Matthew Simmons, On Reading

"For the last few months, I've noticed that I've been unable to finish books. Unable to focus on reading. I can spend a little time reading poetry here and there, but reading myself to sleep, and reading on lunch breaks, and reading on buses, and reading away my Saturday afternoons? Not happening. Not concentrating. Not retaining. A short story here and there. No novels beyond the first twenty pages—even when I am, for the most part, enjoying them. And because I'm not reading much, I'm not writing much. And because I'm not reading much, I feel really out of sorts. Disconnected.

I know this won't last forever, and that soon I'll go on a reading tear. I'm not sure what will trigger it. I wish I did.

Because not being able to read sucks. That's what I have to say about reading. Not being able to read sucks."


{Matthew Simmons lives in Seattle with his cat, Emmett. He is the author, most recently, of the novella A Jello Horse (Publishing Genius Press, 2009). He will publish a chapbook (The Moon Tonight Feels My Revenge) in 2010 and a collection of short stories in 2011 (Happy Rock), both from Keyhole Press. He is a regular contributor to HTML Giant and the interviews editor for Hobart. More information can be found here.}