The week of lost good intentions
I had planned to achieve so much this week. Finish the book I landed with in the last Classics Club Spin (Mansfield Park); read The Devil in the Marshalsea by Antonia Hodgson from my TBR shelf; catch up on the blogs I follow but hadn’t been able to view while on holiday and write a whole lot of reviews so I could make inroads into my backlog.
Time I thought was on my side – I had a transatlantic flight which would give me some dedicated reading time and a few hours to write some posts. Then at the end of the working day I could delve into some other blogs.
Hmm. Well that all went swimmingly didn’t it? Nope.
I did finish Mansfield Park but it took me longer than expected. I also started The Devil in the Marshalsea and enjoyed the start so much I decided it was perfect for my flight home. So put it to one side and started reading a bargain Kindle version of Dead Simple, the first in the Inspector Roy Grace series by Peter May instead. On the journey home I read exactly 30 pages of the Marshalsea book before sleep took over.
As for the reviews. Ha. What reviews? I didn’t write even one during the week. Typing on an iPad is not a great experience, it’s even harder when you’re squashed into an economy seat behind a passenger whose seat reclined the nano second the seat belt light went out after take off and stayed that way for nigh on eight hours and next to a passenger whose elbow kept poking into my side as he typed on his laptop. During the week I was so bushed after early starts (and jet lag) that I couldn’t summon up a single creative cell in my brain.
Nor did I make much headway in reading all the bloggers whose reviews and bookish updates I enjoy. Consequently my blog reader is full to the brim again.
All of which has made me even more resolved to just stop planning ahead. I’m no good at it and its ridiculous to be for ever castigating myself for failing to do something. So this is farewell reading plans, goodbye to blogging schedules. And welcome to the new unplanned, unscheduled, unfettered new me.
Ah, best laid plans; I feel you. Oh, I, too, recently read Mansfield Park. Blogged my thoughts here https://wadadlipen.wordpress.com/2014/06/08/blogger-on-books-ii/#Mansfield …look forward to your review…whenever it happens, no pressure.
You might be waiting for quite some time!
I feel you on that, too. Same boat, different continent.
Didn’t Shakespeare say something about the best laid plans? And I’ve heard the road to Hell is paved with good intentions. I gave up trying to plan anything at the beginning of May and so far it has worked out fairly well and I have zero guilt about not doing what I had planned. I think you will like your new “plan” to not plan 🙂
I saw you recent post about your non existent May plans and was nodding vigorously in agreement. I just have to wean myself off the initial feeling that I should be doing something
iPad typing is the worst! I even have a keyboard for mine. I bought a MacBook Air instead of getting the updated iPad. 😀
Oh and can’t wait to read about Mansfield Park! Fanny is probably my favorite Austen heroine, but it’s probably not my favorite story.
It took a long time to get going and I kept mixing up the characters but i enjoyed it far more the second time around.
I have the Air also but its too heavy to take on my travels (especially since I have to carry my work computer)
Yeah, minus the plane trip, it sounds like every weekend to me! I should give up the plans, too, because I’m always behind anyway!
its quite liberating not to have any plans even though I’ve been in that state just for a few days
Sorry to hear your plans didn’t work out. I hope you catch up soon 🙂
You know Jessica I don’t think I will ever say I am caught up while I am still working
I have tried quite a few times now, to write a blog post on my iPad and I just can’t do it. Well, I can do it, but everything from adding links to formatting takes twice as long and is frustrating to do. Nope, it’s the old lap top for me every time.
it does involve a lot of exasperated noises but sometimes I don’t have any option since I don’t want to lug a heavy laptop around with me
I had three weeks’ worth of reading and reviewing plans blown right out of the water by work and personal commitments! While I do rather resent it, I no longer castigate myself for an inability to fulfill my planned “reading schedule,” hence my Classics Club spin is going to be WAY delayed and I’m now two postings behind in my GWTW read-along, but I’m plugging away at the books I want to read and review before the end of May, and by golly, I’ll get those done and I have a review about finished and hope to post later tonight. So, I view it as doing what I can when I can…and celebrating all progress! 🙂 I’m always so glad to know others are in the same boat occasionally! 🙂
I like that idea of celebrating every small milestone Lynn instead of bemoaning everything i fail at. Work does have a nasty habit of getting in our way doesn’t it??
I like making plans. Which is a good thing because I tend to have to re-write them over and over again!
Ah but you are ace at actually following them Joy.
When I travel I just bring a small notebook I tuck into my purse to take notes of ideas I have for reviews, and I might outline a review and write down key questions about the book I want to answer, but writing rarely happen during a trip, and certainly never on a tablet.
that sounds like a good idea. I might try that next week when I’m off again…
I don’t try to plan my reading too much, because something always interferes and then I get frustrated! I do have a Jane Austen on my list – Emma. I want to re-read it before reading Alexander McCall Smith’s “re-take” on the classic.
Hope you enjoy Emma – it’s not as much a favourite for me as Persuasion but still highly enjoyable
Ah, those best laid plans! I have had weeks like that, and being on a flight and using an iPad is a good excuse, IMO. Thanks for visiting my blog.
I suppose the experience is one we all can relate to but I’ve never had the sense that you are behind with reviews Laurel.
Thanks for the tip.on The Devil In The Marshalsea – I’m trying to read all 18 longlisted for crime novel of the year, and tbh it didn’t leap out at me. Changed my mind, it’s next on list. I’m way behind, except it’s on reviews. I mean WAY behind…!
Join the ‘I’m behind’ club ! Am enjoying The Devil so far…
The English are so passive aggressive aren’t we. especially when it comes to people encroaching our commuting space – women in particular. I’ve got bolder since I’ve been commuting, but still havent found a way to deal with the men who spread their legs too wide (hint guys: women know that the wider the leg spread, the smaller your willy is).
Meanwhile I’m close to running out of book reviews, and am now running on the books I’m reading *right now*. Gasp! Today’s post (https://nordie.wordpress.com/2015/05/24/mays-state-of-the-union/) ponders much on this and what I’m likely to do next – it’s been a long time that I haven’t had a 2 month buffer!
Not much chance of me running out of reviews. I do admire you for being able to write your reviews so punctually. Me, I have to almost re-read the book to remember what it was about