Burnout

I came to the realization this weekend, while finishing (three months after beginning it) the Upgraded anthology, that I'm just burned out on SF/F and SF/F short fiction in particular.  Although I don't read much "core" SF/F these days, I still feel rather disinterested and rather wearied when I finish reading a SF/F book.  Maybe some of it is just seeing example after example of prose that isn't actively bad, but also isn't is beautifully-written either.  Maybe it's wanting closer connections to characters, especially non-bourgeois character types (yes, even in works written by non-Anglo, non-white, non-male writers, too often the characters felt as though they were expressing middle class sentiments).  Maybe it's just me, maybe I'm just not all that into what is developing in SF/F circles these days.

Whatever it is, when I finish writing these 2014 reviews/mini-reviews, I plan on taking months off from reading any SF/F, especially short fiction.  Come to think of it, maybe a break from reading in general will come as well for a few weeks this winter.  The Bible might say that man cannot live by bread alone, but I'm beginning to think that I can't live well as a human being by reading so much and not doing as much as I did in my late teens and twenties.  Beginning to feel a bit claustrophobic reading online discussions, to be honest.  Maybe that's a contributing factor to this sense of ennui and burnout.