So congratulations to all the National Book Award finalists! I was surprised at how moved I was by the announcements, and spent all of Wednesday morning reminiscing about my experience and…okay, I even wore my medal while I worked that afternoon. I’m embarrassed to say I haven’t read any of the books – yet! Though I have Frankie in my stack! I am especially happy for E. Lockhart, whose books I have always adored. I’ve always thought she’s one of those writers who makes it look easy when she is in fact pulling off an incredibly difficult balance of fun and engaging and commercial plus excellence of craft and depth of thought. I’m also thrilled for Laurie H.A. because she is going to get to live the dream – to go backto the NBAs, and this time actually enjoy every single moment because she’s been through it before, knows more or less what to expect, and won’t have to stress over the unknown. I’m looking forward to reading all the books on the list.

Speaking of reading, I’ve been waiting waiting waiting patiently for Kathleen Norris’s book, Acedia & Me: A Marriage, Monks, and a Writer’s Life. I bought the Kindle edition and started reading last night. I’m only about a fourth of the way through, but it is so…so…I just feel like she’s in my head and my spirit. It’s incredibly comforting to know that this weird depression/apathy/crisis of faith/sadness/sloth thing I’ve been going through is real, has a name, and has been written about for centuries. For example, here is a fourth century monk describing someone with the condition:

…when he reads, yawns plenty and easily falls into sleep. He rubs his eyes and stretches his arms. His eyes wander from the book. He stares at the wall and then goes back to his reading for a little. He then wastes his time hanging on to the end of words, counts the pages, ascertains how the book is made, finds fault with the writing and the design. Finally he just shuts it and uses it as a pillow.

Ha! I guess you don’t need Internet and cable to distract you. Acedia was mostly known and written about as something afflicting monks as they struggled with their lives of contemplation. Of course if you are a writer you will recognize this behavior. Norris writes:

…I have come to believe that acedia can strike anyone whose work requires self-motivation and solitude, anyone who remains married “for better for worse,” anyone who is determined to stay true to a commitment that is sorely tested in everyday life.

So far, I highly recommend this book to anyone who is a writer and/or a practitioner of any sort of spiritual discipline. It’s actually kind of eerie – I had a therapy appointment right before I started reading the book, and some of the things Norris writes about symptoms of the condition were nearly verbatim what I’d brought up in my appointment.

Now: about reading on the Kindle. So far, it’s doing what it’s supposed to do. The material that comes with it states that the idea is that it facilitates reading just like a book so when you’re into the world of the book, you’re thinking about that and not the device. I wasn’t sure if that would be true, but it is. And it’s very easy to add highlights (which I’m doing on every page with this book, practically) that go into a clippings file. However, as far as I can tell those clippings aren’t linked back to the book, so you can’t, say, go to your clippings file and click to go to that spot in the book to see the context. For that, you would want to use bookmarks. Another con is that if you highlight and mark up a real book, you can flip through it and sort of visually see all that and maybe stumble on notes you made but didn’t remember. With the Kindle, you have to be intentional about returning to something. And maybe the biggest drawback of all: you can’t loan it to a friend. As I’m reading this, I’m thinking of a bunch of friends who would love and benefit from this book but I can’t just hand it over and say, “read this!” That is actually a huge bummer for those of us who like to hand books around and experience them together.

I hope you all have a great weekend. If you get bored and need places to go on the Internet, don’t forget about YA for Obama. Lots of interesting discussions going on.