I read every day. I don't mean I read signs and just general stuff. And I don't mean my phone and nor do I count any online content, like a newspaper - that's kind of skim reading.
I mean I read some of my current book or my current magazine (Mojo or Prog usually), every day.
I need something to transport me and stimulate my creative brain on a daily basis.
Currently its Murakami's Colorless Tsukura Tazaki.
For me, it's part of my daily routine. I read for 15 minutes every morning while I'm having breakfast on a week day. Pancake Saturdays are different. Sundays I read more.
I eke out another 10 to 15 minutes a day by reading while having a bath.
At night I aim to read for another 10 to 15 minutes before bed but that's problematic because the current Mrs Purdzilla doesn't read so it's usually a conversation. If I'm really hooked into the book I'll wake up at 2 or 3am , get up and read for an hour before going back to bed.
I'm not unique, by any stretch, and I'd like to read more but I regard anything beyond these times as a bonus.
A lot of people don't read every day. They should.
It's an important use of time and time must be found and then hung on to.
Here are some reasons why. Here are some more!
The Guardian is awesome.
I considered just having that as my post but I guess I should expand on that simple sentence.
From time to time they run a story about tablets and education.
Being The Guardian though, it's a balanced view and not an alarmist hand wringing exercise.
I particularly liked the suggestion that reading is increasing if anything but as I delved into these statistics I realised that there's nothing much conclusive there, one way or another.
Interesting article though, if you get a chance.
A student recently showed me a suggested reading list for Scholarship English. It was an interesting list with the usual suspects (Brontes, Austen, Dickens, Vonnegut and so on) but standing out like a beacon was the name Haruki Murakami.
Definitely, he stretches boundaries. I'm currently reading Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage. It's pretty straight forward compared to some of his other novels; these things are relative yunnerstan. And short too. Having finished the three books that make up 19Q4 recently this one is like a short story.
I do love his writing. Here's a pretty much random bit (which isn't meant to be taken literally btw):
At twilight birds with razor-sharp beaks came to relentlessly scoop out his flesh. But as darkness covered the land, the birds would fly off somewhere, and that land would silently fill in his flesh with something else, some other indeterminate material.
A master class of flair!
Read this (it's rill cool)!
It's extremely well written, very funny, and very relevant. Go on - you won't regret it.
The basic idea is that our brains are becoming/have become rewired by the demands of email and social media and addicted to the dopamine rush that accompanies our new emails/Txts so that we are becoming/have become less inclined to read books (and read tortured sentences like that last one).
We want the next hit from our phone or email. Our attention sp...sorry - just had to answer an email...where was I?
I'm sure the irony of signing up for an email newsletter at the end of the article is deliberate!
Currently I'm reading Murakami's 1Q84. It's a beast - three books collected into one volume. I love his stuff. This one is as surreal as he gets. Nothing is what it seems. It's freaky and reminding me of Brunel's film about dreams.
Try this sentence: The scene outside the window suggested that the world had settled in a place somewhere between "being miserable" and "lacking in joy", and consisted of an infinite agglomeration of variously shaped organisms.
Wow!
Anyway - blogging about this and reading that article (go on - READ IT!!) has made me want to go and, um, read some more. So, see ya!
Why don't you go do the same?
