why i miss reading

i used to read loads.

i used to work just over an hour away. this meant that everyday i would have at least one newspaper (the sun), one magazine (wired, q), one or two work-like books (some planning / digital stuff) and maybe a novel or two on the go (all sorts of genres: SF, thriller, modern greats, gangster & crime, UK and international authors. from pulp fiction to booker prizes... but nearly always bought from the recommendations at waterstones)

(actually interesting aside here - all non-fiction tends to be bought on amazon. most fiction tends to be bought in a book shop).

Now i live 25 mins away and get the bus in - and normally i've got my laptop on to keep on top of the 1000 of emails i get every week. And since i now live with my fiance, there's less reading at home now too.

I hadn't really thought about the fact i was reading less until i met an old colleague who asked 'what books have you read that i should - you've probably got through about 30 since i last saw you'. i think i'd read about 2.

well immediately, i suddenly felt a bit stupid. this person had me down as someone who talks about books. in fact it was clear that a lot of our conversations were often sparked by what we'd been reading (normally in the work / planning arena, it has to be said).

reading less meant talking less.

i then when i thought about it i started to worry that i wasn't filling up my brain with new ideas and thoughts from loads of different places. all i was reading was the work that i was doing - where's the new stimulus?

reading less meant thinking less.

now that reading doens't come naturally to my day, i need to plan it in. i need to have a goal and a focus. a reading list that rewards me when i get through it...

hmmm where do I start?

I guess my reading habbits change from time to time, I enjoy books and it's actually something that I like about the UK because the prices of books are pretty good, you can swing into a WH Smiths on an impulse or at airport and get a good 3 for 2 deal on some trashy fiction or some quite good non fiction stuff, for specific books or topics the internet is a good way to buy. free trade mags/ newspapers a good for weekend breakfast reading. Wiki-books is also a good place to do some "Snack" reading also some of the science daily has some good articals also.

I guess the best thing about books is that you can take them anywhere, when your stuck sitting on the runway at Heathrow with not being able to switch on any of your electronic gadgets - it's time to dig out that book you bought after speeding through a book shop at the last minute... pretty handy for trains also speeding through the boring country side you can just pick up your book. Fairly handy down the beach also just to soak up some rays and get stuck into some reading... I guess when you tavel alone or by yourself a book is almost like a companion that will not get bloody travel sick or nag about the state of the hotel room.

Sharing and borrowing books is also good, I'm sure if at any one time all my books were in my house at the same time they wouldn't all fit in! but it is a little annoying when you favourates that you could plow through on a weekend is being kept by a slow reader - you know who you are give me back my bloody book - if it's not being used to prop up the wonky leg of a table! buy your own mother fucking copy of the book if like it hanging around your house so much... ok I've worked myself up a little too much with favourate book seperation anxiety, I better go and calm down now.

Where do we start? Books usually do it with a dedication, so i'll dedicate this to all the books i've started reading but never finished; 

I'm sorry, it wasn't you it was me. The spark just wasn't there. 

I tried i really did. Gave it my best go, but you gave me nothing back...

Okay, okay. Time to end the relationship analogy, but that's what it is, and that's why i love it.  When you read a book, it's just the two of you, no one else. You go on a journey, experience new things, go through emotions and few unexpected (sometimes good, mostly bad) surprises. When you're really into it, but apart from it, you cant wait to be back together and hold it in your hands. 

You never forget the first book you love, you measure all others by it. And the beauty is you can read more than one book at once and they don't get jealous. It's an open relationship if you will. 

Books books books – how I love you! I’m obsessed by reading, have been since I can remember.  My friends often reminisce about TV shows they watched as kids and I can’t remember any of them – it was only when I asked my mum what I did as I child and why can’t I remember that she told me: “you always had your head in a book dear and just not interested in the tv.”  And that’s still the case – I’d much rather read a book or magazine or newspaper than watch tv, any day!

I read novels including fiction, biographies, histories and plays, magazines normally fashion/gossip and I do have a thing for the economist and national geographic… I skim read newspapers almost everyday for work and read the London paper and London lite nearly every night as they are thrust in my hand on my walk home… Also read stuff online – mostly from newspaper/magazine websites… I’m just a huge consumer of the written word!!! 

reading habits

OK, I’ll start with the questions too.

I read books mainly, and a few magazines (The Word, Vanity Fair every month, Rolling Stone, NME, Q, Premiere, Les Inrocks less regularly).

I read news and reviews online.

I always carry a book with me, but will abandon it for a few days when the new Vanity Fair / Word comes out.
I read books on the bus, in the car (at the red light), at home, on the train, in parks, in the queue to the cinema, in coffee shops and sometimes when I’m walking.

I only read online for a short while, as a 5min break from whatever it is I’m doing or if someone has emailed me a link. I also read articles picked by the people I follow on Twitter. Oh, and I read a few blogs I subscribe to, usually on my Blackberry on my way to work or back.

I read fiction mainly, although I love Jon Ronson, Malcolm Gladwell and Joe Queenan’s books.

I choose books based on friends’ recommendations, ‘families’ of authors or endorsement from writers I love (I got into Siri Hustvedt through Paul Auster, Nicola Krauss through Jonathan Safran Foer, Robertson Davies and Alice Munro through John Irving…), articles I’ve read, sometimes even great covers. I love spending time in bookshops browsing. I don’t wait until I have finished a book to buy the next one. I just buy books and always have a pile to pick from, depending on my mood.
I only buy hardbacks if it’s a new book by a favourite writer and I can’t wait until the paperback comes out.

I love recommending books to friends, and buying books for them. Same as with music and films. And I follow recommendations from friends with similar tastes.
If I discover a writer I like, I will read every book they’ve written, often back to back, to catch up on what I’ve missed.

Another use for The Economist

It's a good choice for swatting flies. Compact but relatively heavyweight.

Economist; Nexus; Private Eye

It's been a periodical couple of weeks.

I bought The Economist for the first time about ten days ago, in a fit of fascistic self-improvement and because it contained an article entitled Don't Protect Bad Belgian Art, which turned out to be a lot less interesting than it sounded. I read it with some wine, trying to get rid of the feeling that I'd sold out to the Man (cheap lager and roll-ups would have been a better choice but I don't smoke any more). It turned out to be exactly what you'd expect: closely reasoned, closely written, intelligent, considered and catastrophically dull. I realise now that I can't remember a single thing it told me. So this week I decided to go to somewhere else.

Nexus is an Australian magazine dedicated to weird shit and conspiracy theories. I've just looked for it in my book storage zone on the floor and it's disappeared.

I'm not suggesting anything, just saying.

I remember an article about Tesla and a giant eight-sided pyramid with a copper alloy hemispherical top that he was building to make rain when the Second World War intervened and but a stop to his brilliance. (Draw your own conclusions.) I read about some Serbian monoliths that acted as ionising air conditioners, although the article didn't say why prehistoric man would want to air condition Serbia. Maybe just because he could. Then I read about the oldest temple in the world, which is in Turkey. The revelations went on: I now know that a secret cabal of rich people is trying to impose a single currency on the world. (Why didn't The Economist tell me this? Are you thinking what I'm thinking?) And I found out about the experiences of a man from New Zealand who was kidnapped by a female alien named Zeena who looked just like the aliens from Roswell and you know maybe that's just coincidence and maybe it's also just a coincidence that her name is very close to to that of a fictional warrior princess who fought evildoers and protected weak mortals from the mighty godlike supernatural forces in the universe but I don't think so, do you?

I needed to get out of the nexus that Nexus had sucked me into.

My Private Eye arrived. I wept with joy. It's the best magazine to do the jobs I demand of it, which are to generate righteous anger, make me laugh and annoy the commuting management consultants on the 7.37 Misery Flyer to Marylebone. The Economist just makes them think I'm one of them. Nexus lets them dismiss me as a scruffy long-haired Jethro Tull fan of no account (which to be fair is exactly what I am). But Private Eye tells them I'm on their case. Yeah: be afraid. Be very afraid.