Keeping Up with Your Reading: The Lost Art of Sitting Still
This account comes from a place of deeply cherished memories which I am holding onto to feel like the present is not as lackluster as it seems or that the amount of imagination that I possessed as a child would perfectly cover up for the paucity of it now. Yes, shocker, this is an ode to my tryst with reading and before we keep the wheels turning, it’s necessary to issue a reader’s warning. So here it goes:
This article may act as a trigger to all the individuals out there who indulge in tsundoku, hoping that one day they will wipe the dust off their untouched pile of books and quickly go through them a week at a time. Having said that, the transition is not organic, just like everything else in life you will have to work hard to get to the reading bit of the experience.
Reading was never an activity for me, it was something I looked forward to. It was an escape to a world more fascinating than the one that I experienced on a first hand basis. A book was an abut for characters beyond one’s perceived imagination while it also introduced relatable content to get you hooked onto it, just the right amount. This secret blend of a higher sought after version of reality created the perfect book for me on most accounts. If I may even go so far as to say, books walked so that VR set-ups could run! You sit in your own three dimensional world, but you live in a world beautifully curated on pieces of paper, scene after scene, word after word, by another human being, with interpretations far beyond your own. There is something almost mystical about the concept. If that is really the case, why am I sitting here and writing this extensive just another piece of ‘informational’ write-up, you may ask? Well, the reason’s pretty simple, just like every other adult I lost the ability to sit and read and I want you guys in on the journey of it.
The bibliophile in me had left the building five years ago, reducing me to someone who would get excited at the thought of buying books until she has to finish them and finds herself struggling to get past the 50th page. Not to mention, this did come as a surprise to me just as I entered college because this was not what I had envisioned myself to be: A person with low attention span. You are what you read and what will I be if I didn’t read? Starting a book was never a problem for me, consistency was. I would often start reading a book ages ago but would not move beyond the 10th page wherein I would convince myself of either of these three things:
1. There are better suited books out there that I should be reading instead of this one for whatever maybe the reason (could be personal or professional growth).
2. I anyway have to do so much reading today, why would I want to spend my spare hours reading too? (At this point I had stopped thinking of reading as a recreational activity, it became something you just have to do, so if you could skip any of it, skip it!)
3. The book is too complicated for a leisurely read, there are too many technicalities right off the 3rd page and I don’t want to follow up with all that.
These were the explicit and viable excuses I came up with, the implicitly sneaky part was me constantly checking my socials till I was blue in the face. What’s more, all of this culminated into an innate feeling of not being as informed as I could have been, if I could just push myself a little bit more. Long story short, I had degraded a full-fledged activity of reading and absorbing information to a night time 15 minute dance, just so that I could fall asleep better than I would if I were to use my phone.
After a few days of splitting hairs, I have got it in the bag. There are two levels to this, level one deals with your attitude whereas level two focusses on the technique. One could go about this in two simple ways, the first one being an obligation: you tell yourself that reading is good for you and that you have to do it every day to become a better informed individual. But, has anyone ever enthusiastically acted upon a feigned sense of duty? The second one is what I call a fun run, wherein you look at reading as a lost art, as an age old Smithsonian activity which is not the recreational choice of the masses anymore. The thought of a book with its nonpareil hug wrapping you up in its definitely indefinite pages in a moving train or in a classroom full of people.
Now depending on the intensity of romanticism that you house within yourself (on a scale of Sheldon Cooper to Ted Mosby) you could adopt either of those two attitudes with the right approach. In my experience (limited, that is) for the romantics, the knack for reading comes easier than most, as long as they identify their book of interest. Ergo my inclination is naturally to address the people who have their head *only and strictly* in the game.
I have collated a conclusive, non-exhaustive list, consisting of level one and level two which could act as a baseline for anyone trying to be an avid reader without a romantic heart.
1. Make it your priority: Yes I know I talked about feigned sense of duty two paragraphs ago but to quote my sibling here “having fun is serious business”. You have got to work a little to go a long way. So, for starters, you could allocate a little bit of your spare time because by margin, that’s better than nothing. If schedules aren’t your thing then you could just make it a point to prioritize reading enough to delegate a chunk of your time to it instead of clicking on that ‘Next Episode’ button on your screen. Long story short, read whenever you can.
2. The Book v. Show Conundrum: A concern that often comes up is the slow uptake from a book, that is, the time you would take to consume information from a book would be so much more than time spent on absorbing key takeaway from watching a show. Yes, it’s a faster form of recreation, there is no denying that. Mind you, there is no better form of entertainment, both of them stem from creative writing. I am only here to address this particular concern which is stopping you from picking up a book because of this time based comparison. Here’s the catch though, when you read you become an active learner. You have the steering wheel in your hand, you are the captain of your ship. You have no choice but to supply to the imagery of the story because an author can only do so much. You can construct the same scenario in different settings along with the author. The process makes you much more involved in the source material, to the maximum point of reaching the flow state. This cannot be compared to watching a show because even though shows or visuals are gratifying in the moment, you automatically are a passive learner in that process, you take the backseat as you go with the tide of the show and what it wants to portray. There may be hidden plot links but there is rarely more to it than what is on your screen. This drives home the point of there being no comparison between these two forms of recreation.
3. The choice of book MATTERS, but not initially: If you are trying to inculcate the habit of reading and you have chosen a book which has your brain but not your heart, you won’t make it past the 10th page. Recreation is not supposed to be calculated. The goal is to get you to start reading and include it in your routine. Baby steps. Go with the book which will keep you engrossed, over the book that you wanted to read because it’s a cult favorite, especially initially.
4. Ironically a book needs to do what a show does for you: Given how fast paced our lives are you can only manage to sit through written material if you find it interesting. Just like most of us lack the discipline to eat healthy food based only on the consideration that it’s good for us. Similarly, if you pick up a book solely because it’s good for you, you won’t finish it. It’s not sustainable. Make it interesting, which brings me to my next point.
5. Fiction and Non-fiction: A fiction would automatically demand scene creation from you as and when you go along the story. You would drop the book if it isn’t making the imagery easier for you to visualize. You will choose a fiction where you would be able to station yourself in scenarios because when you can watch the scenes play out, that is when you cannot help but read the next page. However, most of us struggle with non-fiction, because here the presentation of facts as well as the writing style make all the difference. Suppose you did pick up a book you wanted to read because you wish to know more about a historical event, or a field of science or finance or just about anything else, it’s crucial to relate it to your surroundings or real life circumstances and create analogies. Not only would your grasp on these newly discovered concepts grow stronger because your mind tends to remember things which have closely drawn affiliations but you would also wish to know more of it. Bottom-line: Make it Interesting. This is on you.
6. Break in Continuity: All of us are guilty of this. We pick up a book but we never finish it, it’s either life throwing hurdles at us or just something else which had to be catered to. As stupid as this point is going to be, human nature is to stick with things which tantalize the senses. The only solution that I could come up with for this one was to leave a book on an interesting note or a high point which would make me want to read more of it when I pick it up again.
7. Sitting Still: This is the devil in disguise that has tormented me every now and then. I rarely find myself calm enough to sit still for a while and read. I am a strong believer of the ideology ‘mornings set the mood for the rest of the day’, so I put the theory to test and it didn’t come as a surprise that whenever I started my day with a good reading session, I was more focused to take the day by storm. I felt like I could get anything done and mostly I was able to. You could either start your day with a good read or end your day with one. In the morning, your mind is susceptible to everything, it’s a chasm with a great gravitational pull, and a good read would make for a perfect kick start. Contrast it to the night where your mind is filled with ideas that you picked up from your surroundings, then a good read would work like a cleanse (shout out to all my green tea lovers, I am looking at you) for your brain.
That’s it my padwans, you have made it through the end, that is if you have, in which case either you realllllyyy wanted to know how to get past a full book or you liked this article, both of these reasons make me trust your reading ability. So go get that book because you clearly got this! Until next time!
-Your Friendly Neighbourhood Not Lady Whistledown
