Dear Friend,
First of all, thank you so much for your kind response to my letter last week. It’s so good to have the support and understanding of someone who understands and gets it. The response I received definitely made me feel so much less alone. This time / age / season of life is full of changes and I never really know which part of it is just me or which part of is it a normal part of getting older. Either way, it was so great to hear from you and to get your perspective.
I’m writing today because I have some GREAT news. Well, great to me anyway! Do you remember how in my last letter I wrote about no longer being able to focus long enough to read a book? As much as I love reading, this was the hardest thing to deal with when it comes to my focus issues. I’d sit down to read and the words would seem like they were swimming or jumping around on the page. I’ve had the book Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng on my nightstand for over two months now. I’d sit down to read each night and as of last Thursday I was still only on page 23.
I’d heard great things about this book and had previously read Everything I Never Told You by the same author and loved it. My problem was I found myself reading the same page or same paragraph over and over before just getting frustrated and giving up. I knew it wasn’t the book and because I had noticed I was having issues focusing on other things I just assumed it was part of that overall issue.
After reading my letter last week, my sister called me on Thursday. She said she’d been thinking about what I was going through and without discounting what I was feeling and knowing the focus issues were real, she wanted to know if I’d ever tried reading glasses to help with my problems reading. She said she knew that it might be a long shot, but to go to the nearest store and pick up a pair of low power reading glasses to see if that helps. I mentioned that I had just had an eye doctor appointment a few weeks ago and she said to try it anyway…sometimes those appointments don’t catch everything.
I was still on the phone with her when I hopped in the car and drove to the CVS a few blocks away. I went in and picked up a pair of cheap, 1.25 power reading glasses and came home. YOU GUYS… I about fell over right then when I picked up Little Fires Everywhere and started reading. The words were no longer swimming!! My genius sister was able to help me read again with the simple purchase of new readers (I’ve since ordered a 4-pack of reading glasses from Amazon so I can have them everywhere). I finished Little Fires Everywhere in a day and a half and started on my next book Still Me by Jojo Moyes. I am so, so, so, so happy about this. Reading is such a huge part of my life, I couldn’t believe that this simple fix has brought one of my favorite things back to me!
I still am having focus issues, but being able to read again makes it not seem nearly as bad. (Don’t worry…I’m still heading to the Cognitive Behavior Therapist in June. I’m still desperate for help, but at least I can read!)
As I’m wrapping up my letter, I thought I’d give you book lovers a quick rundown of Little Fires Everywhere. As I knew I would, I really loved this book. It’s about two very different families…one family seems like the perfect, well to do, American family. The other family is a single mom and her teenage daughter, who have lived a sort of vagabond life, never really staying in a town long enough to put down roots. The two families come together in this well told stories of secrets, wronged perceptions and unlikely relationships. My favorite passage from the book is this:
Sometimes when you think everything’s gone, you find a way. Like after a prairie fire. I saw one, years ago, when we were in Nebraska. It seems like the end of the world. The earth is all scorched and black, and everything green is gone. But after the burning the soil is richer and new things can grow. People are like that too, you know. They start over. They find a way.
Once I finally started being able to read this book, I flew through it and really enjoyed it. I gave Little Fires Everywhere 4 stars on Goodreads.
I’m sorry to write so much, but I wanted to give you an update. I promise not every letter I write will be a big, long, drawn out thing, but I couldn’t wait to share my good news. And who knows…maybe you are having similar issues with reading and it could be a simple fix like new readers to bring you back to books.
Thanks for reading and I hope to hear from you! Write back soon.
All the best,
Kristen
PS – Can you tell me how you find out about new blog posts from blogs you want to read? Do you find out about new posts on social media, through email or is there some app or tool out there you use? I miss Google Reader desperately and would like to find something similar so I can keep up with my favorite blogs. Thank you!
Disclosure: This blog post contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
First, yay for getting back to reading! Second, what a lovely passage from that book. Keep us posted how the CBT goes, please — I’ve always wondered what it would be like; I’ll be keeping my fingers crossed for you that it will all work out well for you.
I use Feedly to try to keep up with stuff — it was the only alternative to Google Reader I could find at the time when it went upped and vanished, but I’m still using it and find it suffices really well. xo
Ok I maybe need to try Feedly again. I miss google reader so much but maybe I just need to erase my feedly and start totally over. I think I’ll do that! Thank you!
I use Feedly, too. But I am subscribed to way too many blogs right now. I’ve been going through my subscriptions and culling them down. Feels good!
WOW, this is great news!! Who knew. I loved this book, she’s a great author!
I can’t believe how easy of a fix this was. Getting older stinks but at least there are cute reading glasses out there now!
Have you read the new JoJo Motes book yet? I’m loving it so much so far!
I use Protopage to RSS all my favorite blogs including this one. Glad you are able to enjoy reading again!
JC,
That’s a feed reader I haven’t heard of. I’m going to check it out ASAP. Thanks so much!
Kristen
Hooray! I just read your last blog post and it definitely resonated with me. I too miss the old days of blogging and I also find it’s easy to lose motivation when you think about all you need to do these days and how much pressure there is to be perfect. I’m so grateful I can make a living with my blog, but admit I stopped doing a lot of my fun “conversation” posts because they’re not good for SEO and “I need to think of my blog as a business” etc. etc. Ugh! BUT I feel like you’re so well known for your posts that are conversational and you have such a huge audience of people who come here FOR these posts. So, keep doing you!! That’s exactly what everyone wants! Anyway, not being able to read would devastate me, so I’m SO happy to hear that you found such an easy solution. Phew!! I hope you can get more answers at your appt. next month 🙂
Also, I use Feedly to keep up with my blogs… I legit still miss Google Reader every day, but it’s the most similar tool I have found!
ah I’M SO HAPPY! Reading is the best and it’s such a gift that you have it back 🙂
Loved the book
I’m so glad to hear that Kristen, that’s fantastic! I have trouble reading too, but I think it has to do something with being online too much and reading stuff online. There are even studies showing that too many ads, news and just scrolliing through articles make us less able to focus when reading books.. Makes sense to me.
About the blog posts, I subscribe via email to the blogs I really love and also social media. I also have my favorite blogs bookmarked and like to check them from time to time.
I use Inoreader, the free version. It works for me and my blog reading obsession….which I miss the days of old, prior to sponsored posts when it was more of a journal or story telling type media but I still “follow” many blogs.
Every morning sip a cup of coffee and eat some snacks in the morning.thank you the post
I hope you can update your favorite blogs regularly. I like your blogs very much!
Reading is fun. My mother was an AVID reader. I enjoy a good book but i am a slow reader…speed-wise that is…I like to take my time. I also found audio books are good. I also love to read scripture…it is good for the soul. But any way,shape,or form…cracking open books should be part of our lives….Oh yes, cookbooks are also good to read…agreed? Lol!
I just discovered your blog and have really enjoyed it. But one thing I noticed in the last two blog posts is that you frequently apologize. Why would you apologize for writing a beautiful long letter? Why do you think you are taking up too much of our time. Your readers wouldn’t be reading your blog if it was a waste of time. Please know that you sharing your life with us is a joy not a burden!
You are the sweetest. Thank you for that gentle reminder!
That’s amazing! I use multifocal contacts and reading small print is the only drawback so I’m going to try low readers too. I have the same issue with reading, distractions! I figured I just have ADD. I’m really interested in hearing about your Behavior Therapist too!