غَريب
root: غ-ر-ب / adjective / definition: strange
Orhan Pamuk’s A Strangeness in My Mind has been sitting on the tiny, just-enough-space-for-tea-and-a-book shelf beside my bed, having remained unopened for far too long after I’d got into it and read a decent amount.
I’m not sure why it’s hard for me to pick it back up again, but perhaps—on some subconscious level—its title strikes a little too close to home these days.
You see, I’ve been feeling caught in a strange mindset, or—maybe not mindset—point in my life, or—let me find something more accurate—a strange daze recently.
I’m not sure if it’s because I’m between travels and neither me nor my mind has had much chance to unpack, or whether I’m feeling conflicted with my sense of freedom this summer, when a growing list of goals and things to get done is scrolling constantly in the back of my mind.
Whatever the cause is, all I know is that my creative ideas are flowing and filling up notebooks and apps; but outside of ideas, I seem to be forming nothing concrete.
But upon my return from my upcoming trip, this hazy daze-y strangeness will be broken through—by will or by force—because I’ve vowed to officially begin my reading for my PhD.
This might sound a somewhat unpalatable summer activity for some, but the fact that my first sources to read are three Arabic novels means I’m more excited than daunted. Although, I anticipate reading them will take a lot longer than any estimate I may make, because I know I won’t be able to resist pencilling notes on every paragraph and adding budding ideas to Notion.
Hopefully, in terms of this blog, my summer of reading will mean more posts in the Step-by-Step Literature Translations and Reading Arabic Literature categories.
And I’m hoping to start a whole new series, where it won’t be just my voice in these posts… but that might take some convincing…
!إلى اللقاء
Follow The Arabic Pages on Instagram and Twitter, and find out how you can support this blog!
If you’d like to receive email notifications whenever a new post is published on The Arabic Pages, enter your email below and click “Subscribe”:
The Arabic Pages 
One thought on “Strangeness and a Summer of Reading”