The thing with me is that I only seem to be able to pay attention to exactly two hobbies at a time. Surely with a bit of discipline, I could do more right? Lately one main hobby has obviously been Delve and I've also been playing a lot of video games lately. This means I am simply incapable of focusing on something else. It's not a matter of not enough time. Even with Delve dev and my recent Blue Prince and Persona 5 addictions, I should be able to say "Okay, Tuesday nights are for once again restarting my erstwhile attempts to learn to draw. Or for yoga." But nope, my brain will simply block out a third hobby/pastime.
This means that reading has fallen a bit by the wayside the last several months. I keep telling myself I should read at least 30 minutes before bed most nights. That's like nothing! Or read a bit at lunch at work, etc.
Nevertheless I've been having so much trouble finishing books. Since the fall I've started a bunch of books and while I've been enjoying them, I keep putting them down or getting distracted by a different book. It's reached the point that I'm 1/3 to 1/2 done like 6 different books right now. Ugh. These are all fun or interesting but I just can't make my brain stick to one book and complete it.
A brief word about each of the books:
Circe
I accidentally gave my niece a copy of Circe from Madeline Miller for her birthday last fall. It turned out I'd given her a copy the previous Christmas... (I'd actually meant to get her Song For Achilles but had a brain fart at the bookstore)Obviously I wasn't going to bother returning the extra copy of Circe, it just went onto my tbr pile.
And when I was playing through Hades 2, I remembered the copy of Circe sitting on a shelf and picked it up. I'm really enjoying it! But I got about half way through, put it down for a few days, and then got distracted.
Starting Point
This is a collection of essays and speeches from earlier in Hayao Miyazaki's career. I'l confess I've never been a giant Studio Ghibli fan and only just last year watched Kiki's Delivery Service and My Neighbour Totoro. I don't mean that in the sense of "Eh, I think the films are okay", I just never watched many Ghibli films and they weren't formative for me the way they were for so many.
However, I do love reading creative people talking about their approach to art (and life). Their perspectives are often quite interesting, and this book is too.
I think part of what slows me down is that most of the essays are only a couple pages long. So, I'll pick up the book, read and finish one essay, and feel like I've accomplished reading for the day, you know?
It's funny how even early in his career, in his 30s, he already sounds like a curmudgeonly old man!
Understanding Computation
This is a less-formal, more hands-on presentation of theoretical computer science concepts like finite state automata, computation, parsing, etc. It looks quite fun and interesting but when I sit down at my computer for hobby coding I inevitably end up working on Delve.
Understanding Comics
A classic from Scott McCloud that I've been meaning to read for ages. The first half, it presents a kind of vocabulary for how comics are designed and made. It makes things clear that you understand intuitively but might not think about. Like how much of the action in comics happens between the panels (via the power of your imagination!). I'm currently in a section talking about broad differences between Western and Asian comic styles that is very neat. Oh, and it's presented in comic form, which is very fun.
Computer Graphics From Scratch
Learn how 3D graphics work from the ground up! I'm not a graphics guy but I think it would be fun to learn how the algorithms work and some of it may well be useful in my silly 2D ascii roguelikes. I have the same issue with this as with Understand Computation -- if I sit down for hobby coding I end up working on Delve instead.
Floating Hotel
A cozy (so far) sci-fi novel from Grace Curtis about a luxury space hotel that travels from system to system. We are getting perspectives from several different employees and guests and so far it's just been dealing with the foibles and small struggles the characters the face, but we seem to be building toward some drama and political intrigue.
So those are all the books I currently have on the go! I...should knuckle down and try to finish one of them in the next couple of weeks...