After three weeks of reading the news obsessively, which decreased my attention span to two minutes and made my meaningful reading impossible, I finally bounced back this week. I read three books and it made me think clearer, as a result I consciously try to stay away from the news.

Sadly some news cannot be avoided. What happened in Nice shocked me and made me think how surprising it is that in the flood of bad and tragic news we are still capable of shock, but only when the danger strikes close to home. Somehow the event of last weeks and days in Istanbul feel more distant, I know it is awful, but I guess people are selfish territorial creatures. I do think what happens in Istanbul is horrible, but it doesn’t cause this instant shock.

In need of distraction and escapism I tried to start few fiction books, usually the less real the book the better it worked, but this time I just couldn’t focus, so surprisingly for me I turned to non-fiction and decided to spend my weekend with Julian Barnes, Keeping an Eye Open: Essays on Art. To escape even more I went to Greenwich Park (together with half of London it seemed) and as always managed to find a nice isolated bench in the rose garden up the hill (forget the lower part of the park, it’s for tourists ;)). The roses were still blossoming, Julian shared his thoughts about art and on my way there I bought four books at Oxfam.

I think I escaped reality successfully today!

What do you do when reality is just too much to stand?