I'm going to have to start commuting to the office a few days per week, and I'm looking forward to using that time to read like I used to. I've never been able to find the stillness at home that I could find on a bus or streetcar, so reading anywhere near my pre-2020 quantities has been impossible (though audiobooks help somewhat). I've been missing it. I'm looking forward to getting it back. Over the past week I read a Rachel Cusk novel that I really enjoyed and would have devoured in just a couple of days if I had that commuting time built into my days. Maybe I'm just fleeing into a different kind of noise?
The categories are not cut and dry, and are, of course, personal, but I think that good literary reading can also be a kind of listening and certainly helps restore a quality of attention that can be brought to other things. Reading has, after all, long been a part of the contemplative process. And it's slower and quieter than a lot of other forms of content consumption. I also think spending time on the things that really build us back up is important, and what I get from dedicated reading time can be so much deeper and more useful than idle scrolling, for example.
I'm going to have to start commuting to the office a few days per week, and I'm looking forward to using that time to read like I used to. I've never been able to find the stillness at home that I could find on a bus or streetcar, so reading anywhere near my pre-2020 quantities has been impossible (though audiobooks help somewhat). I've been missing it. I'm looking forward to getting it back. Over the past week I read a Rachel Cusk novel that I really enjoyed and would have devoured in just a couple of days if I had that commuting time built into my days. Maybe I'm just fleeing into a different kind of noise?
The categories are not cut and dry, and are, of course, personal, but I think that good literary reading can also be a kind of listening and certainly helps restore a quality of attention that can be brought to other things. Reading has, after all, long been a part of the contemplative process. And it's slower and quieter than a lot of other forms of content consumption. I also think spending time on the things that really build us back up is important, and what I get from dedicated reading time can be so much deeper and more useful than idle scrolling, for example.
This newsie was timely (mind-reading! or maybe we're on the same zeitgeist) and like a breath of fresh air. Merci.
Thanks, LG! Let us have all the literal and figurative breaths of fresh air this year.