I’ll tell you my guilty pleasure when it comes to reading, if you tell me yours…
Now that I’m writing full-time, a daily routine of reading, writing, revising and digital upkeep, I really crave unplugging my brain at the end of the day. I suppose if a day of hiking leaves me bruised, blistered and aching, then this repetition of read-write-revise leaves my brain a gooey, vegetative mess.
So… What then, you ask, on this Manuscript Monday, is Traveling Marla’s guilty pleasure for unwinding her brain?
Guidebooks.
These aren’t travel guidebooks, which I include in my list of professional reading. Nope. These are guidebooks on birds, wildflowers, insects and butterflies, trees and plants.
There is something completely relaxing about reading the differences between a Village Weaver and a Southern Masked Weaver; about never feeling bright enough to know African clover from Burchell’s clover; or daydreaming, over a page of dwarf chameleons, about a road trip to hunt for the critically endangered, possibly extinct, Tsitsikamma Dwarf Chameleon.
Okay, maybe I don’t exactly feel “guilty” about my reading pleasure, the way I do about my affinity for watching “Pitch Perfect” ad nauseum on a day I’m feeling nostalgic for singing to a crowded gymnasium, but maybe just like a bit of a nerd.
How about you? What’s your “guilty pleasure” of reading?
Love, Marla
More posts from Manuscript Monday:
Is the Muse Blowing Kisses on Your Pencil?
Christmas Birds
Inspiration
Before and After Room Challenge
Dead Body Management
A Poem Forthcoming
Retreated!
I’m Proud to be a Rhinoceros
The Hue of You
Mrs Kurt: Identity Struggles
I May be a Nudist, But I’m Not an Exhibitionist
The Great Divorce
The “W” in My Wrollercoaster
Or, find a random selection by typing “Manuscript Monday” into the search box near the upper right of this page.
Children’s books. I enjoy reading children’s books even when there are not children around to listen to them. I don’t read them out loud, of course, and I am rather persnickety about what I like – I am particularly fond of the classics (Where the Wild Things are) but some of my new favorites are Skippy-John Jones and Shel Silverstein.
Hahaha…I like those guidebooks too!! My guilty reading pleasures tho, are tech manuals, or trades periodicals which feature new tools or techniques! I think that when I want to unwind I like those because I already know MOST of the information, so I don’t have to think too hard, and can just enjoy! I know that you already have a pretty extensive knowledge of birds, etc, so I suspect it may be similar reason for you too!