Reflections on Reading Part 1: On avoiding distractions and finding the time to read

When it comes to reading, the question I probably get asked more than any other is this: ‘how the hell do you find the time to read?’ More specifically, it’s more along the lines of ‘where do you find the time to read so [damn] much?’

‘Reading is the best education.’ (Fran Lebowitz)

In 2005, I started keeping a meticulous list of what I read, something bibliophiles sometimes refer to as a BOB:  ‘a book of books’. It’s a great snapshot of how reading shapes me during a particular period of my life, or at the very least, a simple way to keep track of what I read. Though I’d heard about this idea long ago, the editor of the NYTBR captures this far more eloquently than I could ever hope to:

“Bob offers immediate access to where I’ve been, psychologically and geographically, at any given moment in my life,” she explains in My Life With Bob. “Each entry conjures a memory that may have otherwise gotten lost or blurred with time.”

I can’t tell you the precise figures, but off the top of my head, I average roughly 40-45 books a year. But I constantly fret that this isn’t enough. I had a moment of panic a while ago when I took my average figure and started calculating my life expectancy, coming up with a number of books that I could be expected to read before I depart this life or my eyesight deteriorates to the point where I can only see 20 cm in front of me, like a newborn baby. I forget the exact number, but a rough calculation right now puts it at 800. And it seems that there are far more books to be read than that, not even taking into account the books yet to be written!

I’m not sure if this is an original idea. Something tells me this comes from a film and I may have unconsciously stolen it. I’ve done this before in this blog, when I inadvertently pilfered an idea from ‘When Harry Met Sally’, about being on a plane with awful turbulence, fearing for my life, and then jumping to the end of my book just to make sure I found out what happened before meeting my untimely demise. What’s more embarrassing? Plagiarising from ‘When Harry Met Sally’ or panicking irrationally over something as minor as turbulence on a plane?

(I forget which post I referenced this in but will consider tracking it down and sharing later)

But that doesn’t really answer the question about where to find the time to read.

It’s really as simple as this: I make reading a priority. Rightly or wrongly, to the detriment of all else – whether it’s keeping in better touch with people, writing more*, improving my language skills, exercising, watching more films or TV shows or socialising – I always prioritise reading. I barely watch films or serials these days (yet lament the little time that I do). I spend little time on social media and most of the time I don’t even know where my phone is. I’m fairly antisocial outside of work. I don’t answer emails in a timely manner. I put way too many things off. I don’t do any housework unless my wife threatens to burn my books and run away with our cat. I have a weird and perhaps misguided philosophy with life: ‘if it’s not making me a better person or adding to my knowledge or making me think, then it’s a waste of time’. (or in the case of housework, it’s never completed; you clean, then days later have to clean again.)

'It is mentally and morally injurious to man to do anything in which he does not find pleasure.' (Oscar Wilde)

(Ignore, for a minute, the amount of time that I while away watching sports, especially the Sept-Jan period where half my Sunday is consumed by American football.)

I came across a great NYT article the other day - ‘How to break up with your phone?’ – which featured this little gem: ‘how many people on their deathbeds do you think are going to say ‘I wish I’d spent more time on Facebook?’’

All the so-called greatest minds in the world of business and current affairs tend to read a lot. How many times do you happen upon articles like ‘Check out these secrets of the world’s most successful people!’ where reading is mentioned. I could choose from among many, but how about legendary investor Warren Buffett? He starts his days digesting loads of articles and estimates that he spends 80% of his day reading. When asked about the key to success, he responded thus:

“Read 500 pages like this every day. That's how knowledge works. It builds up, like compound interest. All of you can do it, but I guarantee not many of you will do it. I read and think. So I do more reading and thinking, and make less impulse decisions than most people in business. I do it because I like this kind of life."

That’s step one. Step two is a bit more challenging: avoiding distractions**, and this is pretty similar to what I’ve just said. The only major difference is in what you read. It’s easy to wake up and scroll through Twitter or read bite-size articles, or fall for the occasional clickbait (‘top 8 ways to stop procrastinating and get more done!’). The key is to get up, make your tea or coffee, and while still slightly groggy, read something ‘weighty’ or ‘substantial’. It doesn’t matter what it is, but I try to make my first port of call each morning a work of non-fiction or a classic piece of literature (what defines ‘classic?’ that will be the subject of a future post). I do not, as much as it is possible, go anywhere near anything ‘social media’ related and try to steer clear of my computer whenever possible***.

There’s a fine – or, actually, not so fine – line between avoiding distractions and procrastination. This is problematic if, like me, you suffer from serious FOMO: Fear Of Missing Out. Because I’m a voracious reader, not just of books but news, articles, reviews and literary essays, I spread myself wide and thin in trying to read and expose myself to as much as I can. I have a dreadful habit of bookmarking websites and links, telling myself that I’ll come back to them later, and thus, avoiding ‘distractions’. I’ve always got so many tabs open on my [multiple] browsers that I swear slow down my computer****. The problem with this approach is that those distractions grow and grow and then linger, and this eats away at me. Every couple of weeks I peruse my bookmarks and berate myself for not having read this or that article, or watched a particular video. The earliest bookmarks go back years and years and at this point, the healthiest thing might be to just let them go. If I avoid even looking at them, I lose track and forget what I’m [potentially] missing out on. If I do look at them, I think about how interesting they sound and tell myself that a day will come, a day in the not-too-distant future, where I’ll make myself a stiff martini (or two) and go through them rigorously, either reading or deleting them until there are none left. I fear this could take me anywhere from 24 to 72 hours of nonstop browsing. In the meantime, I keep adding more and more bookmarks. One day, perhaps, one day…

(And, Luddite alert! Even before the advent of computer bookmarks, I used to do this in good ol’ old-fashioned notebooks – and I still have these, going back to the late 90s, filled with quotations, book recommendations, websites to check out, films to watch, etc. Time to bin them and move on?)

Would that it were so easy, right?

There’s one other area that I will save for another time: because of this dreaded FOMO, even when I’m reading something I’m often not focused on it. My mind often drifts off to other places, and way too often, instead of just enjoying the moment, I’m thinking about what to read next. Or whether I should be reading what I am reading instead of something else. But this falls into the future post category ‘how do you decide what to read?’

* ’When a man writes from his own mind, he writes very rapidly. The greatest part of a writer’s time is spent in reading, in order to write: A man will turn over half a library to make one book.’ (Samuel Johnson)

The questions I am often asked about reading really center on not just finding time to read but finding time to read the ‘right’ things. Whatever you deem the ‘right’ things, I leave that up to you. But here’s a handy guide boiling down the keys to more ‘active’ reading:

·        Short of time? You need to find the time. Carve out time.

·        Read at every possible opportunity, even those that you don’t think possible: your commute, whilst waiting anywhere…always have a book with you

·        As for e-books? Absolutely – this is another topic I’ve covered on this – or my previous – blog, but I cannot find it. Maybe it’s worth re-visiting, but I’m all for e-books, my hypocrisy with technology be damned!

·        You may have to make sacrifices: no more funny cat videos on Youtube, for example

·        Resist the temptation to wake up and check your phone: read instead

·        Resist the temptation to check your phone before bed: read instead

·        If your mind is wandering it can be hard to control and hard to maintain your focus. But…this can often be a sign that you’re reading the wrong thing; or it’s the wrong time of day to read it; or it’s not the right time to read it. Nothing wrong with coming back to it later: next week, month, year.

·        Though I’ve never had much luck with meditation, focused, morning reading achieves a similar purpose: it calms me; if I can’t read in the morning, it puts me in a wretchedly foul mood. It’s therapeutic.

·        I suppose it helps that I don’t sleep well, and haven’t for years. It would probably be better if I slept more, but instead of lamenting this, I just take advantage of the extra ‘free’ time, even if I am groggy all the time, and read more.

·        The circumstances you find yourself in make a big difference. My wife loves watching mindless TV (to be fair, she’d call most of my reading ‘mindless’ – and probably pointless – as well), most of which I don’t understand because they are jabbering away in Ukrainian, so I can block out the sound and sit and read.

Much more to come on the topic of reading. There’s a lot of ground to cover.

Further reading/Bibliography

I’ve mentioned Oliver Burkeman a few times in this blog, mainly in reference to his book, The Antidote, the basic premise being that trying to think positively inevitably ends up leading to more stress and misery. His slightly hubristically-titled ‘This column will change your life’ is one of my regular go-to reads and covers a vast range of topics and almost certainly will answer a lot of your queries on how to live a better, more meaningful and more organized life. Best of all, for those short on time, they come in digestible, bite-sized chunks, and rarely take more than 2 minutes to read. Unlike most of my posts.

Just a smattering of what he has to say on this topic:

** on distraction: ‘As the Australian philosopher Damon Young points out in his book Distraction, we sometimes secretly welcome the interruptions we claim to hate, since without them we’re forced to confront the question of whether we’re using life well. But if we avoid that question, we fritter our years away.'

Read more here: Turn off notifications and break free of your online chains: We fret about distraction, yet choose to allow a device in our pocket to beep or buzz whenever someone else decides it should

*** on being slaves to our phones and the benefits of ‘digital detox’: ‘The trouble is that smartphones, like most technology, aren’t simply bad. They’re worse: a diabolical mixture of bad and very good. I love receiving photos of the baby while I’m at work; I love FaceTiming with faraway friends; I just hate the compulsion to stare absently at the web every five minutes. That’s the smartphone’s whole trick: all those addictive apps are essentially parasites.’

Read more here: Addicted to digital technology? Here's how to beat the habit: Banning yourself can have the perverse effect of making your phone more enticing

**** on bookmarking lots of pages, and saving stuff to be read later: ‘Of course, no digital arrangement is likely to solve the related problem: finding time to read all the things you mark for later reading. The vast majority of the pieces I store to read later – and even some of the ebooks I buy – never get read at all. But I’m decreasingly sure this is genuinely a problem. Rather, it works as a filtering mechanism. There’s vastly too much to read, so when I scroll down my list of saved articles, I’m thrilled, frankly, if most of them no longer seem worth the effort. And filtering is the whole point: a commonplace book that contains everything would be as useless as one that didn’t exist.’

Read more here: Want to read this article later? Maybe you should just print it out: It’s becoming increasingly difficult to keep track of online reading material. That’s why physical print-outs sometimes trump digital copies

Postscript

I’ve given up on my goal of keeping these posts to around 1000 words. It’s a futile endeavour.

‘I have made this [post] longer than usual, only because I have not had the time to make it shorter.’ (Blaise Pascal)