Entry for october 24, 2007

I really had to work like a dog to get my book finished. Over a period of a couple of months I was really spending all of my time outside the day job either in the university library, or with selfless volunteers proof-reading the text.
Although it was absorbing, it is odd how narrow it made my life. I found I had little conversation (and little to really report in blog entries). I can sense how easy it would be for people to lose themselves in a project like that, to let friends and family go, and to gradually slip into a kind of safe and solitary existence.
I don't really want to go through a process like that again. I love to write stuff, but there was an intensity in writing an academic book that, quite frankly, meant I had to give up too much stuff I really love. Friends, family, internet poker, and sitting in my pants watching Soccer AM on a Saturday morning are all things that I won't give up lightly again. I think an economist would say that the opportunity cost was too high - the project, although worthwhile in itself, was too costly in terms of lost opportunities to do other things.
I may feel differently when I see the book in a nice shiny cover though. If I do, please come round and smash my face in with a spade.