Sunset clouds from my balcony, about a week ago.
As I’m putting this post together (Thursday evening), the TV news in the background is reporting flooding in the coastal areas of south-west Sweden today. And a bit further north they had snow! Just around here, I think it’s just been a rather ordinary rainy day, though. (Well, as far as I know! I’ve not been out much!)
More of the same forecasted for Friday:
http://btt2.wordpress.com/2013/03/14/mood-reading-2/
Yes, my mood definitely affects my reading, and my choice of books. As for books to lift me out of a bad mood… If I don’t have a new one waiting that I think may do the trick, I often find it comforting to reread books that I know I have found helpful in the past – classic children’s books and certain other works of fantasy, wit and humour. When we’re feeling angry, sad, jealous, scared, sorry for ourselves, or whatever, I think it often helps to find someone else has been there too and has the words to express it – including suggestions how to find courage, heart, humour and brain to deal with it.
“I can believe anything provided it is incredible.”
~ Oscar Wilde ~
So will you believe that two nights ago, I woke up in the middle of the night with an out-of-the-blue attack of sciatica down my hip and leg, apparently just from turning over in bed?!
Have you ever heard of a more idiotic injury? Actually I’ve had a few more of those in my day, like concussion from banging my head into a bookshelf, and chronic neck pain from acting unconscious in a CPR exercise. I know it’s a dangerous world out there! But until now I’ve optimistically been thinking I should at least be relatively safe in my own bed.
Anyway, also having had a rather bad spell of the other set of pains lately, it seems I have little choice but to try and slow down even further; even if it feels like giving a speeding ticket to a snail.
So yesterday I spent most of the day in bed. On top of all I also had to deal with the inconvenience of another day (8 am to 4 pm) without running water (because of repairs going on) – but just did not feel up to going out except for a short limping walk in the late afternoon. (That was nice though. Even got a few photos that might show up in my Picture Book this weekend.)
This morning the hip/leg was feeling better, and I was able to go to the rehab pool as usual. Coming home, I needed to do the washing I had had to reschedule from yesterday. This is where Irritation comes in, if not before.
Coming down to the laundry room I was Not Amused to find Someone Else’s washing still spinning in the washing machine, on my time. I decided, however, to leave it to finish the program. When I came back down some 20-30 minutes later, it was done, but still not collected. So I had to take that wet washing out first to be able to put mine in. Grinding my teeth, I put it nicely in the basket under the sink. I also had to clean up a bit after Someone. (Because mysteriously, while detergent used IN a machine cleans things, OUTSIDE the machines it becomes a dirty mess! Explain it if you can!)
When I next came down to move my washing into the drier, what do you think I found? Yes, that’s right. Meanwhile, Someone Else had been down there and put their wet laundry into the drier. So once again I had to remove their laundry (now dry) to that basket under the sink.
When two hours later I came down to collect the last of my own things, Someone Else’s things were still there. I suspect he or she did not dare come back for it until after my shift was over.
I have to confess: There are few things in this world that put me in a worse mood than having to take care of Anonymous Laundry left behind by someone consciously infringing on My Time. Once may be a mistake but twice during the same shift is not. And on a day when I hardly even feel able to cope with my own, it’s even worse. I did leave a note behind: “Please next time show respect for other people’s time.” In my mind though I was writing an essay of about 20 pages, with illustrations… (Had they come down while I was there they’d have found me in neck brace and wrist supports and still slightly limping.)
Clipart images from http://etc.usf.edu and http://clipartheaven.com/
As usual, the BTT questions come from Deb at Booking Through Thursday.
Do you find that your mood affects the things you read?
Like, if you’re in a bad mood, do you tend to indulge in reading that will support it or do you try to read things that will cheer you up?
Do you pick different types of books on dreary, rainy days than you do on bright sunny ones?
For that matter, does your mood color what you’re reading, so that a funny book isn’t so funny or a serious one not so deep?
♥ Good question/s! Not sure I can come up with definite answers though - they keep changing with my mood... (haha)
♥ Sometimes I choose my reading to indulge the mood I’m in; sometimes to cheer myself up. (The same goes for DVDs.)
♥ The weather can certainly be a factor, yes. Both in the choice and in the experience.
♥ And yes, I’m sure my mood sometimes also colours what I read.
There is one reading experience in particular that I think will forever be connected in my mind with the weather outside, and that is one time when I read the whole book of Jeremiah in the Bible non-stop, with the sound of rain hitting my windows in the background. (I wrote a piece about that afterwards – in Swedish – maybe I should try and translate that into English some time.)
This time of year I sometimes reread Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, which I have in an edition with beautiful detailed illustrations by Roberto Innocenti. My copy is in Swedish, but I found this cover picture on Amazon.com:
My choice of books otherwise is perhaps not so much connected to the story being set in a particular time of year. But then a lot of novels span over more than one season; and my reading of them may also extend over several days or even weeks. So my mood might change during the reading!
I have noticed that my choice of DVDs sometimes does seem to relate more to the season. For example in a summer heat wave I seem more inclined to watch people fighting their way through jungles and deserts; while films involving snow usually come to mind in winter. One might think it would be the other way round! But I guess the aim of my brain in those choices is to call up within myself the feeling of “things could be worse”.
As for my mood colouring what I’m reading (or watching): One example might be that over the past few years I’ve sometimes found it hard to be amused by jokes about old age and dementia, and I’ve also been less keen on certain kinds of crime stories, involving too much death and tragedy, hospital drama and forensics. I think there was just too much of all that in my real world. So any reading or film involving those topics had to keep just the right level of respect and/or distance for me to be able to enjoy it. (Still does, really.)
I find that sometimes when the real world is “too much”, the fantasy genre can be of help to create that bit of distance.
It can also be comforting when the world seems uncertain to reread a book (or re-watch a film) where you already know the ending. I also think that by doing that, sometimes, it is also possible to learn something about dealing with our own personal histories. (Going back over a series of events, and seeing certain details in a different light, because when reviewing, we know the outcome.)
♥ ♥ ♥
Today is 1st December, which means I have started
the Advent Calendar in my Picture Book blog.
There will be one ‘Quotography’ post for each day
until Christmas. There is a button at the top
of the sidebar in this blog to take you there.
Click to open!
♥ ♥ ♥
As I might have mentioned a few times, I’ve become very weather sensitive in recent years. Today the weather has literally been changing every five or ten minutes or so so guess who has been in and out of strange moods all day! ;) Phew. Glimpse of sun one moment, torrential rain and gusts of storm the next. I did go for a short walk in the morning (before the rain) to post a few letters; after that I’ve been staying in. Thought I might get all sorts of things done – but of course I didn’t…
