I've been noticing something for the past half-dozen years or so (probably longer than that) which I find more than a little annoying. My reading is slowing down. A lot. Back in high school and college, I could read a novel a day if I really got into it. Never more than a few days if other stuff was going on. I devoured them. I read fast. Nowadays, I read slow. As in no velocity at all. I rarely finish anything, regardless of length, in less than a week. Some books take a month or more to finish. Yes, I have more pressing demands on my time these days with the kids and RevSF and assorted other middle-age commitments, but that doesn't change the fact that when I do have time to read, I read slowly. This is particularly frustrating when the "Must Read" stack is not getting any shorter.
Another troubling development I've noticed of late, which may or may not be related, is that my writing speed has slowed down as well. How this impacts my fiction, I have no idea since I've always been slow when it comes to that. But my non-fiction, whether it be reviews, interviews, articles, press releases or whathaveyou... they take much longer for me to produce than they used to. I have no idea why. Perhaps I've run through my personal reservoir of stock descriptions, comparisons and phrases, and now must think longer and harder to come up with ways to express myself without becoming cliché. Maybe. That sounds reasonable, but I'm not convinced. And I don't believe I have any ominous neurological condition, be it a tumor, a brain cloud or writer's block. I'm just slowing down, and I don't like it one bit.
Now Playing: Blue Öyster Cult Workshop of the Telescopes
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