Literacy

I like to read. Love it, in fact. I've been reader since I was a young age, and always enjoyed it. I always have book on the go, and go through crazy cycles of binge reading where I blast through a bunch of books. So I am regular reader. But while I do read plenty, I never feel as though it's enough. I always want to read more, especially if I am particularly engrossed in a book. I feel a sort of guilt if I spend too long doing something else like video games or just generally loafing around on the internet.

So here I am, with all the reading time in the world. I have read an almost obsessive amount since the beginning of the month. While I have enjoyed it so far, I can quickly feel I am getting too much of a good thing. Unlike a video game or binge watching a show, you can get sick of reading relatively quickly. I suspect this is because reading is much less of a passive activity than either of those. You actually need to be thinking about what you're doing and paying attention the whole time, or you're not able to continue. If I zone out for a couple of minutes while watching a show, it probably makes no difference. If you start zoning out while reading, you can end up not absorbing any information from the page, and reading the same couple of paragraphs over and over. This is one of the absolute worst things in reading, and is a good you should stop and pick it up again later.

To combat this, I have switched from just reading books to other reading material as well: magazines, comics, newspapers. I find it uses a different part of your brain, and keeps you more engaged. I've gotten through two books and a couple of comics already, with more to come. My girlfriend predicts I'll be able to get through 20 books this month. I don't know about that. The number seems high, but I've never concentrated solely on reading for this long before. So who knows?