Rambling... poor writing

I used to be able to write so well. I'm writing now in an attempt to salvage whatever skill I have left, but I realize my writing isn't quite as interesting, as elaborate, as thought provoking or as articulate as it used to be. Perhaps because I haven't had much to read lately. Since we moved to Cairo (less one month when we discontinued our subscriptions to various magazines in Houston), I haven't read a thing. Nothing. Sure, there are some websites on the internet I often visit, but lately I haven't had the time to go online all that much.

On one of the book shelves in my in laws' house I found a collection of some pretty good novels that I had always meant to read and somehow never had access to or when I did, never had the time to. We had to ship all of my books here to Karachi and I just haven't been able to find a good book store near our place in Cairo. I had forgotten how much I enjoyed a good book, as I conjured images and scenarios to play out the scenes in the book in my head... putting faces on the characters, imagining their voices. I could lose myself in a good story for hours at a time. I enjoyed learning new expressions, different ideas and perspectives and most of all, having more to think about... writing material.

Hopefully I'll be able to finish what I've started to read (Stephen King's IT, just in case you were curious). I've realized though, after having read through hardly a tenth of the book that I have lost quite a bit of the patience I used to have of waiting till I've read through the whole thing to find out how it ends. But I'm relearning it. Lately it had become surprisingly and quite annoyingly easy for me to become distracted. I couldn't sit and write a paragraph of email without getting up and almost seeking out a distraction... making some tea, flipping through TV channels, brushing my teeth, or simply walking around the house. Perhaps, besides the dearth of thought provoking stimuli, this was a reason for my poor writing. So I'm relearning to focus and patiently remain focused. Once I'm done, maybe then I'll be able to turn out pieces that are more than mere rambling.