Knot Write In Head

[dreamer_easy]

Like the apocryphal boiling frog, I have allowed my stress levels to rise to the point where my brain goes into self-protective shut-down and I cannot, at times, handle the simplest tasks or the most benign interruptions. It's not that my life is unusually stressful at the moment, it's just that I have a propensity to anxiety, and these days that takes the form not of panic attacks, which are instantly recognisable, but the more subtle form of what I have decided to call a Super Freak Out. Happily I've finally recognised the problem and can tackle it with relaxation exercises and (when necessary) tranks.

Obviously related to this is this afternoon's manic compulsion to obtain more books. I'm not joking, even though I'm an incorrigible bibliophile at the best of times - this is a compulsion, not normal enthusiasm or interest. I can hardly stop thinking about it, which is why I'm scribbling this instead of getting any work done - I have no idea of how to get it out of my system. (With nanowrimo on the horizon, all my other projects have to go into mothballs for a while, so it's doubly important I don't go and buy a cope of Ulysses the size of my head and try to vanish into it.)

ETA: A "cope" of Ulysses? Was that a Joycian slip?

Comments

[jonquil.livejournal.com]

I know that feeling well -- trying to fill the hole in my world with *stuff*. Lately, for me, it's embroidery stuff, but often books.

I wish you well.

[kateorman.livejournal.com]

I want a BA!!! I want to sit in Eng Lit classes with eighteen year olds and pwn them!!!

[jonquil.livejournal.com]

Perhaps you could pimp books instead? Tell me three histories I really, really, REALLY need to read. Preferably Venice before it fell. And yes, I have read, piecewise anyway, John wossname, the classic that covers the whole thousand years and is somewhere in Bedhenge. Anyway, anything from any period that involves lots of intrigue and backstabbery. (Yes, I have Casanova on order, BTW.

Be vicarious!

[jonquil.livejournal.com]

John Julius Norwich. Mind like an ... er... thingie. With holes in.

[whochick.livejournal.com]

Why don't you visit BookCrossing and capture one instead of buy it? The thrill of the hunt ...

Omg, your'e doing NaNo? Me too! I'm determined to finish this year ... Mind if I buddy you?

[drhoz.livejournal.com]

Faveolate Colossus? Fabric of Space-time? US Foreign Policy?

[kateorman.livejournal.com]

What is this buddying thing of which you speak?

[peeeeeeet.livejournal.com]

If you're looking to cure yourself of book addiction, buying and reading Ulysses is a major step in the right direction. :-S

[mrteufel.livejournal.com]

Check the NaNoWriMo site.

[kateorman.livejournal.com]

I am profoundly ignorant of history. But for backstabbery, frontstabbery, and poison, you can't go past I Claudius. (Wish the DVD release was in better nick tho - it's just an un-remastered transfer from the edited videos.)

[kateorman.livejournal.com]

I did! Where is?

[kateorman.livejournal.com]

There's such a great panel in Alison Bechdel's Fun Home, showing her reading Ulysses at college and exploding, "What the fuck?"

[mrteufel.livejournal.com]

Homepage menu (dark grey across page)
Mouse-over 'My Nanowrimo'
Select 'Writing Buddies'
Key 'MrTeufel' in 'username'.

:)

(this all assumes you've registered)

[jonquil.livejournal.com]

Oh, I've got I, Claudius, rest assured! The only problem is my son finds Six Wives of Henry VIII too depressing, so I don't think we'll be watching the excesses of the Roman Empire as a family any time soon.

Tell me what you've loved recently though. Seriously. Tell me about books you wish you could roll over in naked.

[whochick.livejournal.com]

If you view your profile at the NaNo website you'll see "writing buddies" as part of the front page. It's there so you can see how far behind you are and get frantic encourage one another. I've added you ... but I'm not sure if it'll show you I've added you.

My username on NaNo is the last 4 letters of my real name.

[kateorman.livejournal.com]

Oooh! *plays with*

[kateorman.livejournal.com]

Alison Bechdel's graphic novel autobiography Fun Home and Martin McDonagh's play The Pillowman. As writer these both made me wonder why I bother to get up in the morning.

[kateorman.livejournal.com]

Thou art added!

[jonquil.livejournal.com]

Oh, dear. Go read a Mercedes Lackey novel. That'll put you right back in the plump of self-confidence.

[jblum.livejournal.com]

...and just the day before yesterday you were talking about how the book-buying phase was OVER and you were in an intense reading phase. *hugs*

[kateorman.livejournal.com]

I fell off the wagon in the Coop yesterday.

[whochick.livejournal.com]

I art honoured ;)

[pedanther]

I *know* what the Coop Bookshop looks like, and I am nevertheless getting a mental image that ought to be drawn by Gary Larson, or possibly Ursula Vernon.