(no subject)

So for a while I've had difficulty reading novels, just found it hard to concentrate on them for very long. At first I thought this meant I needed to read nonfiction books for a while, learn more about the real world. And at first, that was probably the right thing to do. But lately I've felt that I need to stop the escapist reading. You read about one subject and it's easy to make believe that the world is simple, reducible to components easily studied. Good fiction turns you around to face the complications of the real world. Good novels hold you up to see the cracks in the surface of your understanding. (Bad fiction can also get you thinking about those complications, but for different reasons.)

So for a while I'll be immersing myself in novels. Sorry I've been relatively quiet for so long--this could last some time longer. You haven't missed much, though. Last Friday & Saturday I was again too fatigued to do much, so I never left the house. Sunday a helpful housemate prodded me to go walking with her, running some errands, and Monday through Thursday I continued to scrape up enough energy to walk between two to four miles each day, even though one of those walks had to happen after I'd recovered from a soul-sucking migraine followed by the soul-sucking side effects of migraine medication (Wednesday I dearly wished that fewer things had sucked). Go me! Today I collapsed, again too tired, dizzy, and migrainey to go anywhere, but at least now I feel like I've done enough to make the fatigue worthwhile.