Her delight in finding the stack of Nancy Drew novels, her girlhood favorites, sparked a question. She asked, “What did you read as a kid?” Instantly, I was a deer in the headlights. I muttered something incomprehensible and changed the subject in order to dodge the question.
It’s not that I didn’t remember. The truth is that I wasn’t a reader until I was in my mid 20’s. It’s as if someone threw a switch and I was instantly transformed from dullard to a voracious reader. I generally have two or three books going at the same time, making up for lost reading time.
A few years ago it occurred to me that I was reading like a starving man at a smorgasbord. I was gobbling words without breathing or tasting. So I decided to try an experiment. Read books like they are poetry. Savor a few pages at a time. Consider for a full day what I have read in my few pages. Re-read it if I am unclear. Re-read it if it is gorgeously written.
My experiment is going well. I’m living in the books rather than blowing through them. I delight in the phrases, the way words are put together to invoke images and sounds and tastes. Sometimes a phrase is so beautifully written it makes my eyes water. I feel as if I’ve pulled off the freeway, stepped out of the car, and am walking through a meadow. I see more. I appreciate more.
I credit the age of information with my new reading practice. I’ve been studying how people engage with their screens, how I have been engaging with my screen. We skim. We jump. We tab hop. There’s so much information demanding our attention, stuffing the nooks and crannies of our minds. Emails, texts, slacks, social streams…
I’m finding my peace, out of the stream and off the info-super-highway, turning paper pages with intention, paying full attention to what is written there, no more than a few pages at a time.
read Kerri’s blog about NANCY DREW
like. share. support. comment. savor. sample. contemplate. replicate. all things we appreciate.
Filed under: Language, Merely A Thought Monday, Navel Gazing, Uncategorized | Tagged: appreciation, appreciation of language, artistry, consider, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, experiment, information age, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, Nancy Drew novels, peace, peace of mind, poetry, ponder, reader, savor, savor words, story, studio melange, the melange, young reader |
The Direction of Intention 
[…] read DAVID’S thoughts this MERELY-A-THOUGHT MONDAY […]
Can you address the war in Israel in one of your posts. My entire family lives there and I am shattered.
Don’t know where this came from! Seems I’m falling for a trap here. Would like to know what you think, first. Albeit, since Israel has been led by a far-right leader, things have spiraled downward. Rights of their own people being diminished. And the Palestinians have been subjugated by Israel for a long time. Sort of reminds me of what we Europeans did to Native Americans. Alas, I have been wishing/praying in vain for a Jimmy Carter-like individual to intervene and broker a peace deal. There is so much hate in that part of the world. There’s my one cent answer (the price has fallen). Peace.
Arguing For A Better World, by Arianne Shahvisi is one book I have been practicing as you just described. I call such a practice “taking one bite of the apple at a time.”
Another work (though perhaps 101 English) is Language In Thought and Action, by S.I. Hayakawa.
Kerri’s “Drew” series reminds me of Brenda’s Little House and Piers Anthony series. It does seem that the older we get, the more we try to “catch up.” Oh well, I’ll settle for a good old fashion British sitcom with a glass of Merlot in-between reads any day.