Yesterday I was doing some research on reading. When I say “research”, I mean I was searching the internet for ideas and sort of “lay-science” stuff about reading and it’s beneficial effects on your brain and your life. Yes, as all graduates of the School of Hard Knocks and Trump University say, I was “doing my research.”
Being a reference librarian, I started out searching academic databases (GASP – I just blew it! Now you know my aforementioned academic credentials are fraudulent!) I found a couple of interesting papers, but overall the research seems to concentrate on teaching kids to read and youth literacy. That is of course important work, but not my interest here. I was looking for…
- Evidence that reading is good for the mental and physical health of adults and methods of helping adults
- Methods to help adults regain their ability to concentrate enough to read novels or other long-form literature
- Methods, ideas, and structures for helping adults develop a regular reading practice
Sadly, a lot of the blogs I found are — you guessed it – content marketing fake blogs. Not a person actually conveying their experience or ideas, but bullshit (probably generated by AI) content marketing. Let me digress for a moment and say that anyone involved in LLMs should be taken out and maimed.
I am sad to report that in a short two-hour session of searching, the best stuff I found was on YouTube. Fuck. Good grief. On one hand it is nice to find quality stuff there, but it saddens me that the good stuff in submerged in an endless ocean of sludge. Oh well, that’s the world we live in, so put on your hazmat suit and dive right in.
I found this video by Jared Henderson, called “How to Read Better.” Jared actually has a really nice channel full of longer-form videos, and after watching this and a few other of his videos I decided to “subscribe” to his channel. Jared’s observations and opinions included some pretty obvious stuff that I think most of us know, but he articulates it well. One of the obvious but true observations is – you guessed it – the negative effects of the cell phone. There’s other stuff too. Watch the video, and maybe some of his others.
Then I found this guy, Randy Ray, and this video. Liked his videos too. His advice is pretty much the same, but the video I linked to just now talks about some of the benefits of reading. Very cool. I watched a couple of Randy’s videos, and another thing I liked was his elucidation of the idea that reading is a skill and you can get better at it. Most of us “know how to read.” Most of us are functionally literate these days. I realize I may be glossing over some populations when I say that, but that’s another matter. An important matter, but beyond what I’m talking about now. But being functionally literate doesn’t mean you read well. Reading is a skill. Or maybe a set of sub-skills really. But like most skills, the more you do it the better you get at it. So it makes sense that if you don’t read much long-form writing you may struggle at first. A lot of people say they can’t concentrate. They say they are too busy. They’d like to read but there are obstacles like these. Well, the only way to solve that problem is to start small and read. Don’t worry too much about what you are reading. Find a book that is actually of interest to you, not something you are “supposed to read.” If you can’t concentrate, start small. Read a page without checking your goddamn phone. Is that too much? No shame. Try a paragraph. Then think about that paragraph a bit. If your concentration has been destroyed by all the distracting factors of modern life you have to rebuild it. It’s been taken from you. Get mad! Take it back!
A couple of years ago I took all the social media off my phone, but over time it insidiously wormed its way back. Last night I once again removed all social media from it. I mean ALL. It’s going to remain off my phone. If I want to participate it will be on my computer, which means I can’t compulsively check it at a stop light, in a waiting room, or while sitting in my chair trying to read. And guess what? Last night I finished the book I was reading!
Anyway, my personal reading practice, which totally feel through last year due to me spending a lot of time working on tabletop RPG stuff, is read 5% of a novel every day. Minimum. I read on a Kindle for the most part, so it tracks percent completed. To me, 5% is a very doable number for daily reading. If I’m reading a 400-page novel, that means I need to read 20 pages a day. If I read a page in 1 minute on average, that’s about 20 – 30 minutes of reading. I can do that. That means that if I stick to it I complete a book every 20 days. Normally I read more than that, but if I just read at my minimum level I feel good about my day no matter what kind of day it is.
I will say there is some super bad advice on YouTube about reading as well as these two stellar channels I’ve mentioned. I saw one guy talking about always having a pen and marking up books as you read. This is a horrible idea. HORRIBLE. Sentences have a flow. Paragraphs and pages and chapters and entire books have a flow. Even non-fiction. I can think of no better way to destroy the reading experience that obsessively taking notes while you read. Read the damned thing, and think about it, and then you can go back and make notes later. YouTubers who stress bullshit like constant note taking tend to view reading as simply extracting information from a text. It reeks of techbro optimizer douchbag culture.
You will not develop a regular practice of reading by making the experience a drag.
If you care to do so, I do think journaling about what you read can be useful. I keep a blog about my science fiction reading. It’s fun. I don’t dig into a ton of details. I just write what I think about a book. Sometimes I just note that I began it and finished it. Sometimes more. It is a nice chance to take a little time and reflect on what you just read. I think that’s a good thing.
Well, this has been kind of an all over the place screed, I know. Need to get it off my chest and share some good videos.
I was born a bookworm and have always been reading. As a kid, I would get yelled at to put the book down and go outside. These days I average about 1 book a week. I’ve noticed, though, in the past few years my concentration levels have nosedived and, even if the book is super interesting, it’s hard for me to concentrate. I do get distracted by the phone (and noises outside and suddenly remembering something that has nothing to do with what I’m reading and just about anything else).
Tangentially, I just watched an interesting video this morning about audiobooks vs actual books. The host spoke about what happens neurologically when you read. Did you know that your brain builds a spatial map while reading? I did not and found that fascinating.
https://youtu.be/wVU_XbcDc4s?si=xI3uG2jNsnTlwbeh if you are interested in watching that video.