Unfortunately, I'm not talking about a svelte figure. Hubby informs me yesterday, after I spent time whining over how I just couldn't get anything going on the novel, how I couldn't pick up the thread, how I needed to work through the weekends and somehow didn't do so and now I'm lost again, that I am spreading myself too thin.

Wednesday group, RWA, blogging, website updating, newsletter editing, email–these are the culprits. He says I have to stop giving time to everybody who wants it, at least for a while. He says to cut it off, hole up, and finish the book. If they are your friends, he says, they'll be there when you're done.

And let's not even mention the thesis. I technically have until March 1st, but I'd really wanted to have it done, finished, gone, by October 1st so I could change my graduation date to December. If I am to make the October deadline, I need a draft ASAP so it can circulate among my committee and make it back to me in time to make the changes, circulate again, and then get to the library by Oct 1st. Really, I suppose I just have to change my expectations, live with the March deadline, pay the extra money (less than $200, so not bad) for the continuation course for Spring, and make a time table for the chapters now. Reading The Rule of Four has gotten me somewhat motivated to get back to the thesis. I even started reading De Beauvoir in earnest again.

Speaking of Rule, I am so bored with it I can hardly stand it. But the writing is beautiful, so I keep reading. I'm over half way now. I figured out the villain a long time ago. Mostly, I keep reading to see what else is revealed about the Hypnerotomachia. That part is cool. And I do think these authors have a career in front of them and will only get better with time. For a first novel, it's a damn fine one. But, I think they could learn a thing of two from just about any Harlequin Intrigue author or romantic suspense author out there. And I'm kind of tired of the Princeton tour, too. My opinion, however, doesn't mean much because they are successful in spite of my grumblings. A quick check of Amazon.com reveals a mixed bag of comments. I do get that it's a literary thriller for people with brains (I didn't say that, honest; Bookpage said it, though not quite that insultingly even if that's what they actually meant), but I don't think dressing it up in fancy words excuses the lack of excitement or makes me a numbwit because I notice and complain. It's not that I don't have a brain, or don't get the hoity-toity scholarly stuff, it's that I want some excitement, a reason to turn the page. It takes over 100 pages for a body to show up. And chapters are alternated between present and flashback. Too many flashbacks, IMO.

Just my opinion, as I said. You don't have to agree with me and I won't be insulted if you don't. 🙂 And I am just dumb enough to keep reading anyway, though I may start skimming to move it along.

I really want to get to some of the other books on my TBR, but I don't want to stop reading a book to do it. Do you stop reading books that bore you, or do you force yourself through anyway? Sometimes I do stop, but much of the time I make myself finish, even if I skim the last half. I used to feel guilty for that, but I don't anymore.