I’ve noticed some odd changes in my reading habits as I get older. Namely my attention span seems to be slowly slipping towards what I like to characterise as “manic guinea pig” levels. I love the physicality and heft of large, thick books but I find myself approaching their reading with a sinking heart – it’s difficult to keep myself patient for the time it takes to read them. I think that’s why my recent reading run has been so successful – several shorter books (though I did manage Wolf Hall and that’s no shrinking violet in the length stakes). On the other hand though, I don’t want to be stuck reading shorter books forever, I vastly admire any author who can sustain their creations for truly long books, and I don’t want to deny myself the pleasure of being immersed in those creations.
I’m hoping to some extent this is a phase rather than a long-term change! My reading style seems to go through cycles. Up until quite recently I was always loathe not to finish a book I had started, out of some sort of need to prove my stick-to-it-ness. These days, though, I am far less patient with books that are not keeping my interest or proving worth my reading time – and oftentimes it’s hard to put my finger on exactly what it is that is making it unreadworthy. Sometimes even bad or badly-written books can be readworthy, with a judicious amount of skim-reading.
Perhaps it’s just as time goes on and I think about the amount of great books out there yet to be read and the amount of great books to come I see less use in wasting my time on those that are falling well outside that category.
Question and Comment Time: So, dear viewers of mine, have your reading habits changed over the years? Can you give a book up or are you readers to the end? Do you have to read only shorter books or longer books and do you mind?
As a New Zealander it is almost sacrilege to disparage Lord of the Rings so straight off I should make clear that I totally love Peter Jackson’s movies. So much so that for a brief second I even considered trying (for the fourth time) to read the books.
