time to read the news -- in all newspapers -- during the day. The rest of the day is called work, tap-tapping in the computer, surfing the Net, and just about everything that it takes to bring out the news the following day.
And so inside the bedroom and the office are books shouting to be read, their sight a daily temptation that I manage to tamp down most of, but not all, the time. Like last night...
There's this trilogy I have collected in three years that has been waiting on my office bookshelf, the first book already waiting for three years. But before we proceed, let me explain... when I read trilogies, I don't read the first book not unless I have in my possession the whole set, and sometimes, depending on the author, it will take years before the whole set is done. Thus, at times when the wait seems too long, then I start reading once at least two books are in my possession. No way will I read a trilogy or a several-part series when I am not assured that I will know the ending, or at least two parts of the whole story.
And so The Mistmantle Chronicles waited on the shelf, until the third book came off the press and I was able to grab one from Powerbooks (it's still not in any bookstore here, almost six months hence), then the debacle.
There's lots of work... but.
Friday last week, I brought home Book 1, and had to struggle to wake up and work the following day. Book 1 is done, next... Oh dear... the trap has been set. This will mean another night of reading till morning comes, and then crawl my way to work, and then another one.
Above the Mistmantle Chronicles are three books by Garry Kilworth, still about squirrels and stoats, and otters going to war, and Terry Pratchett's Discworld series.
That's when the repeatedly-read books come in. In order to stave off the craving to get my hands on the books that beckon to be read, I satisfy myself with the old ones whose beginnings and endings, and yes, my favorite parts in between are already imprinted in my mind, I just skip from chapter to chapter before snuggling down for the good sleep having made the choice, at least for the night, in the eternal war between getting a good sleep and getting a good read.
I've often wondered though when the national newspapers could elicit the same craving in me to read them from cover to cover (Don't believe that ad). When the news you see are repeats and variations of the news of the year and the decade before -- like Sulpicio ships drowning several hundreds more to add to the list, and high government officials having snitched several millions more to add to the total -- there is but a feeling of repugnance, and picking up the national daily becomes a daily labor. But like the repeatedly-read books on the window within reaching distance from my bed, the oft-repeated, rehashed and re-arranged news emanating from the national capital also serve a purpose. It helps numb a brain so that it becomes incapable of feeling outrage, only a general feeling of being stupid but not quite, much like how all Filipinos must be feeling as gas prices hit P60 per liter and threatens to shoot up much faster, soon.
