Reading a book a day – 365 books a year – is crazy. Yeah, I said it. ๐ฅ Don’t get me wrong, I love reading, but I normally read for pleasure, not necessarily for the act of opening the mind through extensive reading.
When you look at my bookshelf and my Kindle library, it’s full of lighthearted books, along with the occasional adventure and krimi. Why? Not sure… Maybe because I only really pick up my Kindle when I want to binge, and I don’t really binge on economical theory (take that challenge, Econ authors).
That’s not to say I don’t want to improve myself. I do! And I read a lot. Just not a tonne of (academic) books because I spend a lot of my day on the omniscient Google. You could say I’m in more of a researcher role. Internet rabbit holes are great. We’re constantly exposed to a mountain of information; facts are easily come by, but interpretation is wanting.
Sure, it’s really impressive to say you’ve read 365 books in a year… But you need to remember that there are other sources of information now. Anything that introduces you to new ideas hits that goal! We are so lucky to live in an age where there are podcasts, audiobooks, web articles, films… So many ways of gleaning information we’re rather spoiled.
What we need to keep in mind, however, is that it’s not impressive to obtain information if we don’t give ourselves the space to absorb it and interpret it. There’s no way of us becoming Google, so why bother absorbing raw facts if we’re not going to put a human stamp on them?
Also, when we are reading for academic, mind-opening reasons, at some point the basic ideas repeat themselves. That’s not a problem, and it’s always interesting listening to others’ interpretations of the same things, but for me it’s like picking at something that I’ve already boxed away.
And to all this she must yet add something more substantial, in the improvement of her mind by extensive reading.
Jane Austen, Pride & Prejudice (best audiobook version ever linked here – Amazon affiliate link)
Yeah, I don’t learn a tonne from a romcom, or maybe even a krimi… Sometimes I do learn something new, like archaeological terms from Elly Griffith’s Ruth Galloway series (Amazon affiliate link). But those hours of enjoyment in this age of over-information are worth it. So, opening the mind through extensive reading? For me, it’s all about the audio ๐
I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading! How much sooner one tires of anything than of a book!
Jane Austen, Pride & Prejudice (best audiobook version ever linked here – Audible affiliate link)
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