Like you, I fell out of reading as I got older and busier. We’ve got over 2000 books in the house, taunting me with their non-readiness. Which didn’t stop me buying more of them!
At the start of this year, I set myself the goal of reading 50 books for the year, rejoined the library, made a conscious effort to disengage from the black mirror, and got reading. In the first half of the year, I got through 67 books, and have a pile of borrowed books to work through this month. It’s been good for me in so many ways. And serves as a great excuse to not do the writing I know I need to do!
I’ve started back in on reading and I’m trying to do the same as we did with music on the pod, trying new authors. I find the first part hardest, before I’m hooked in and I think I mark way too hard cause of that dopamine addiction. The Simpsons book that just came out is a good read but now I’m on white wine and romance novels
I set myself a goal of 'a book a week' about 6 or so years ago, and have mostly kept to it or exceeded (haven't quite managed 2 per week). Last year I reread one of my childhood favourites (Little Women), & was retrospectively impressed with my 8 y.o. self, because the languagecis reasonably complex.
I lobbed onto the planet from god knows where about 20 years before you John. No TV and definitely no social media. Back in the 50s it was books or radio or stuff outside. Bit of a blessing really. I've read every day of my life post about 4 years of age and get withdrawal symptoms if I run out of something to read.
Unfortunately, social media, film and television have had a terrible influence on books with many authors trying to ape the violence, carnality and language in print. It’s been such a turnoff that I now avoid that sort of stuff and look for gentle whimsy and humour instead. In my dotage I don’t need to be reminded what a savage and terrible world we live in. Neither do I need to be reminded that human beings are the most disgusting creatures on the planet.
It was with a sense of delight I read your account of falling in love with words and reading, though it does make it hard to make my usual response to your posts of either some variation of yes hard agree, an obscure reference to 80s/90s media or humorous misinterpretation of the point.
I too went through a decline in my reading from when I was a youth, interestingly it was the pandemic lockdowns and a work place restructure that threatened job cuts that lead me to 'stress read'. Now 5 years latter and I tear through a reasonably sized to_be_read_ziggurat every year.
Some of the reading apps have added to the fun giving those dopamine hits you describe from other social media when I can tick the box on completed a book, craft a review or see what others in my bookclub have read and enjoyed.
Social media is the greatest example of panes et circenses. It enables people to air their grievances in a harmless (for political matters) manner and to take out their petty frustrations on other denizens of the net rather than building barricades out of paving stones and demanding real change.
A self-attached sea anchor on creativity, reason and understanding.
For various reasons (Gen X woman and thus menopause), my brain is turning against me. Stress and Anxiety are ruling.
I’ve never not been a reader, but over the last 12 months, I’ve found there are precisely two (maybe 3) things that stop the brainweazles from taking over. Reading, and gardening. (Maybe sewing, at which I’m not very good and I love it nonetheless). So now I’m getting a bit obsessive, because I’m desperate for the relief. I’m re-reading old favourites, entire series of them, and very carefully-curated new books and authors - sci-fi/fantasy/cosy crime, in general. Pure escapism. Nothing too real or grim or dystopian. (“Horror movie … it’s the 6pm news …”).
Book clubs sound nice but I suspect they would immediately belie the point of the escapism - no longer reading purely for myself, but so I have something to say to someone else.
But it’s worth a look-in, maybe. An improvement over the endless scroll.
Re-reading is a great way to get back in after the distractions of life! I like to go back into the crime fiction - Chandler, Highsmith - there's so many that tantalise you with great writing, and plot lines that you often lose track of because the words have you in their web. Such a joy.
I became a keen reader after being in hospital back in the UK in the 1950, (I forget why), a lady came by my bed with a book trolley, she gave me 'A Night to Remember' by Walter Lord, I was hooked, I'm on a two or three books a week habit now, luckily I uses Kindle now, I ran out of shelf space years ago! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Night_to_Remember_(book)
Have always been a reader and continue to be yet have noticed that when I'm on screens too much (for me, mild for others), I don't feel good. Returning to a dose of reading always cures. :)
At the end of last year you mentioned - somewhere, maybe here - the slow read of War & Peace with Footnotes and Tangents and so I signed up. It’s been genuinely life changing. Reading again. Taking joy in reading again. Not because I have to but because I want to. Another reason to fuckin love you JB.
I loved this, John. Thank you. I too have fallen out of my beloved reading habits and desperately need to end the pointless and time vacuuming routine of scrolling.
I treasure this paradoxical post: the art of ephemeral writing laid bare & keeping me from diving back into guilty Hard SF book reading.
I have read since a lonely academic gypsy childhood, but it was in my wanderjahre (1978) that I read Le Carre's Honorable Schoolboy after visiting China via HK, then Herr's Dispatches while climbing with an ex-Vietnam medic in the Cuillins on Skye and had my localised epiphanies. More power to your arm & imagination.
I enjoy watching TV and movies in 65 inch, 4K HDR and Dolby Atmos home theater. Yet, if i was forced to choose between that or a kindle with unlimited books for the rest of my life, I’d choose the books every time.
The Talisman by The King and Straub was the one for me. I was the same age as Jack in the book. Changed my life. Books are still a refuge. But goddamn that algorithm…it’s a tricky mofo. Sucks you in like a black hole. Time gets lost at a molecular level.
Like you, I fell out of reading as I got older and busier. We’ve got over 2000 books in the house, taunting me with their non-readiness. Which didn’t stop me buying more of them!
At the start of this year, I set myself the goal of reading 50 books for the year, rejoined the library, made a conscious effort to disengage from the black mirror, and got reading. In the first half of the year, I got through 67 books, and have a pile of borrowed books to work through this month. It’s been good for me in so many ways. And serves as a great excuse to not do the writing I know I need to do!
That's an amazing effort, mate.
I’ve started back in on reading and I’m trying to do the same as we did with music on the pod, trying new authors. I find the first part hardest, before I’m hooked in and I think I mark way too hard cause of that dopamine addiction. The Simpsons book that just came out is a good read but now I’m on white wine and romance novels
I set myself a goal of 'a book a week' about 6 or so years ago, and have mostly kept to it or exceeded (haven't quite managed 2 per week). Last year I reread one of my childhood favourites (Little Women), & was retrospectively impressed with my 8 y.o. self, because the languagecis reasonably complex.
I loved The Stand, too. Still do.
I lobbed onto the planet from god knows where about 20 years before you John. No TV and definitely no social media. Back in the 50s it was books or radio or stuff outside. Bit of a blessing really. I've read every day of my life post about 4 years of age and get withdrawal symptoms if I run out of something to read.
Unfortunately, social media, film and television have had a terrible influence on books with many authors trying to ape the violence, carnality and language in print. It’s been such a turnoff that I now avoid that sort of stuff and look for gentle whimsy and humour instead. In my dotage I don’t need to be reminded what a savage and terrible world we live in. Neither do I need to be reminded that human beings are the most disgusting creatures on the planet.
It was with a sense of delight I read your account of falling in love with words and reading, though it does make it hard to make my usual response to your posts of either some variation of yes hard agree, an obscure reference to 80s/90s media or humorous misinterpretation of the point.
I too went through a decline in my reading from when I was a youth, interestingly it was the pandemic lockdowns and a work place restructure that threatened job cuts that lead me to 'stress read'. Now 5 years latter and I tear through a reasonably sized to_be_read_ziggurat every year.
Some of the reading apps have added to the fun giving those dopamine hits you describe from other social media when I can tick the box on completed a book, craft a review or see what others in my bookclub have read and enjoyed.
as you described - moments of joy.
Social media is the greatest example of panes et circenses. It enables people to air their grievances in a harmless (for political matters) manner and to take out their petty frustrations on other denizens of the net rather than building barricades out of paving stones and demanding real change.
A self-attached sea anchor on creativity, reason and understanding.
I too read the encyclopaedia as a child! As a boomer before tv, in the country, not much else to do.
I suspect there were a few of us
For various reasons (Gen X woman and thus menopause), my brain is turning against me. Stress and Anxiety are ruling.
I’ve never not been a reader, but over the last 12 months, I’ve found there are precisely two (maybe 3) things that stop the brainweazles from taking over. Reading, and gardening. (Maybe sewing, at which I’m not very good and I love it nonetheless). So now I’m getting a bit obsessive, because I’m desperate for the relief. I’m re-reading old favourites, entire series of them, and very carefully-curated new books and authors - sci-fi/fantasy/cosy crime, in general. Pure escapism. Nothing too real or grim or dystopian. (“Horror movie … it’s the 6pm news …”).
Book clubs sound nice but I suspect they would immediately belie the point of the escapism - no longer reading purely for myself, but so I have something to say to someone else.
But it’s worth a look-in, maybe. An improvement over the endless scroll.
Re-reading is a great way to get back in after the distractions of life! I like to go back into the crime fiction - Chandler, Highsmith - there's so many that tantalise you with great writing, and plot lines that you often lose track of because the words have you in their web. Such a joy.
I became a keen reader after being in hospital back in the UK in the 1950, (I forget why), a lady came by my bed with a book trolley, she gave me 'A Night to Remember' by Walter Lord, I was hooked, I'm on a two or three books a week habit now, luckily I uses Kindle now, I ran out of shelf space years ago! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Night_to_Remember_(book)
Have always been a reader and continue to be yet have noticed that when I'm on screens too much (for me, mild for others), I don't feel good. Returning to a dose of reading always cures. :)
At the end of last year you mentioned - somewhere, maybe here - the slow read of War & Peace with Footnotes and Tangents and so I signed up. It’s been genuinely life changing. Reading again. Taking joy in reading again. Not because I have to but because I want to. Another reason to fuckin love you JB.
I loved this, John. Thank you. I too have fallen out of my beloved reading habits and desperately need to end the pointless and time vacuuming routine of scrolling.
I treasure this paradoxical post: the art of ephemeral writing laid bare & keeping me from diving back into guilty Hard SF book reading.
I have read since a lonely academic gypsy childhood, but it was in my wanderjahre (1978) that I read Le Carre's Honorable Schoolboy after visiting China via HK, then Herr's Dispatches while climbing with an ex-Vietnam medic in the Cuillins on Skye and had my localised epiphanies. More power to your arm & imagination.
I enjoy watching TV and movies in 65 inch, 4K HDR and Dolby Atmos home theater. Yet, if i was forced to choose between that or a kindle with unlimited books for the rest of my life, I’d choose the books every time.
The Talisman by The King and Straub was the one for me. I was the same age as Jack in the book. Changed my life. Books are still a refuge. But goddamn that algorithm…it’s a tricky mofo. Sucks you in like a black hole. Time gets lost at a molecular level.