Over the weekend, I thought about how my reading habits have changed over the years. There are four ways your reading habits could change. First, you begin to read more about less. Second, you read less about more. Third, you read more about more. And, finally, you read less about less. Today, I feel as though I’m reading less about more. This can be problematic and it’s bothering me quite a bit. I’d feel a tiny bit better if I were reading more about less. I want to get into a habit of reading more about more. But, it’s increasingly difficult to pull it off. Why is it so hard?
LIFE HABITS
In my teens, my father and I spent countless hours in book stores and libraries. We’d get into the car on almost every weekend afternoon and spend half a day reading stuff. We read all kinds of books. In the evening, we’d talk about some of the treasure we found. My father always told me that there are three things that are always worth spending good money on … food, children, and books. Of course, his line would elicit me to blurt out something such as, “well, spend money and buy me XXX since I’m your son.” It’s amazing how he would suddenly go deaf with impeccable timing.
We did this regularly until I went away to college. Even as a bachelor, I went to bookstores quite frequently. After I got married, I just stopped going to bookstores for practical reasons. When you get married, you move in tandem. I don’t know why but you just do. My wife and I go to a bookstore only when we have something to buy. And, for some reason, every time we’re at a bookstore one of us inevitably gets hungry and we cut the visit short.
FRAGMENTED ATTENTION
My reading habits have also changed because of the inability to focus on a narrow topic for prolonged periods of time. I read less fiction and biographies now because I simply can’t concentrate for a few days at a time. Life disrupts the routine of reading much more frequently with age. So, I tend to read books that I can consume in bite sized chunks. This is not a good thing.
ONLINE READING
There’s a ton of content online. Every time I want to buy or borrow a book, I check to see if it’s available online. Oftentimes, I won’t find the exact match but do trip into something fairly close to what I need. I’d bookmark these items and never read them. Having a physical book staring back at you is great motivation for diving into prolonged periods of focused reading.
BOUNCING AROUND
Partly related to reading too much online, a lot of today’s content leads readers to other content. I call it the “bounce around” syndrome. We bounce around and get dumber with each bounce. We’re forced to read summaries of the notes taken after a Cliffs Note is read. To make matters worse, we’re then directed to other summaries and duplicative content. The sheer amount of fragments available can be daunting indeed.
Long plane trips present great opportunities to read so maybe I just need to figure out how to travel more …
- John
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