Exchanging Twitter for some REAL reading

[darkemeralds]

At some point a few years ago, Twitter became magically addictive to me. Prior to that I could take it or leave it, but something-something-SPN-fandom-something happened, and I got hooked.

Periodically since then I've quit, but I swear it's like quitting smoking. Just one peek at my notifications and within two weeks I'm back up to a pack a day.

A couple of weeks ago it was time to quit again, and so far the abstinence is paying off. My goal wasn't simply to stop wasting my life (I mean...hours per day!), but to read more books. To recapture the magic of reading.

It seems to be working. Since I deleted my Twitter app, I've finished two and a half novels and chunks of two nonfiction titles. (I'm talking actual text-on-page books here. My audiobook game has never wavered.) A side benefit is slowly-returning attention and focus in general.

Finished:
Black Swan Green by David Mitchell (the one he published after Cloud Atlas)
A Marvellous Light by Freya Marske (queer Edwardian magicians solving a mystery--loads of fun)

In progress:
Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead (his prose deserves the two Pulitzers he's won)
History in English Words by Owen Barfield (very old, but kind of charming)
The Passion of the Western Mind by Richard Tarnas (survey of Western philosophy; not easy reading)

Up next:
The "Capitola" novels of E.D.E.N Southworth (mid-19th century American adventures featuring a feisty girl protagonist named Capitola. Southworth was the most popular author of her day, publishing 60 novels between 1849 and 1915.)
The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet (to continue my project of reading all David Mitchell's novels in 2022.)

It is wonderful to be reading again.

Comments

[ranunculus]

I'm SO glad you are reading again.

Twitter, maps all kinds of electronic stuff. I often "encourage" (nag?) Donald about having his head down in electronic world insteaad of up looking around.....

[darkemeralds]

These days, looking around at the real world is a radical act.

[cookiemom6067]

Twitter hasn't been a fandom thing for me (probably because I use my real name on there, and I still buy in to the "don't talk about fight club" thing about fandom activities - seriously never will do ITPE).

But I hear you, because Tumblr inspires that "oops, it's been two hours and I've blown past my bedtime" thing with me.

Twitter and FB both WERE heavy politics/news triggers for me, and, after January of last year, I had to step away and work on my own mental and physical health.

The algorithms are designed to keep us scrolling and pull us into rabbit holes.

Dusting off my "to read" list - my daughter got into ASOIAF and is desperate for me to catch up with her because she wants to discuss them with me. It's been slow going, because I binge watched GOT, so I feel like I already know what's coming. If I were starting fresh, I might be more enthusiastic, but maybe not. My enthusiasm for actual books has waned so much and it is baffling to me.

[darkemeralds]

It's not a good fandom space--it never was. No conversation. As I recall, the thing that roped me in were people in the SPN fandom posting links to con videos at a particular moment, when J2 were beginning to embrace their roles as leaders of the fandom. It was really engaging.

But then the scrolling got me. Twitter abstinence Day 12 today.

It's funny--my enthusiasm for books never waned. There they'd sit, and I'd feel this terrible nostalgia for the bygone days when they were my best friends, and long to renew that friendship. It was just my attention span that was lacking. It might be coming back.

Good luck with ASOIAF.

[tabaqui]

The Capitola novels sound interesting (I googgled) - are their just the two? It's so hard to tell, sometimes, with older works.

[darkemeralds]

They do look like fun. I heard that the town of Capitola, California was actually named after the character in these books! Haven't verified, but that's what made me curious.

Near as I can tell, there are three:
1. The Hidden Hand
2. Capitola the Madcap
3. Capitola's Peril

It probably goes without saying that I got them on Project Gutenberg.

[tabaqui]

Love that site. :D
Thanks!