Wednesday 8 October 2014

Too many books...

Source: from here

The above poster expresses how I often feel about reading: a kind of desperate clamouring pressure to get through the pile of unread books I have on my bookshelf or the mental list of classic and contemporary literature I feel I should read. Ridiculously, this even gets a bit stressful sometimes, which is why reading the conclusion of John Miedema's book, Slow Reading (I wrote more about it here), is a good reminder that the reason why we get hooked on books in the first place is pleasure, not to prove ourselves or tick off titles on a list. So, I thought that I'd share those insightful words here:
"It is often said that a person can only read about five thousand books in a lifetime. It is a small range of books given the accelerating quantity available to us. This limitation might lead some readers to rush their reading, thereby increasing the number of books. This response turns a reader into a tourist, jumping from experience to experience, noting only the highlights, being able to say he or she has done it, though not entirely sure what was done. Another response is to simply and happily acknowledge that life is indeed short, and that our smaller selection of books represents a unique expression of our character. This second choice removes the needless pressure from reading, and restores it as a great pleasure."

4 comments:

  1. This has me thinking of the way I like to travel. I like to sink into a place and feel as if I'm living there for a short while versus vacationing. I try and find lodging with a kitchen and buy groceries from the local market. I like to slowly stroll around the neighborhood I'm staying in and observe the little things. Hopping from landmark to landmark is not for me. I know my true nature is to read the same way, yet I often find myself piling up too many books at once and feeling pressured to get through them. Something I'd like to work on. I want to restore my reading to "a great pleasure".

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    1. So true! Reading takes us places too and if we read too fast, then the book's true landscape goes by unappreciated! I have the same problem.

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  2. A pleasure to meet you Nicole.

    I do read to expand my horizons, but mostly I read for pleasure. I don't keep track of the number of books I read, but of the number of books that tell such a good story or are written so beautifully that I am compelled to buy them and read them again...and again.

    I resonated with the traveling metaphor. I am wired to absorb and to absorb slowly. Both in reading and in travel. My oldest child stopped traveling with us in her teen years, because my husband and I spend too much time looking at water.

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    1. Thanks for reading my blog! I love the story about your travels and spending too much time looking at water - that's wonderful. =)

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