An unexpected break for writing

Daily Goal: 500 words.
I wrote 338 words.
Sundays/Stories Finished: 6/0.

Despite the accuracy, I didn't type anything today. It was all written in longhand. I had to count, because for a while I thought I might have broken the 500 mark. Imagine my disapointment when the tally only got to 338 words. Two large sections where I had crossed out and rewritten several sentences tricked me in my initial estimate.

338 words are better than nothing. My girl took an unusually long nap today. I took a nap too, as I usually do when she sleeps, but I got up after half an hour and thought that she would wake up any minute. More than an hour later I was still writing, enjoying an unexpected break. My wife and I got our payback tonight, however, the baby had no plans on keeping to our usual schedule and putting her to sleep was a two-hour ordeal (with waking up three times in the next three hours afterwards, as she usually does, thrown in; but she is usually easy to lull back to sleep during those interuptions).

So I am tired, as usual. I am finishing my blog and I plan to, stupidly, waste half an hour of good sleep and read a chapter or two in _A Confederacy of Dunces_ before I go to bed. I am liking the book so far. It is very funny and I love the effort John Kennedy Toole has put into dialects - something I wouldn't have the skill or patience to do myself. It really makes the characters jump out from the page much faster if you can tell them apart when they speak.

What to read next?

Daily Goal: 500 words.
Yesterday I wrote 0 words.
Sundays/Stories Finished: 3/0.

I really shouldn't worry about what novel to read next. I should stick to reading a short story each day and spend the rest of my free time writing. I can't help getting excited, however, when I am nearing the end of the novel I am currently reading, about what I should read next. There are so many good, tantalizing novels still on he shelf.

I am reading Citadel of the Autarch, by Gene Wolfe. Although I have enjoyed the series, I do not think I will seek out another Wolfe novel quite yet. Though there are a number of novels set in the same universe as the Book of the New Sun series.

I have been feeling tired and down lately. Therefore I was thinking of reading something to cheer me up - a comedy. I have heard great things about A Confederacy of Dunces, by John Kennedy Toole, so when I finally do start another comedy, I think that will be it.

Another option would be to read a lugubrious novel, where I might identify with the protagonist. The novel Stoner, by John Williams, has long been on my reading list and might just fit the bill from what I've read.

A third option would be to drop the long, old reading list and try to keep up with what is current. I could pick up J. K. Rowling's The Casual Vacancy, which I am sure will play a larger part in literary fora for some time than the classics above.

I still have a number of pages to go through still, however, and as earlier mentioned, I shouldn't really be thinking about the next novel to read.