Of late I notice myself avoiding picking a book to read. With a house full of unread ones this is very strange. As far back as i remember myself, a day of reading was the best. My favourite place was a bookshop and there was always one handy in my bag for the snatched moments of reading delight.
I bought a Haruki Murakami to bring the romance back- 25 pages later i am back to the 'avoid books syndrome'. Much contemplation has shown this to be a problem of 21st century living- the facebook, twitter, internet at large addiction, the enormous amount of access to music and cinema.... tv... who wants to slow down and read. Not me.
Partly the gratification of reading is slow and the speedy gonsalves mind cant wait for that long. Partly the world of words moves slower than those of images. Together books are slipping into frozen display zone.
I need help.
I need help after reading this!
ReplyDeleteIf Murakami cant bring the romance back...oopS! uess - like in life so in books - lovers , unlike love, are transient in nature !
On the other hand your visual communication is so interesting and varied. So why don't you just indulge yourself there a bit more?
MAybe - if you sit back and enjoy the fling with all these new age brats Books will eventually come back like an old flame with 'rejuvenated' passion !!
NJOY !!!
I haven't read a book (i.e. completely, from beginning to end) in some years now. My last few attempts, years ago, were filled with an internal compulsion to complete the book I picked up, and it started becoming more and more of a chore. And now I've stopped feeing guilty about having lost the habit of reading books.
ReplyDeleteI think you've nailed a couple of reasons, but here're a couple more - partly, books these days are just not gripping enough, and partly, we readers are no longer as 'grippable' (if I may coin such a word) as we used to be, even though we may be open to new ideas or fresh thinking about old ones. We can't wait for stuff to unravel over a few hundred pages. This is the age of instant gratification - in cricket, people prefer 20/20s to test matches. And yes, we're part of it, even those of us who realize the value of 'slow'.
Perhaps its time for literature to find new products, in terms of packaging. Poetry still works, on account of its brevity, though the appreciation of the subtle is not a common trait these days. But prose? I guess short stories are OK but not novels. Not quite sure the novel has a future. Meanwhile, blogs appear to be an interesting alternative!
If the medium is the message, then the message is that the medium must adapt.
I still look at a book and like an unwrapped gift,I treasure the unknown content always absorbing each page as I slowly read.
ReplyDeletePlacing myself in the medium and letting my mind do the rest.
I'm in the same boat myself.... but i do enjoy reading your blogs and also seeing the lovely pictures which go along with them. where do you get them from.
ReplyDeleteThere was a time, even as a kid I always packed a book. I was a "bookworm" loved to read. I would be reading in my dad's milk van as we rode to school on the then dirt roads of Beloved Fiji, on the bus ride back home. Even here when i took my mom or dad to the doctor's, the first thing I'd do was to reach for a magazine. I'd spend hours in second hand book stores. However there came a time when I realized that I had, so to speak, (at the risk of being immmodest)done "enough" reading.
ReplyDeleteNow I don't reach for a magazine anymore while waiting, but try to go within and contemplate, trying to read my own self.
I share a line of Baba Bulle Shah's kalam, "kabhi apne aap nu paraya na". Although I still love to pick up Kahlil Gibran's, The Prophet. It's one of those books that you can open and just start reading.
I do like reading your blog, Buoyant.