Unlike other activities, reading requires our full attention. You can’t read a book, talk to someone, and be on a cell phone at the same time. When you read, you have to read, which means there is no Internet, no superficial conversations or other stimuli. Reading, while seemingly acting like a very simple action, is actually a complex combination of a million things.
Of course, any book we don’t ‘connect’ with will be bad for us, although objectively (can it be objective at all) it’s not a bad book. This disconnection usually occurs because and when we read, we read because we have to and always in some hurry, rush, panic. When was the last time you went to bed, took a book, and devoted an hour or two to reading and understanding? When was the last time you picked up a book?
Maybe I’m old-fashioned , but reading on screen is the worst thing in the world. Other than my head literally starting to ache after a certain period (which is getting shorter and shorter), I rarely really dedicate myself to reading. I don’t know what level of self-control one has to have in order to be able to have the Internet turned off for more than twenty minutes and not look at what’s new on Instagram.
Imagination as a key element
As this is not a scientific work, but an article that is read (and written) by people who do not spend days in front of a book, I will only mention that our most important part is reading. If while reading books we can’t imagine these characters as real people, if we don’t fully empathize, if we don’t consider them almost our friends, it’s a bad book.
Imagination as a key element
As this is not a scientific work, but an article that is read (and written) by people who do not spend days in front of a book, I will only mention that our most important part is reading. If while reading books we can’t imagine these characters as real people, if we don’t fully empathize, if we don’t consider them almost our friends, it’s a bad book.
Of course, any book we don’t ‘connect’ with will be bad for us, although objectively (can it be objective at all) it’s not a bad book. This disconnection usually occurs because and when we read, we read because we have to and always in some hurry, rush, panic. When was the last time you went to bed, took a book, and devoted an hour or two to reading and understanding? When was the last time you picked up a book?
Maybe I’m old-fashioned, but reading on screen is the worst thing in the world. Other than my head literally starting to ache after a certain period (which is getting shorter and shorter), I rarely really dedicate myself to reading. I don’t know what level of self-control one has to have in order to be able to have the Internet turned off for more than twenty minutes and not look at what’s new on Instagram.
It's not that…
Another big minus is that in the end, we didn’t read the book. We don’t experience that moment when we finally cross half the book so everything goes faster. We can’t scroll through the pages and count how many we need until the next chapter. At the end of the reading, let’s not close the book and put it away.
Of course, we do all these things, but not on a physical level, which is visible and tangible to us. And that is ugly and sad. This leads us to not have the experience of reading and not to feel that we have actually read the book.
Therefore, the question arises - why do something from which we do not have a concrete result? Why spend hours reading novels, only to be as ‘empty’ in the end as we were in the beginning? Does that make any sense at all?
Obviously not, especially in today’s hectic world where everyone has a thousand and one obligations and we don’t have time to throw away. We do only what we have to or enjoy, and reading according to this does not fall into either of these two categories. But that was not always the case. Reading used to be our escape from reality, something that comes in handy for everyone here and there.
‘Fake’ reality
Today, our idea of escaping from reality is turning to social networks, which, no matter how much they talk about reality, provide an opportunity to create that same reality, or at least ‘adapt’ reality to what we would like to be reality, and therefore not real reality. Although it seems that it is.
I guarantee you, if you get into the world of reading at least a little bit, we will find something for ourselves. Not because you will definitely see Russian classics if you enjoy it a bit (I think they will ...), but because you can write about anything. We all have our interests and there are certainly a million books about them.
If you read something that interests you, you won’t be bored or tired. It won’t be hard for you to have to go to the library and borrow a book. You won’t be having a hard time turning the pages or having pages with bookmarks. It will not be difficult for you to understand the characters, their story and why they are the way they are.
You may be able to do this while reading a pdf, but trust me, from experience ... a pdf will never be a book!
