Sunday 14 April 2013

Finding the right time to read


Amy has just sent me a copy of her book in PDF form, and it has reminded me that it has been a long time since I have read any fiction longer than Richard Brautigan, whose books I would buy as soon as they hit the UK shelves, then read cover to cover in about 10 minutes. That was about 30 years ago at least, and my attention span has not increased with age.

The main problem is that if I try to read in bed, I fall asleep within the second or third paragraph, then wake up at about 4 in the morning, face down in the book with the lights still on. I really envy people who can read in bed.

I have tried reading whilst sitting on a sofa on a warm, sunny afternoon, but the same thing happens and before you know it, it's time to go to bed again. I even fall asleep whilst being read to during really good radio plays, etc. (the better the writing, the quicker I fall asleep, funnily enough), so if I ever went blind, I would probably spend most of my time sleeping.

All the books I have bought for years have been either for reference or written so long ago that the effort of keeping my mind set to Georgian English is usually enough to keep me awake. Even then I skip whole sections, and if there are any illustrations, I leaf through the whole thing from picture to picture, like a kid reading a comic.

I don't watch T.V. either, mainly because I realised that if I spent a few hours staring at the screen, I would not be able to sleep at all for another few hours. Why is that? T.V. must do something really weird to your brain, making it hyperactive at the same time as making the rest of you lethargic. DVDs I can cope with, and sometimes watch 2, back to back.

I went to our local library a few months ago, and I was amazed at how many university students were using it as a sort of social club, talking to each other out loud and on Facebook. The last time I went, the only real noise there was the snoring of vagrants, but now signs to the effect that vagrants are no longer welcome in libraries have replaced the ones about keeping silent.

I have managed to get this far without needing reading glasses, except rarely for extremely small print in dark conditions, so that is no excuse. Like everyone else, my focal length has increased over the years, so I suppose the effort of holding a book at arms length ought to be enough to keep me awake, but it isn't. Someone once said that one of the effects of ageing was that it made your arms grow shorter.

I cannot remember the last time I got 'lost' in a book, and I can't remember when I last got 'lost' in my work either, which is a bit sad. I can lose all track of time when I am writing though, which irritates the shit out of H.I. when it happens. She thinks I spend far too much time on this computer, and she is probably right. I blame this six-month winter we have been having.

Anyway, Amy, what I am trying to say is that it may be quite some time before you get any response from me about 'The Time Seekers', but you shouldn't read anything into that.

12 comments:

  1. Takes me ages to read a book because I always fall asleep. I even fell asleep in the middle of doing a suduko puzzle last week. Now that is scary.

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    1. I have never worked out how sudoko works, and I never buy newspapers these days, but I'm sure I would sleep too - just from the effort of it.

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  2. Can you read something with a pint in a quiet corner of the pub? Or are you a " prop up the bar" man?

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    1. It depends on the pub. There is a nice, quiet little pub full of strangers and seats by a fire just round the corner which I have been visiting recently, and that would be ideal for reading. It's a winter pub though, and the weather is getting warmer now.

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  3. I tend to either lose books, or have them half-inched. So I buy books that I've already read 100 times before; Cold Comfort Farm is probably the one I've bought most of. Anyone who has problems getting to sleep should aim to read any two chapters of Jeffrey Archer (any book) in bed, and they'd be off in minutes.

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  4. I really giggled a lot reading through your post (didn't fall asleep by the way). I read to fall asleep in the late evening (it works - I read McCall-Smith Scotland-Street-novels - and it is utterly immaterial on which page you are.) The last time I got lost in a book was India Knight's "Mutton. Age before beauty. Maybe" - laughed so much... Don't look much TV - though at the moment zig DVDs with TV-series, but that's work. In films I identify so very much that I am wide awake.

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    1. 'The Ladies Detective Agency' has been dramatised on the radio here a lot, and it is absolutely bloody awful. I now hate Alexander McCall-Smith ('s writing) so much, that I would rather pay not to read anything of his (this is not a constructive critique, you will have guessed...).

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    2. I have the 'Ladies D A' dramatized on DVD - not my cup of tea. For falling asleep 'Scotland Street' works fine for me, so strangely rambling on and on (as long as poor Bertie and his weird mother aren't turning up - Irene is a nightmare, which I never have during sleep :-)

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    3. I only know the Ghanaian detectives - plus all the idiot men they hang out with.

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  5. I have heard of "whatever turns you on" Tom but this sounds more like a case of "whatever turns you off."

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    1. Although I am quite happy in my own company, I also find myself the most boring person I have ever had to deal with, maybe because I know me so well. Some others are almost up to my standard, but I don't know them that well, so I find they can be entertaining - sometimes.

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