Dave read a book!

A fiction book!

Last night I finished reading “Variable Star”, by Robert A. Heinlein and Spider Robinson. And by finished, I mean yesterday morning I was less than half-done. After I’d done laundry and dinner and such I picked it back up and didn’t really put it down till I was done at 0100. I really wanted to go to sleep earlier, but there was just no good place to stop in the last half-dozen chapters.

Most people that know me are rather shocked by all this.  It’s been a good long time since I’ve read any fiction.  A good part of starting to read fiction is finding a new way to destress.  Finding a way to have my life not revolve around work all the time. And possibly improving my vocabulary a bit. I know the creative part of my brain has been atrophying for a good chunk of time. I can feel it.  It’s like trying to use muscles to do something way beyond their capability. I try and I can feel my brain fire back with a “503 Service Unavailable”. Dialtoning every time I try to explain something is getting rather old.

So I picked up “Variable Star” after listening to Spider Robinson’s excellent podcast (including some chapters of the book as well as other essays) as well as (albeit non-fiction) the 2 volume abridgment of Arnold J. Toynbee’s “A Study of History. It currently hurts to read this, but it’s time I start pushing my brain again.

And the upside of it all is I get to become an even bigger geek in the process.