Sunrise from the wrong end of the day

I'm battling with insomnia again. Sunday night/Monday morning I didn't get to sleep until 5:30a.m., a time when the wife was just getting out of bed. Tuesday night the zzz's didn't come until about 3:30a.m. I have this problem occasionally, but experience doesn't make it any less frustrating.

I just can't seem to turn off my brain sometimes. There may be a few important thoughts at the beginning, but it is the random stream of conscious tangents that are frustrating. Sometimes I try to trace back to see how I got there, and it is weird the connections your brain makes. I'd give you an example, but what kept me awake until 5:30a.m. clearly wasn't worth remembering the next day.

It is likely stress that sets me off. It is like my brain is saying "look at all these shiny images - pay no attention to your troubling thoughts." I am used to operating on limited sleep. I don't remember waking up and thinking "Ahh, that was just the right amount of sleep." I am tired every morning. A few more nights like this though, my body will be ready to switch to the graveyard shift.

I used the wee hours when I couldn't sleep to catch up on some reading. I was a day or two behind on my resolution to read the Bible. I am also reading another good book. It is called World Without End by Ken Follett. It is a related story to Pillars of the Earth. It is not quite a sequel as it takes place some two hundred years later, but is based in the same town and has some descendants from the original story. Pillars of the Earth is a brilliant story about the fictional town of Kingsbridge and the building of it's cathedral. Though fictional, the story uses actual British history as its background. Ken Follett does a great job of interweaving multiple story lines, and I think Pillars is his best work. At around 1,000 pages it is an investment of time but well worth it. The new one is of similar length and 200 pages in it is looking very good as well.

I have enjoyed book club so far, but the only frustration is not having time to read the stack of books on my shelf. I have around eight books waiting to be read, some that have been in the stack for a year. I read somewhere recently that when you choose a book to read, you are really choosing not to read thousands of other books.

All the books I'll never read. Another thought to keep me up at night.