Wastes of time

Do you ever find yourself doing something, or finishing something, and only then wonder why you've wasted your time on it? Especially if it was something you didn't enjoy?

For example - I read a few books recently that, when I was done, I wondered why I'd bothered. (Note: I have a quirk - if I start a book, I'm pretty sure to finish it, whether I like it or not. Except for one Star Trek book that bored me to tears. Anyway). I recently read a couple of teen-marketed books. The latest was the first book in the "Gossip Girl" series - because Kirsten Bell, star of Veronica Mars, is rumored to be working on the television series based on the books. Before that, there were the first two in a series called "Clique" - they got a good mention in the column that the library does for the local paper, so I thought, why not?

The titles should have warned me. They were quick reads, even if I hadn't been skimming and speed-reading after the first chapters, but still. I finished them in under an hour, stuck them back in the library tote, and gave myself a mental thwap (three times!) for wasting my time on crap that left a bad taste in my mouth. Ditto for The Nanny Diaries and The Devil Wears Prada. Why did I torment myself by reading books that give me bad reminders of my last two jobs? Books with main characters that I really want to shove off a cliff? I'm just glad that most of these were either library checkouts, or books that only cost a buck at the book sale.

It happens with television shows, too. DH finally burned out on American Chopper a while back, hallelujah and amen. The bikes were neat to see, but gad, the insanity of the process made my teeth hurt. But the last round of Celebrity Fit Club (VH1) had me wishing for Tivo, just so we could skip the crap, which would have meant watching an episode in about 10 minutes. I enjoyed past seasons (okay, the Jeff Conaway train-wreck was some guilty rubbernecking), but the manufactured drama is over the top and impossible to ignore now.

And those are the ponderings for the day. Back to listing books at Amazon and Half.