Lately, I’ve gotten out of the habit of reading. I used to read a lot. The first time I ever went without cable television, my reading rate exploded. That was causing problems. When you watch a television show, you have an idea as to when it will be over, and can plan accordingly. Say, going to bed at a decent hour. If you read a book, you don’t have that guarantee. It might be too good to put down. And then you’re up past midnight trying to see how the hero is going to get out of this mess.
Most of my reading these days has been subsumed by comics. Comics are easy to read. They are especially quick if you don’t look too much at the images that people poured their heart and souls into. And you don’t have to have too many brain cells firing to read.
Aside: The only good thing to come out of the Smurfs movie is that I could get Smurf books again. I liked the Smurfs growing up, and it was a great tragedy that haunted my grade five experience when my one Smurf book was stolen at school. It was about a flying smurf (because I couldn’t get Astrosmurf) and I still haven’t found a copy of it in all the reprints. But now I’m realizing that I’m not enjoying these books. The last, featuring real Smurf on Smurf action, just left me bored. I think it is time to grow up and put childish things away.
Anyway!
For Christmas, I got the biography of Steve Jobs from my parents. At the time, I would read the later parts of it and find it really interesting. But it soon ended up in the pile of books by my bedside that I intended to read, but never seemed to. Then a couple of weeks ago, my father mentioned that he would like to borrow it to read.
Suddenly this book has become the most important thing to do. Must finish before I see my parents for their anniversary next week. It hasn’t been easy to get into reading again. Part of it is the fault of the book. There is no heroic narrative that will make me inhale the book. Instead, there is a significant slog through the early part of Steve Jobs’ life. Frankly, it is rather boring. Not terrible, but maybe it is a story I’m already familiar with. But now that I’ve gotten to the part where he buys Pixar, it is becoming much more interesting. I can see me getting into the stage of not being able to put it down.
His later life is much more interesting than his early life. He mellowed and became more likeable. Instead of the spoiled brat he was.