At least not the way we used to. Not far past the headline. At most, we get through the first few lines. After that, your guess is as good as mine as to when a person stops reading and starts scrolling. It’s a rare feat these days to get past the second paragraph. There’s too much to distract. By now, there are other voices vying for your attention. Not pieces of writing, per se—just content. Celebrity scandal carousels and ads for supplements keeping Hollywood’s elites looking younger than ever. And you’ll never guess who he’s with now or what she looks like at sixty.
My mind didn't glaze over. You were talking about how your shark stopped swimming so you had a barbecue with a paperback copy of Gatsby to abate your anxiety before your next Zoom meeting...
Ahem, sorry.
If anyone is looking for some beautiful prose in a new book, I've just started Ruth Allen's "Weathering". The weaving of themes is stunning!
My wife and I recline on the couch and read a book at the end of the workday. It’s usually a hardcover, but a couple of paperbacks are queuing up. The latest is a book of jokes by Jerry Seinfeld called “Is This Anything?”. It was a gift from a best friend at Christmas. On the other hand, I also am stacking up on my desk a local newspaper called The Irish Herald (I have partial Irish DNA.) It has been weeks since I looked at one. Maybe today after your piece!
Thank you for this gorgeous piece, Jeff. Poetic prose and a small-ish yet hugely important topic. I can't sit still long enough to read most things online, or to watch long videos. I think it's usually because the writing isn't succinct, beautiful, meaningful, or unusual. Too cluttered. Too impersonal. Too much "old perception." Books satisfy my body: paper, ink, the smell, the magic of written symbols morphing into words, into combinations, meanings, and experiences. Sometimes I highlight a single phrase, out of the context of its sentence, just so I can "feel into" what it actually means as a deeper experience. I hadn't thought of it that way! Sometimes the writer says something that is just one degree off from my usual understanding, and CLICK! A powerful insight, a deep amusement, and reverence for another's creativity. This kind of reading is relational.
I loved this! Thank you for sharing it! As someone who creates content (novels, poems, articles, copy for websites, etc.), I think about this too.
Every sentence you wrote flowed like unobstructed water into the next one. So well written! So well put. So well thought out.
You asked when is the last time we read to enjoy it. A few years ago, I realized that relaxing with a movie was replacing or reducing my reading time, so I sought out and stumbled upon the "right books". I gobbled them up. Sometimes I sit on the couch and read with no schedule in mind--as many pages as I'd like. I am thoroughly enjoying reading and reading book after book. I used to read and read SO many books as a kid and I am so happy to be doing that again.
I read for about 2-3 hours every morning and an hour before bedtime. Some longer articles (1/2-hr); some short. Various papers, several emailed topical subscriptions; plus referenced URL’s I’m interested in. Use Amazon Kindle to acquire books on topics of interest. If they’re good, I’ll buy the book as well.
Love this. I'm a reader, not a writer. So, I have about 6 books going plus course books to read. And I squeeze in scrolling to make sure I don't miss out on new ones.
Jeff, you have it here… it’s the sheer volume of content that is put out into the world. When you can get all you need from a 30 second Tik Tok video or a glance at an Instagram post… why bother reading?
As a Brit. And as a teacher. Reading ages in the UK average at about age 10… if we think about the concentration spans of children -
2 years old: 4-6 minutes
3 years old: 6-8 minutes
4 years old: 8-12 minutes
5-6 years old: 12-18 minutes
7–8 years old: 16-24 minutes
9–10 years old: 20-30 minutes
11-12 years old: 25-35 minutes
13-15 years old: 30-40 minutes
16+ years old: 32-50+ minutes
But screen time has seriously depleted this allocation… it’s up to us as parents, as educators, as a population whose future depend on the young to get this back on course… and this, this starts at home from the early years, to schools choosing appropriate materials, to offering a wealth of ways to become engaged with literacy…
As much as I love people sharing their reading habits… it doesn’t really matter when it comes to the future of reading - we can believe that merely viewing us as parents, as teachers will encourage the young to read; but the truth of the matter is, that while there are other things out there, easier, more accessible… they will not return to books without developing that love of reading early on.
I read, from an actual book, every day. I read newsletters too on my phone. Sometimes I read diligently to the bottom. Like with yours just now. And sometimes I scroll but at the moment I catch myself doing that, I hit the delete button and move on
Man, I dig this! Thanks for getting this idea in my head. Just letters on a page can be capable of so much more. I heard someone recently quote some economist, "the greatest natural resource is our imagination". Kinda gives you hope in such an absurd landscape to realize these truths.
We live in a world of a non-stop information geyser that’s akin to trying to drink from a firehose. The democratization of the internet has, for better or worse, added a LOT MORE chaff than wheat and we spend HOURS just trying to separate the overtly shitty from the mediocre just to HOPE there’s some good stuff worth reading…
I’m sure I’m in the minority but I have come to dislike “analog” paper. I have THOUSANDS of books on my iPad because all I want is the RAW DATA, which is also why I DESPISE videos. When I see a video, the FIRST THING I look for is a transcript and if there’s NOT ONE? DELETE… If the transcript is interesting enough, I’ll watch the video later for the nuance factor…
I read in the morning. After writing in my journal. I am currently reading 4 books. I am a reader and a writer. Morning is the best time for me to read. I write whenever, no schedule. I work on email in the afternoon. Not only that, but I am currently reading Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, The Handbook for Spiritual Warfare, The Complete Works of EM Bounds on Prayer, The Life and Times of Call the Midwife. I always have a book close by. I have written and published three books of poetry and am currently working on my fourth one.
I have been part of book clubs for a long time and always loved getting the latest paperback books from Scholastic Book Club when I was a kid. I loved the newness of the book, the smell of the pages, being able to touch the words and still do.
To know one thing well is much better than being only slightly informed or not, on everything that is going on. It is impossible and chaotic for our brains.
My conundrum today is, strangely enough, similar to the long list of blogs i used to line up to read oh so many decades ago during the height of the blogging era. Substack is now taking over my reading space. On one hand i enjoy the daily variety, on the other, my 'reading a book' time is affected...😪
I've just been thinking that it's been too long since I curled up on the sheepskin and read a real book. You've already described perfectly the visceral feel/smell of the pages. Bread....no wonder I love real books. Social media is the devil in disguise for me -- that has ruined my attention span and now I hesitate to even watch a video that is longer than 7 minutes. The few people with 2.5 hour interviews....what can they be thinking? It feels like a whole day. I am too chronologically enhanced to give a rat's arse what celebrities are doing, there are amazing amounts of interesting things backlogged on my reading list. The world is magnificent and startling.
My mind didn't glaze over. You were talking about how your shark stopped swimming so you had a barbecue with a paperback copy of Gatsby to abate your anxiety before your next Zoom meeting...
Ahem, sorry.
If anyone is looking for some beautiful prose in a new book, I've just started Ruth Allen's "Weathering". The weaving of themes is stunning!
My wife and I recline on the couch and read a book at the end of the workday. It’s usually a hardcover, but a couple of paperbacks are queuing up. The latest is a book of jokes by Jerry Seinfeld called “Is This Anything?”. It was a gift from a best friend at Christmas. On the other hand, I also am stacking up on my desk a local newspaper called The Irish Herald (I have partial Irish DNA.) It has been weeks since I looked at one. Maybe today after your piece!
Thank you for this gorgeous piece, Jeff. Poetic prose and a small-ish yet hugely important topic. I can't sit still long enough to read most things online, or to watch long videos. I think it's usually because the writing isn't succinct, beautiful, meaningful, or unusual. Too cluttered. Too impersonal. Too much "old perception." Books satisfy my body: paper, ink, the smell, the magic of written symbols morphing into words, into combinations, meanings, and experiences. Sometimes I highlight a single phrase, out of the context of its sentence, just so I can "feel into" what it actually means as a deeper experience. I hadn't thought of it that way! Sometimes the writer says something that is just one degree off from my usual understanding, and CLICK! A powerful insight, a deep amusement, and reverence for another's creativity. This kind of reading is relational.
I loved this! Thank you for sharing it! As someone who creates content (novels, poems, articles, copy for websites, etc.), I think about this too.
Every sentence you wrote flowed like unobstructed water into the next one. So well written! So well put. So well thought out.
You asked when is the last time we read to enjoy it. A few years ago, I realized that relaxing with a movie was replacing or reducing my reading time, so I sought out and stumbled upon the "right books". I gobbled them up. Sometimes I sit on the couch and read with no schedule in mind--as many pages as I'd like. I am thoroughly enjoying reading and reading book after book. I used to read and read SO many books as a kid and I am so happy to be doing that again.
Happy reading! Again, loved reading this post!
I read for about 2-3 hours every morning and an hour before bedtime. Some longer articles (1/2-hr); some short. Various papers, several emailed topical subscriptions; plus referenced URL’s I’m interested in. Use Amazon Kindle to acquire books on topics of interest. If they’re good, I’ll buy the book as well.
Love this. I'm a reader, not a writer. So, I have about 6 books going plus course books to read. And I squeeze in scrolling to make sure I don't miss out on new ones.
Jeff, you have it here… it’s the sheer volume of content that is put out into the world. When you can get all you need from a 30 second Tik Tok video or a glance at an Instagram post… why bother reading?
As a Brit. And as a teacher. Reading ages in the UK average at about age 10… if we think about the concentration spans of children -
2 years old: 4-6 minutes
3 years old: 6-8 minutes
4 years old: 8-12 minutes
5-6 years old: 12-18 minutes
7–8 years old: 16-24 minutes
9–10 years old: 20-30 minutes
11-12 years old: 25-35 minutes
13-15 years old: 30-40 minutes
16+ years old: 32-50+ minutes
But screen time has seriously depleted this allocation… it’s up to us as parents, as educators, as a population whose future depend on the young to get this back on course… and this, this starts at home from the early years, to schools choosing appropriate materials, to offering a wealth of ways to become engaged with literacy…
As much as I love people sharing their reading habits… it doesn’t really matter when it comes to the future of reading - we can believe that merely viewing us as parents, as teachers will encourage the young to read; but the truth of the matter is, that while there are other things out there, easier, more accessible… they will not return to books without developing that love of reading early on.
Huge apologies for the rant x
I read, from an actual book, every day. I read newsletters too on my phone. Sometimes I read diligently to the bottom. Like with yours just now. And sometimes I scroll but at the moment I catch myself doing that, I hit the delete button and move on
Man, I dig this! Thanks for getting this idea in my head. Just letters on a page can be capable of so much more. I heard someone recently quote some economist, "the greatest natural resource is our imagination". Kinda gives you hope in such an absurd landscape to realize these truths.
We live in a world of a non-stop information geyser that’s akin to trying to drink from a firehose. The democratization of the internet has, for better or worse, added a LOT MORE chaff than wheat and we spend HOURS just trying to separate the overtly shitty from the mediocre just to HOPE there’s some good stuff worth reading…
I’m sure I’m in the minority but I have come to dislike “analog” paper. I have THOUSANDS of books on my iPad because all I want is the RAW DATA, which is also why I DESPISE videos. When I see a video, the FIRST THING I look for is a transcript and if there’s NOT ONE? DELETE… If the transcript is interesting enough, I’ll watch the video later for the nuance factor…
I LOVE your writing!!!
I read in the morning. After writing in my journal. I am currently reading 4 books. I am a reader and a writer. Morning is the best time for me to read. I write whenever, no schedule. I work on email in the afternoon. Not only that, but I am currently reading Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, The Handbook for Spiritual Warfare, The Complete Works of EM Bounds on Prayer, The Life and Times of Call the Midwife. I always have a book close by. I have written and published three books of poetry and am currently working on my fourth one.
I have been part of book clubs for a long time and always loved getting the latest paperback books from Scholastic Book Club when I was a kid. I loved the newness of the book, the smell of the pages, being able to touch the words and still do.
To know one thing well is much better than being only slightly informed or not, on everything that is going on. It is impossible and chaotic for our brains.
So much to choose from, so many ways to find ways before our faces. Very good voiceover.
Reading is how I keep my sanity intact.
My conundrum today is, strangely enough, similar to the long list of blogs i used to line up to read oh so many decades ago during the height of the blogging era. Substack is now taking over my reading space. On one hand i enjoy the daily variety, on the other, my 'reading a book' time is affected...😪
I've just been thinking that it's been too long since I curled up on the sheepskin and read a real book. You've already described perfectly the visceral feel/smell of the pages. Bread....no wonder I love real books. Social media is the devil in disguise for me -- that has ruined my attention span and now I hesitate to even watch a video that is longer than 7 minutes. The few people with 2.5 hour interviews....what can they be thinking? It feels like a whole day. I am too chronologically enhanced to give a rat's arse what celebrities are doing, there are amazing amounts of interesting things backlogged on my reading list. The world is magnificent and startling.