When do you read? How do you read? How much do you read?

[darkemeralds]

I'm at a crossroads. No, not the demon-summoning kind. I have almost completely lost the ability to sit and read, but I want to read.

For a few years it was just books, while I was still readily able to enjoy masses of fic, and ebooks, on a portable device. Regardless of format/medium, I still loved losing myself in a story.

Now it's everything. I can't seem to sit and read anymore.

The internet is largely to blame: I recognize its adverse impact on my attention span, and that impact seems to be extreme in my case. I also acknowledge that in swapping an hour's daily commute by bus for the same commute by bike, I've exchanged one of my best reading moments for an exercise moment.

But it's not just about time. I have more time, because I've cut television hours down to two or three a week; my day to day life is pretty orderly, and frankly I pay people to do the time-consuming stuff I don't like; I need the same amount of sleep I've always needed; and my social life has taken no extraordinary leaps.

So

• Do you read books? In what formats?
• How would you describe your relationship to reading?
• How much do you read--hours per week, books per month, however you measure it?
• When? Under what circumstances?
• Is there something you specifically don't do to make time for reading?
• Have you noticed a decline in attention--in the ability to sit and read? And if so, how do you deal with it?

I'd really like to know.

Comments

[tehomet]

Do you read books? In what formats?

Yes, in regular wedge-of-processed-tree format. I don't have an e-reader partly because I can't afford it and partly because although I love my laptop, I don't want to spend more time than I already do in front of a screen for eco reasons, so despite the advantages of e-readers, I can't be bothered to save up for one.

How would you describe your relationship to reading?

Intense, devoted, and of long standing. I started reading when I was two. Like a lot of people who had challenging childhoods, sometimes reading is an escape. So the intense concentration I was capable of when I was a kid and a teenager was partially self-defense, I think. When I was seven, I'd read everything in the children's section of the library, so my mother made arrangements for me to check books out of the adult section, providing a librarian vetted my choices. (God be with the days when 'adult section' just meant 'books for adults' and not 'porn.'!) Obviously I read all through college, although usually not the course texts. :) I love books so much, I used to own a bookstore, basically so I could read all the time.

How much do you read--hours per week, books per month, however you measure it?

An hour per day, minimum. It used to be three hours a day when I worked in an office and had an hour commute on the train each way. I miss that! The opportunity, not the commuting.

When? Under what circumstances?

I used to literally sit and read for hours on end. But not anymore, I don't have the time. Now I have a cup of tea after I eat, and I read then if I'm not chatting with people. I carry my book with me in my bag so I can read in queues or waiting rooms. If I have time, I read in the evenings. And I read a bit before I go to sleep. I usually have two books on the go. The book I read at bedtime is much lighter than the one I read during the day. And I read fanfiction off and on during the day, as well. In fact, I think to some degree, fanfiction has replaced the fiction books I used to read. Now my daytime books tend to be non-fiction which usen't to be the case.

Is there something you specifically don't do to make time for reading?

Yes, I deliberately don't watch much TV, and that which I watch, I watch online so I can fast forward through the credits and skip the ads.

Have you noticed a decline in attention--in the ability to sit and read? And if so, how do you deal with it?

Yes. Some of it is simply that I'm busier now than I used to be. Some of it is due to too much caffeine, too much stress, and to reading in little chunks rather than in swathes. I switched to herb tea but I can't do much about the other stuff at the moment, unfortunately. And some of it is down to my current circumstances, where I live. I would never rent a DVD to watch either, because I know I'd be interrupted, so I go to the cinema - I hate that feeling when my concentration gets broken, it's sort of painful. In the same way, when I want to read, I go out to the garden or into the den and close (and sometimes, actually lock) the door. I'm a big fan of doing only one thing at a time as an anti-stress measure, and if I have to lock a door to do it, I will!

[darkemeralds]

I don't think I knew that you are a former bookstore owner. My father, also a great lover of books, went something like that route, dealing in old and rare books by mail order. He had a good eye. I'm afraid I didn't inherit it.

Not surprisingly here in Journal World, you're one of several people to have mentioned that fic has taken up a lot of reading that used to go to "real" books. I have no quarrel with that at all--I view it as part of the fascinating and massive cultural and economic shift happening as a result of highly distributed information, and heaven knows fanfic was a mainstay of my reading life until I apparently lost the ability to read at all.

I like your practical approach to the attention problem: go to the cinema, lock the door, switch to herb tea. Sane steps to take, and man, what a powerful statement this is: "doing only one thing at a time as an anti-stress measure."

I need to take that to heart. I think there's a huge clue for me there. Thank you for it.