Episode 4: Books, books, books

‘Cram them full of non-combustible data, chock them so damned full of ‘facts’ they feel stuffed, but absolutely ‘brilliant’ with information. Then they’ll feel they’re thinking, they’ll get a sense of motion without moving.’ – Fahrenheit 451

Ironic to quote a snippet, in Fahrenheit 451 the public become so ignorant because books get reduced to quotes and summaries – people only learn snippets of information. During the novel, Bradbury also attacks airpods and podcasts in my view – far before his time or their invention. Thinking of all this, the why of reading is simple and we all know it deep down: to truly experience the depths of emotions and the knowledge given to us by books, we actually have to fucking read them.

Staying focussed, My Analog Life, is about avoiding harmful digitalisation. An entry on books and knowledge is essential, but I was left wondering if digitalisation has harmed books? Although I don’t use them, preferring paperbacks, e-readers seem relatively convenient for lots of people – and maybe I’ll take one on my upcoming travels.

But.

I’m here thinking about how books have become something to be ‘consumed’ rather than engaged with. I’m sure social media apps like Strava for reading exist whereby you brag about what you have read. I think about how having instant access to books takes the fun out of searching out for that specific book, the joy of bookshops, discussion and recommendations. And the joy of giving and receiving books, both new and second hand. Sometimes I have been so taken back by something I have read I’ve immediately handed the book over to a close friend and said, ‘you must read this.’.

But. I do see the upsides here. Convenience, enabling access, democratisation of knowledge etc.

With that in mind, the open question for today’s blog isn’t necessarily, how to avoid digital reading. It’s more of a question of,

So you want to get back into reading again, but you don’t know where to start. Your attention span is fried (hence why you are a My Analog Life reader) and you need help.

With this in mind, I’d like to introduce my friend Josh McMinn for a guest blog on reading books that weigh less and are the same size as a Kindle.

Josh writes:

If you’ve found this I’ll assume you already want to read more, so I won’t try to justify why you should read more.

But I’ll tell briefly you why I want to. When I’m on Reddit or YouTube or social media, I take in lots of information but don’t seem to process any of it. But when I’m reading, feelings and ideas seem to work themselves through as I go. It’s restful and creative, and something I’m sure most of us could benefit from.

The question left to address then, is how to read more. It’s an intimidating task. I’ve always felt completely overwhelmed by the scale of literature, and didn’t understand how people could have read enough books to have a feel for it. Let alone have opinions on different authors.

The solution for me was discovering short books. A couple of years ago, I was on a lunchbreak and I saw a collection of 70 short penguin books for £20 in Oxfam. I bought it.

These were titles from famous authors, everyone from Homer to Nick Hornby. And when I say short, I mean short – 65 odd pages. I later discovered that these were snippets from their larger works, or short stories they’d written for magazines.

And it turns out 65 pages is a good length to decide whether you like an author or not.

Many authors I thought I’d enjoy, like John Updike, I found challenging to read. There’s no way I would’ve got through a 400 page novel by him – even if his stories are really clever. Other authors I discovered anew, and read so eagerly that I immediately went to go buy one of their full length novels.

And for me this was really the key. As a middle class north Londoner I already felt an innate pressure to read more. But it was finding more authors I liked that gave me the drive.

The other side of that is important too. I found it extra useful to know what sort of books I didn’t like reading too.

“In order to read what is good one must make it a condition never to read what is bad; for life is short, and both time and strength limited.” – Arthur Schopenhauer

“Bad” books are not always what you’d expect. There are lots of books I’m glad to have read but really had to grind when reading them at the time.

The Plague by Camus is one of them. I had to force myself to read 20 pages a day just to finish it.

Character-building as it may be to read difficult books, I’d suggest avoiding it whilst you’re still building a reading habit. I find that even after I’ve finished a tough book, it stops me from picking up anything else for a couple of weeks.

Also be wary of books that are interesting but just don’t inspire you. I found this with various history books in the Penguin 70 collection. The subject matter was compelling – but they never gave me the drive to read more.

For developing your taste, there really is nothing better than short books (99 pages or less). But I don’t see them talked about much, and they can be hard to find in bookshops. So here’s all the collections I’m aware of:

• Penguin 60s
  • A varied showcase for Penguin’s 60th anniversary.
• Penguin 70s
  • A varied showcase for Penguin’s 70th anniversary.
• Penguin Classics
  • “Classics” is a broad term. It covers everything from Greek philosophers to 19th century writers like Hans Christian Anderson.
• Penguin Modern Classics
  • Anything after 1900, with a gentle focus on postmodern writers.
• Vintage Minis
  • Each book contains excerpts from one writer, that relate to a theme. Like John Cheever’s stories about drinking.
• Faber stories
  • All fiction, short stories – I’ve got to admit I haven’t read many of these yet

Here’s a few other ways to find authors you like:

• US magazines
  • The states have more of an appreciation of short fiction that we do. I don’t know why. But if you pick up a copy of the New Yorker, you’ll find short stories by some incredibly prolific contemporary authors. Likewise The Atlantic
• BBC Radio 4
• What authors do your favourite authors read? Find out on A Good Read. Eg. I love Jonathan Safran Foer, and I discovered Nathalia Ginzburg when I heard him talking about her on this show.
• BBC Radio has been around for 100 years so if you open BBC Sounds and type in a famous author, you’re pretty likely to find something by them or about them. This is a good way to scope out authors you might like reading
• A Novel Cure
  • I picked this book up in a charity shop a while back and I love it. Pick an “ailment” (like homesickness), and it will give you a novel to help you heal.
• If you live in London you can also book an in-person ‘bibliotherapy’ session, to get a personalised book recommendation.
• Less inventively named, but equally as good – The Poetry Pharmacy. I’ve used this book a lot. He also does drop ins, but more sporadically I think.

…

Thanks Josh! If any other readers want to contribute guest blogs, check out the planned list on callummccadden.co.uk and get in touch. My concluding notes for today’s Tools and Tips section will pull from my own experience getting back into reading:

• I too started with smaller pieces and built my habits up, but I have to note:
• For myself, the essentrial ‘trick’ or tip to get back into reading was oddly not to focus on the reading itself
• By eliminating digital distractions, one by one, and ‘starving’ my brain of dopamine from social media, notifications, communications, news addiction, adult content and so on, my interest for reading has returned as a product of these efforts!
• In other words, let’s focus on eliminating distractions that don’t serve you and cheap dopamine that doesn’t fulfill you – reading will find it’s own way back when you are bored senseless (and boredom is good!)
• Finally, I would encourage reading multiple different books at a time. I usually have open at least two non-fictions and a fiction book at any given time. It’s really quite alright to switch the topic or genres because you are bored for the day.