“Literature is my Utopia. Here I am not disenfranchised. No barrier of the senses shuts me out from the sweet, gracious discourses of my book friends. They talk to me without embarrassment or awkwardness.” Helen Keller writes in her biography – The Story of my Life.
It makes you wonder where today in the age of social media and inauthentic opinions does the art of reading fit in – and when we think of reading whether it is purely for aesthetic reasons, to show and talk about the book, or whether it is for really understanding and devouring the words of an author.
There is a concept popular today known as ‘practical time’ the time you spend going through your daily routine of work, professional calls and reading emails, running to the grocer for pre-packages fresh produce, getting your fitness on track, organizing messes that sometimes may not be of your own making. This is the part of your day when you’re working on full-power mode. Any downtime is spent scrolling through your Facebook or Instagram newsfeed as friends and celebrities set higher ‘life goals’ each day. Where does the downtime come? Are you setting aside time to sit in peace and read? Why do we no longer find it as easy to slip between the pages of a book and really absorb what we’re reading? The answer is simple – we need to disengage. The joy of a book is only and simply in allowing yourself to be taken in by the people you read about – whether they’re real living humans or space-age androids.
Books are meant to be slowly and peacefully read rather than the gentle skimming we reserve for online articles. An honest work of fiction/non-fiction can be infinitely more rewarding than following the story of two millennials who gave up their life to travel the world because books allow you to take as much as you can from them without running out of inspiration, of cathartic poetry, or love, loss, and everything in between. You can pick up where you left off without judgment – there are no pop-up ads here. Disengaging does not simply mean to forget your day, it also involves a meditative disengagement in the way that you are not still wired from the last-minute email that came in from your boss. You find the thirteenth hour of the day and allow yourself to settle comfortably with a book (and a drink perhaps) and slow time down. In that hour, nobody needs you, maybe they don’t even remember who you are. The only thing that is left in the world is you and the book in your hands, the only sound the rustle of a page-turning.
It’s too late in the day for you to make any more mistakes, disappoint anyone, complete any uncompleted tasks. For book lovers who no longer find time in their day to read, the best advice is to leap before you think – pick up a book, any book – it could even be your favourite book as a kid, one that you’ve read a dozen times.
For those who never developed the habit of reading, try your hand at something simple, nothing too thematically heavy – it could maybe even be a handbook on gardening if that is something that piques your interest. It is as William Faulkner once wrote – “Read, read, read. Read everything — trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master.
Read! You’ll absorb it.
Then write. If it’s good, you’ll find out. If it’s not, throw it out of the window.”
Rohan Dahiya @ Chapter101 | Instagram
