Hangovers

Reading is bad for you. Ok, no it isn’t, it really isn’t, but sometimes it feels that way when you’ve stayed up until 4am reading your book because … you’re so engrossed and you can’t put it down – not just yet! And then, you fight that ongoing internal battle of … I should put this down, I don’t want to finish it yet … but I can’t put it down now, I need to know what happens.

And before you know it, you’ve turned that last page and you’re left feeling a little lost. I mean, what are you going to do now that you’ve finished this book? Where’s the sense of adventure going to come from now, and how can anything else ever top that?! Which is fine, until you realise that it’s 4am and you need to get up in a few short hours.

I’ve had more ‘book hangovers’ than I care to remember. And I curse myself every time and promise that next time I won’t do it …. But then I say that with alcohol induced hangovers as well, just goes to show I never learn!

But, that’s the thing with a good book. It sets your imagination on fire – and sometimes it’s a book that leaves your imagination spinning, where you suddenly find that you’re listening for every creak in your house. Suddenly, those pipes creaking or the contraction and expansion of the floorboards become something much more terrifying. Suddenly your imagination is going umpteen times to the dozen and you know you can rationalise it … but somehow in the wee small hours you just can’t.

That’s where I am today. Instead of picking up one of my comic books which would have been the sensible option … I opted instead for the book I was just getting into. The book that was just starting to pick up the pace … and the book that I finished in the early hours, with my imagination racing … I mean, how bad was this going to be? I think my zombie induced state says enough about that today!

So yes. Reading is bad for you. It should come with a health warning, really. But at the same time I’m not ready to kick this addiction, because despite the fact that I will feel like a semi functioning person today … it’s worth it.

Even if I swear I’m never going to do it again …..

~ Clara