APPRECIATION: PICKING UP A BOOK OFF YOUR SHELF THAT YOU HAVE NEVER READ (BUT HAD FOR YEARS) AND READING IT IN ONE SITTING

Or, close to one sitting. I don’t think I have ever staved off my bladder or appetite for an entire book. Maybe what I mean is several sittings in one day. I believe that there is a book for everyone that if you found it you would sit down and read it in one sitting. This particular book changes daily or weekly, because we change, and our life situations change. This assumes that you know how to read and the act of reading doesn’t give you a headache or a panic attack. 

A great reading experience happens when a certain you meets a certain book at a certain time. This is why I think it’s important to surround yourself with books and ideas and it’s ridiculous to blame a book for being bad or no good or boring or whatever because you didn’t get into it one time. It might just not have been the right time for you, or the right subject, etc.

It could have been a bad book, they certainly exist, but because you didn’t get into it or weren’t feeling it, probably says more about you and your current situation in life than the book. I don’t like how that sounds exactly, and am tempted to add a bunch of clarifying buts to it, but let’s just say that I BELIEVE RIGHT NOW THERE IS A BOOK YOU WOULD ENJOY MORE THAN ANY OF THE OTHER TASKS IN YOUR LIFE IF IT WAS IN YOUR HANDS.

I checked out a ridiculous amount of books from the library last month, and only read a few, and glanced at the others. Doesn’t mean they were bad. It amazes me how the odds are stacked against you for enjoying or getting into a book if there is only one around. I know people who have the same book that they don’t really like, but kind of do, or want to, but don’t want to get another book until that one is finished. DITCH IT! GET A NEW BOOK! You can always try again another year.

There is a lot to be said for sustained reading, deep reading, immersive reading. There are a lot of names for this, and there is a lot of cultural noise about this being a lost skill or activity. I won’t add to the noise here. I’m just saying I like to read books. Many of them are better if you are allowed to get into them. Some only work if you forsake the outside world (your phone, etc.) and pay complete attention to the text.

What’s funny to me is that people do not watch six minutes of a movie and then say it’s stupid and boring and has no point. And yet stupid stuff like this is repeatedly said about reading. It’s like taking a cake out of the oven after a few minutes and saying it’s disgusting. You have to commit a little more time.

If you commit enough time to know it’s not the right book for right now, ditch it, and get another one.

I appreciate immersive reading, and the books on the shelves, like fruit on the tree, ripening for me. Or maybe it’s the books that are waiting for me. (Yikes. Weird existential moment. Books staring at me, waiting for me to become the person who needs them.)