:: Books Are Not Tabs (The Internet Is Changing Our Brains!)

Brainz. Brainz. Brainz….

This may or may not be a post about zombies. Okay. It’s actually not. This is really a post about a lady I met on a plane (Dhe!) and a thing I thought in the bath.

I have a reading problem. There. I’ve said it. I’ve been worrying about it a lot, to be honest. I’ve been feeling a bit sheepish, truth be told.

See, in the last year or so, I’ve noticed a new thing I’m doing with books. I start a book. I read part of it and then I switch over to a different book and I read part of that. I keep doing this. I actually have about 7 books that I have started and am interchanging between. Gasp. They sit in a couple of stacks (one upstairs and one downstairs) and then I have one in my bag. Each one has a special thing about it, a special reason or application, and an appropriate time when it’s best referred to.

Gone are the days of sticking with one book and seeing it through, monogamous style… I think I am poly-biblio. I think that might be ‘a thing’.  I feel sad/weird/shameful about this ‘lifestyle choice’ because it’s not something I have ever done before. I used to be more committed and singularly focused. I scarcely know myself!

My hunch was that internet usage has changed the way I read (perhaps permanently!) It seems this hunch is right. I’m approaching books in the same way I approach my online reading: I gather interesting titles, open them up, read the bits I can and bookmark them for later. Sigh. It’s like the new book is a fresh ‘tab’ in my browser-slash-life and I need to grab the snippets I need for now (and move on!)

It’s not that I don’t finish the books. I very often do. But the chopping and changing, the dipping in and out, has me raising an eyebrow (at myself!!)

I was doing some thinking in the bath about all of this and I thought; ‘Look. You don’t need to feel embarrassed about this. I bet other people are doing a bit of the same.’

Then I floated my idea (see what I did there?!) on a plane, when I was delayed on the tarmac at Melbourne airport, seated next to Dhe (who was a stranger and now is not!) Dhe admitted she does this choppy/changey thing too and was kind of interested in the idea that we might be approaching reading in an ‘internetty’ way*

* actual made up term

I’m worried this is a bit skittish. A bit unfair to the books. I’m trying to unlearn this new behaviour, in fact. I’ve downloaded audio books to shake things up. I’m reading some John Green (and really, how could you possibly save him for later/never? He’s a read it all prospect, for sure!) I’m also going to ration the book collecting until I sort my books-as-tabs self out. I’m hoping that sets me straight.

In the real world (not the Pip world), there’s a slow reading movement gathering momentum, and this piece confirms that a lot of skimmy, web-reading can have us missing important bits of novels, stories and the like because we’re searching the page for the bits we think are most useful. It talks about reading recovery of a different kind. (How did it come to this?!)

Still, change is not a bad thing, especially if you notice it happening and take steps to correct or come to terms with it. I’m mos def trying to do that.

How about you? Is this something that ever happens to you? Are you getting all internetty on your books? Do you think this is bad?!

x Pip