Hey, did you catch that new show? You know, the one all your friends are talking about. The one that they can't stop chatting about in the group text?
Oh yeah. I meant to watch that one, but I was trying to finish the last series they were raving about and then they dropped a whole second season and I got further behind...
Or what about that new book? Your favorite author just released the latest book in your favorite fantasy series!
Um, yeah...I pre-ordered that one... It's on my kindle... I'll get to it...
Hey, did you catch all those movies that just dropped on that streaming service you pay $10 a month for but never watch?
Please leave me alone...
***
Remember, this is supposed to be fun.
This is supposed to be an age of plenty, where we can decadently select whatever we like to amuse ourselves with for an evening like an emperor idly choosing which servant girl will dance for him. Only now the decadent emperor has thousands of dancing girls to choose from and by the time he picks one he's too tired to relax and enjoy the show.
Have you had that feeling? A new show comes on, one that seems tailor-made for your preferences, almost like the algorithm pulled it from your subconscious desires, and your first reaction is Ten episodes? I don't have ten free hours...
(The algorithm worked really hard to give you that show about astronaut spies that are also dinosaurs! You made the algorithm cry! YOU WATCH THAT SHOW!)
And of course, it is a running joke among me and my writer friends how long our TBR (To Be Read) lists are. Since I bought a kindle and was introduced to the joy of Bookbub sales, I have accumulated hundreds of books. (It didn't help that I was a wiz at a sadly defunct online trivia game that paid out prizes in Amazon gift cards.) If I read a book a week, it will take years to get through them all, and that's assuming I don't get any more. Which we all know is not going to happen. My sister in law gave me an Amazon card for my birthday and I promptly bought about 5 more books. On to the pile with you!
And that can all be overwhelming. And stressful! It makes me feel like I'm back in school and have to read some 500 page doorstop for English class and then write a report. (Oh and don't get me started on the whole Review Discourse on Twitter. Look, sometimes I don't feel like writing a damn book report. Just be happy I left a star rating.)
It is depressingly easy for me to forget that reading for pleasure should be pleasurable.
I have to remind myself constantly, that if I don't finish the library book before it's due? I can renew it. I don't have to try and cram it in.
If I don't get to that book I bought on sale last year? It's not going anywhere. And the writer will still be happy to get a review whenever I do read it.
If I don't get to a show? That's ok. There are a lot of shows. I still haven't seen all of Bridgerton Season 2. Or Mad Men (I got the gist, ok? Martinis, ad men, sexism, Christina Hendricks in tight sweaters. Get off my back.)
I'm trying to cut back. I've dropped a couple streaming services I wasn't watching. Some of those choices were easy. I stopped HBO because their idiot of a CEO wanted to charge me $17 a month to watch him destroy what was once a great service. I really think about clicking "purchase" on those cheap books. I try and check the library first. But mainly, I'm just giving myself permission to relax.
I'm not worrying about my Goodreads Reading Challenge. I'm just going to read books I like by authors I like and try out a different genre every now and then. (I was reading a romance novel at Barnes & Noble last week, and I liked it! It was sweet! And no one got murdered! So far!)
Honestly, let's all just get off our backs. No one has to write a paper on modernism in short fiction of the 1950s or anything, so just enjoy your book.
And take me off the group text. I want to stay spoiler free for when I finally watch that show in three years.
I'll get to you yet, Season 2 of Stranger Things...
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