Covid-19: Literary distraction

After spending what seemed like months (and may well have been: I've so lost track of time) reading The Great Influenza, I've had a heck of a time settling into a new book. Instead I seem to be dipping into a dozen or more books at once, but not managing to attach myself to any one of them.

Just now I gathered up all the various books that are scattered on the floor around my go-to easy chair and made a pile:

Okay, War and Peace arrived today, so it doesn't really count. But good glory, look at how thick it is! I haven't even cracked it open to find out what's inside, but some part of me really does want to read it—a book that a friend of mine declared is not just the perfect pandemic read, but an out-and-out must-read.

Yeah, if you can sit still for any length of time.

That's been my problem. One that I've seen other people complain about on social media. Restlessness. Distractability. An inability to focus.

Here is a summary of the books in this particular stack (of which I have many—stacks, that is; and yeah, definitely books too).

• The slim book on the bottom, Dinty Moore's The Mindful Writer, seemed like the perfect antidote to The Great Influenza. Only, I'm stuck halfway through: it's a lot of little Zen lessons about writing, whereas I think what I need is a lively through-line: fiction! imagination! a winning  protagonist and a struggle! Something to lose myself in . . . 
• There are two books on habits in the stack—as I hope against hope to cultivate one or two good ones, perhaps lose a couple of other not-so-good ones.  
• The Story of English in 100 Words is, now that I think about it, the perfect bathroom book—so maybe I should relocate it. 
• Other brand-new arrivals are In Praise of Paths, about walking, one of my favorite activities (by a Norwegian, and in fact I've asked my sister-in-law to hunt down the original and send it to me, for ongoing Norwegian language torture), and How to Think Like a Roman Emperor (i.e., how to be stoic). They'll wait.  
• The Grave on the Wall is part of my study of the Japanese American experience before and during WWII.  

• Toward Antarctica—that one, a collection of prose poems and photographs, should go quickly; perhaps I'll move it to the top of the stack, just so I can have a finished book and another book report: I want to see progress!  
• Minding the Muse is simply good inspiration (for any creative person), dip-into-able and re-re-re-readable. I keep it handy so I can do just that.
• Girl, Woman, Other, winner of the Booker Prize, is looking very promising; I'll move it higher in the stack as well.
• Best American Essays: I enjoy picking those volumes up (I have more than a few) and polishing off an essay every now and then.
• Gehen, ging, gegangen is part of my optimistic desire to read a foreign language (one that I actually can read, with a dictionary, which so far Norwegian hasn't evolved to be—but this week I've decided to do Norwegian by Babbel every day; maybe I'll make more progress if I tackle it with some consistency).
• Look Both Ways, a National Book Award finalist, also was looking promising, but like Girl, Woman, Other, it involves numerous stories told from numerous characters' points-of-view, and again: perhaps what I need is one lively through-line.

• So we skip past War and Peace to Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book. Which another friend recommended. And which, yes, I may actually be able to focus on. It starts with a triple murder—and an 18-month-old who escapes the carnage and moves into a graveyard where he's protected by benevolent ghosts (so far). I've gotten through several chapters today (the hero is now six). If a book for readers age ten and up is what it takes to settle in and read an entire volume in less than three months, I'm game. And Neil Gaiman is always entertaining.

There are times when I can easily sink into a good book (this is especially true of a good mystery: I will not lie). Other times, not so much. Right now, I'm trying to cultivate the patience to redirect my squirrelly mind into the satisfying task of exploring other worlds. At least, that's what I'm telling myself.

It's not like I have much of anything else to do . . .

P.S. I have several other neat stacks of books next to my go-to easy chair. I will add this stack to them. Wanna take bets on how soon the floor will be littered with books again? 

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Monterey County Covid-19 cases stand at 429 today (up 16 since yesterday), hospitalizations at 54 (up 1), and deaths remain at 8.

Stay healthy. Be kind. And . . . got any good books to recommend?