Over the past year, however...maybe two or three...I haven't been reading as much. I used to read like I needed it to survive, living in up to ten different stories at a time. As it stands now, I failed majestically to reach a self-assigned goal of twenty-four books last year, and thus far this year I've probably only read three or four.
This is an unspeakable failure, if you ask my childhood self. (He was a bit of a judgmental jerk sometimes).
I've been wondering why this is. Why am I unable to read now? Why can't I concentrate on letting myself fall into the stories like I used to?
As of three days ago I am currently partway through reading the following:
- Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman
- Born a Crime by Trevor Noah
- Talking as Fast as I Can by Lauren Graham
- On Celtic Tides by Chris Duff
- The Magician King by Lev Grossman
- The Court of the Air by Stephen Hunt
- The Angel of Darkness by Caleb Carr
- The Big Tiny by Dee Williams
- The Unexpected Guest by Agatha Christie
- Hollow City by Ransom Riggs
As you can see, though my level of success has faltered, my patterns remain.
I want to read all of these books. I want to finish them, to absorb them, to experience every word of them, but I can't. I can't focus. I can't read.
Then my wife sends me this article about how smart phones and the internet are making us dependent on constantly shifting information and instant gratification. We're reprogramming our brains to be unable to focus for more than seconds at a time, it said. It also said some religious crap that I could have done without, which is why I'm not linking it here.
But the one takeaway I...took away...from the article was that the reprogramming can be reversed. All you have to do, it said, was force yourself to read an hour a day. Just one measly hour out of twenty-four. I decided to do it. This was three days ago.
Did I choose one of the ten that I was in the middle of and attack it?
Of course not.
My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry by Fredrik Backman. That is the book I'm pouring through right now. An hour a day. It's really good. My wife recommends it highly.
So far, three hours of reading in three days has left me with a renewed happiness I lost somewhere in the flashing and clicking. I'm going to keep doing it. Once I finish this book, I'll tackle each of the ones above until they are done, and then I'll go on the hunt for more.
Wish me luck.