Yes, we read a lot more than before. But is it quality reading? The spirit of each age modifies our habits and perceptions, and I wonder if, in this super-ultra-beyond-industrialized-and-mega-modern world of us, aren’t we reading in too an industrial way.
I am convinced that the industrial, über-productive mentality that surrounds us has permanent effects on our psyche, as we might be taking such a mentality to areas where a different approach is required (for further details read this article, and please remember that I was a rookie then, have mercy!).
Reading is most certainly one of those areas where we could use a more human approach. A quote by the French philosopher Albert Camus put me on the track. He remarked that, in the old Greek culture, people usually read less but, on the other hand, reflected more on what they had read.
Of course, such stance towards written words has historic explanations too: it might be hard to believe, but information was a scarce good in other times (more information in this excelent film-not aff, just excellent), and literate population was a minority.
But I think there’s more to it. Reading is a luxury, one of those commodities we always take for granted. My guess is that, very often, we face it with the wrong mentality, either industrially (”produce, produce, produce, produce read books, as many and as fast as you can”), or with our peculiar consumer greed (”I have read X books”, with the stress on HAVE, i.e. “such information belongs to me, I’ve made my way through it and now it’s mine and only mine, hahaha”).
Sadly for those “human steamrollers”, things might not work that way. Certain books (or honest blog posts), might require a process of maturing, in addition to the physical act of reading them. Generally speaking, every text requires a different strategy, a different approach in order to assimilate its substance, and, just like in other fields, sometimes you succeed by quitting. Example: when the novel has reached that impressive climax, close the book. When you reach that useful or inspiring thought in the essay, stop reading. Allow those outstanding moments to travel with you for a while.
Of course there are counter-examples too: there are novels that you simply cannot quit, you’re in the zone and feel that the time is right. Or essays where each idea takes to the next one and you feel that it is better to go for the whole picture once you’ve gathered reading momentum. Every book and every reader are different, and that’s why reading is an art, not an industrial manufacture.
The best rule of thumb for me has always been keeping in mind that the text is only the format; behind it there is some human being’s imagination, wit, worries… We human are interdependent, so if you belong to A, B, or C type, you’ll always find interesting what Z, Y or X has to say. Format only disguises the phenomenon a bit. Just like recorded music, it opens a wide range of possibilities (I can listen to Charlie Parker, who died in 1955, I can read Goethe, who died in 1832), but also a range of dangers (those studio products that have NOTHING to do with human voice or actual playing, the possibility of thinking that books grow from a tree…)
So I guess that, in the end, it all comes down to one word: gratitude. Admiring is healthy, so such gratitude is not a “pussy habit”, but something that you do for your own good. It is not encouraged by the mainstream precisely because, on the other side of the process, there is the book manufacturer, who wants to produce produce produce readable units, and that requires that you produce produce produce read units, the faster the better.
So, if you are a die-hard reader like me, don’t let them push you. Read less, and never read nothing that is not worthwhile to reflect upon. Let’s keep things to a human scale, and maybe we’ll be able to slow things a bit.
How many books do you read yearly? Do you ever have a feeling that you don’t get to the substance (if any)? Are you grateful towards what you read? Does it travel with you?
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Admiration is healthy (and powerful, too…)