The Way I Read

I'm disorganized. Well, most of the time.

I lose track of things, I procrastinate and waste time.

When I read books, I like quick fixes these days, because I just don't have the time to sit down for several hours to read.

Read it over several days, I hear you cry.

And that would be fine — only I like to read a book in one hit. Luckily I read pretty fast.

If I put a book down, I often don't get back to it for ages. There is a whole stack in a corner of my study (well, the second bedroom) which are all in various stages of being read.

It's weird. I used to be able to shut everything off, lay on the bed or the sofa (or wherever!), and just get lost in the world the author created.

Not anymore. I don't know when it changed, but my attention span has definitely got shorter.

I think it has to do with the Internet. We've become so used to getting a quick fix, anything that requires us to sit still and stick with the same thing for several hours is perceived a chore.

I'm going to wean myself off this behavior. I don't like letting my brain's notion of what constitutes entertainment get in the way of my enjoyment of a 500 page book.

For instance, I love Stephen King's "The Stand". It's a bloody long book, but it certainly is well worth reading. There are others. Terry Goodkind's "Sword of Truth" series is one I really enjoyed.

But these days, I go for quick fix novellas a lot of the time.

Have your reading habits changed?