What's Your Reading Style?
How do you find time to read, what's your reading style and where do you think reading literature should rank in society's priorities?
There is always a book with me when I have to sit in a waiting room. When I worked I always read when I had a break. These days two or three times a week I read from 7-9 P.M.
I read several books at one time s-l-o-w-l-y. Then I need to think about them. I write notes in the margins so I can see what I thought the last time I read the book. I love to re-read. Every time I read I book I notice or understand something I did not before.
Article on slow reading on The Daily Beast.
For example, I just re-read Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston. I had a better understanding of the relationship between Janie Crawford Killicks Starks Woods and her grandmother who raised like a mother. It is probably because now that my son is an adult, I can see the unintentional mistakes I made raising him. Hopefully the next time I read it I will see something new I never noticed.
This month I am reading A Letter To My Daughter by Maya Angelou, Passing by Nella Larsen, Children of the Mind by Orson Scott Card, Home of the Brave by Katherine Applegate, and The Canterbury Tales. I am not going to list all the audio books. When I get bored with one book I start reading another.
Doggone it! I just burned my chocolate chip cookies.
Literature makes a human being think. It always has relevance because it explores facets of the human condition and our relation to one another, ourselves, nature, philosophy, religion, and so on... Times change, but (I read somewhere) people evolve very slowly. Books written hundreds of years ago still have meaning today. Having said all that, I realize sometimes a person just needs a quick light beach read. Those kinds of books have a place and time however, that should not be all a person reads. It is like eating sweet and processed foods all the time. It is all about consuming a reasonable balance.
What about you? How do you make time for reading? Are you a fast or slow reader?
