How I Read Nonfiction

Fiction, actually

I read fiction at night, non-fiction in the morning. Fiction to relax, to gel. Non-fiction is mostly for jazzing up the brain, waking up to a day. If I read non-fiction at night, I get more awake, not less. So I save the fiction for night-time reading.

Also, it helps to have children and a job so that you are forced to wake up so early that it's still dark outside. And know that if you don't write and read then, you might not get to it. For me, it's akin to not having a cup of coffee. If I don't do this, then I am off my game.

I love being up this early and doing this work. I am not a morning person. I would sleep until noon if I could. I don't watch TV. I just don't have time. Whatever I am going to watch will be on Netflix on the weekends, or on a DVD. I go to the movies. But I don't sit on a couch with the TV on at night. I don't have "shows." I am spared endless moronic adverts.

But what I do do is phone stuff. Yes, I check FB, Twitter, The Atlantic, Huff Post, emails. I try not to do this too much before I start to write.

Checking my electronic stuff is a huge time-waster, and I'm getting up early to save time. I wanted to add that so I don't sound all mightier-than-thou by not watching TV. I do stuff. I keep hearing that a bunch of great TV is out now. Cool. I'll watch it when it gets to Netflix.

So I write first, and then I hate to just stop being in this moment. So, I usually grab something non-fiction from the piles I keep next to the bed. I like having a bunch of different choices. You wouldn't want to only have one TV channel, right?

Here are a few of the books:

The Journey from the Center to the Page: Yoga Philosophies and Practices as Muse for Authentic Writing by Jeff Davis

Finding Water: The Art of Perserverance by Julia Cameron

The Mindbody Prescription: Healing the Body, Healing the Pain by John E. Sarno

The Best American Essays, 2012 by Robert Atwan

The Conde Nast Traveler Book of Unforgettable Journeys: Great Writers on Great Places

There are more. I'm just realizing that I don't remember them all specifically by title. There is a book of travel essays. There is a book on how the Outer Banks was populated. There are a few magazines. It's just like writing - a paragraph or a few pages at a time, you get stuff going.

It's dark outside. I make a cup of tea. The day is not yet crayzee.

A Word about the Blog and 2012

So it turns out that 2012 was a blogless year. As far as I'm concerned, 2012 can suck it. I had other concerns, and they pressed harder. So let's start fresh. I'm on to 2013. I'll commit to doing 1 thing a month (more if I'm feeling frisy!).