There is a book I have been trying to get into for about a week now, and I have not made any progress. It is a book that sounded interesting, it's become widely known and I've heard other people say it was good, they made a movie out of it--there is absolutely no reason why I should be having such a hard time getting interested. I've made it 10 or 15 pages in, and I can't even say I dislike it, because what I've read isn't bad. It's just not grabbing me. And I don't feel inclined to read it.
On the other hand, there's another book I picked up today and took with me to the gym. And I read a few pages, and didn't want to put it down. It's a history book. It's big. It's a random book I stumbled across in some bizarre 'related item' search on the internet, a book that no one has ever heard of. I checked it out from the library and thought, 'I'm never going to get through all this." It shouts boring. (Well, to most people. It does have a cool history angle that I enjoy, but still). But I'm really enjoying it. And it just makes me laugh.
Pagewise, the two books are actually about the same, if you go by page numbers. But in the first 15 pages of the history book, there was more character, more plot, more action, and more interest than in the other. And I'm sure the other one gets better. It's just not the right time for it.
It's like the first time I tried to read Pride and Prejudice. I got about 50 pages in, and quit. It was so boring! It was exactly the kind of book I'd have expected to enjoy, but it just wasn't clicking. Fortunately, I picked it up a few years later and finished it, and it is really a terrific book, well-deserving of its reputation. It just wasn't the right time the first time around.
So, we'll see how things go. I'll stick with the history, and maybe when I'm done, I'll be ready for the other. And if not, I'll give it a year or two. Who knows? Maybe in time I'll come to love it.
Showing posts with label the art of reading. Show all posts
Showing posts with label the art of reading. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 19, 2013
Saturday, December 8, 2012
Watch what you read
Okay, I am an information professional and as such, I sometimes feel a responsibility to read books about information. You know how it goes--gotta stay up on things. I stumbled across an article about The Information Diet by Clay Johnson while doing research for work (it was one of the serendipitous finds of internet research). I had heard of this book before and after reading the article, I really wanted to read the book. My hold finally came in at the library (go libraries) and it is definitely worth reading.
So, what is it about? Johnson basically compares the so-called "information overload" with obesity. This struck a chord with me, because I took a semester long class centered on information overload and was never really satisfied with their solutions (better technology! better organization! Better users? Not so much). There is quite a bit of fascinating information presented, and the comparison to obesity is really apt for the topic.
Now, I'm not a huge fan of self-help books, and while this isn't a self-help book exactly, it does give recommendations to the user. But the author is very open about saying they are just suggestions, and each person will need to find what works best for them, which makes it easier to take. (Anyone who tries to sell me on a one-size fits all approach makes the skepticism flare up something awful, and that just brings on the mockery).
Johnson's goal is to create a better informed populace. Too often we consume information the way we eat--we go for the 'fast food' of information, and what we get is overprocessed, high in 'calories', and low in mental nutrition. And because of that, that is the kind of information people create. He also points out that information consumption has physical effects that can be unhealthy, and so he provides some tips that can help us control our consumption and create better mental and physical health.
One example: email. When we get an email, it effects our dopamine levels, and can affect our breathing and heart rate. We get a high from new emails. So then we check every ten seconds for new email to get that high. But that prevents us from focusing, and it messes up our balance. It's just not healthy. He recommends setting aside specific times (he has two) for checking email. I can say from personal experience, I'm a lot more productive if I don't keep my inbox open all the time, and I'm a lot better at actually dealing with my inbox if I'm not always in it.
I'm not saying you should take everything in the book at face value, and I don't think Johnson is, either. But I do think there are some fantastic ideas in it that are worth considering. It can't hurt.
Sunday, November 18, 2012
High expectations
This week I watched The Hunger Games with my niece. I have read the books but I'm going to say up front, it's been a while (year and a half?). Anyway, I enjoyed the series--well, enjoyed may not be the right word, but you know what I mean. However, there were some people I know who didn't really like the last book, Mockingjay, because Katniss just wasn't the strong superhero overcoming all the odds that people expect.
I will admit that the third book has a very different feel to it. And no, she doesn't come off as the stereotypical heroine who never lets life get her down. But I don't think that is a bad thing. Because how many people are like that? And how many of you that have had a very hard challenge (or challenges, which is the case for a lot of people, unfortunately) appreciate a heroine that knows that life is hard and sometimes, enduring is a heroic feat? I sometimes feel like the heroine who is never stressed or teary or worn out with all the hardship is pretty shallow. I know that I get worn out by how hard life gets sometimes, and while I try to be the kind of person who always comes out on top, I also know that it's not that easy.
So, yes, I think Mockingjay is not what we expect or even necessarily look for in our heroic protagonists. But I don't think that is bad. I think there is value in showing that there are different types of heroism.
I also think that Mockingjay highlights the clash between Katniss's personality and what circumstances have forced her to become. Katniss was never very comfortable with attention, and never signed up to be an icon, and Mockingjay is all about Katniss the icon. The other books show us Katniss the survivor, which is her strength. Now the story is about Katniss the image, not Katniss the person and that changes things.
Now I feel like I should have this brilliant and witty conclusion (my english and lit teachers ruined me for life--I still cannot write anything without including some kind of conclusion!) but really I guess the moral of this post is that comparing books is fun, but sometimes it is interesting to weigh a book in the context of its characters and plot, rather than other characters and plots and such. The end.
I will admit that the third book has a very different feel to it. And no, she doesn't come off as the stereotypical heroine who never lets life get her down. But I don't think that is a bad thing. Because how many people are like that? And how many of you that have had a very hard challenge (or challenges, which is the case for a lot of people, unfortunately) appreciate a heroine that knows that life is hard and sometimes, enduring is a heroic feat? I sometimes feel like the heroine who is never stressed or teary or worn out with all the hardship is pretty shallow. I know that I get worn out by how hard life gets sometimes, and while I try to be the kind of person who always comes out on top, I also know that it's not that easy.
So, yes, I think Mockingjay is not what we expect or even necessarily look for in our heroic protagonists. But I don't think that is bad. I think there is value in showing that there are different types of heroism.
I also think that Mockingjay highlights the clash between Katniss's personality and what circumstances have forced her to become. Katniss was never very comfortable with attention, and never signed up to be an icon, and Mockingjay is all about Katniss the icon. The other books show us Katniss the survivor, which is her strength. Now the story is about Katniss the image, not Katniss the person and that changes things.
Now I feel like I should have this brilliant and witty conclusion (my english and lit teachers ruined me for life--I still cannot write anything without including some kind of conclusion!) but really I guess the moral of this post is that comparing books is fun, but sometimes it is interesting to weigh a book in the context of its characters and plot, rather than other characters and plots and such. The end.
Sunday, October 28, 2012
Reading
As part of my job, I have been looking into Facebook and researching what it is. Which probably requires some explanation. No, I did not just crawl out of a cave, nor do I work in a cave. I work in an archive and my job is to save records of ALL types. Including digital ones, such as web pages. And social media. But, before I can save records, I have to know what the record is. So, what is Facebook? What can you strip away and still have Facebook? The ads? The banner? The background? Comments? Timelines? ???? That is what I'm researching, so I've been doing a lot of reading about social media and such and have found some really interesting articles. I've also been evaluating the extent of one of our web archive collections, to see how in depth our capture goes. Do we have all the pages, do they display the way we want them to, etc.
All my research and evaluating has cause me to think about the way the internet has changed how we read.
?????
When you pick up a book, you read a page. Then you turn it and read the next one. And the next. And the next. The pages aren't linked. You can skip around, but there is a limit to where you can actually go. Now, expand that to a library. You read a book. It refers to another book. You get that book. You read that book. Then you connect to another one. But there are still physical boundaries.
One of the things I love AND hate about the internet is that it is so non-linear. I read something on the internet. I click a link. Now I'm on a completely different site. I click another link. Another article, from another completely different site. It's messy. It's confusing. It's a giant maze, and there's no way to follow my trail back to the beginning. Of course, that can be said of the library experience, but it seems more possible to go back to the books I used two weeks later than to follow my internet trail two weeks later. When I search on the internet, I know I have to leave breadcrumbs somehow. (Yes, Hansel. Make a crumb of that link. And Gretel, email me that crumb). I mean, it's the internet. It's huge. Uncharted territory. Easy to get lost in. Sounds scary, right?
But there is something beautiful about the non-linear search. It's called serendipity, my friend. That beautiful "happy accident", where, through no planning of our own, we start at point A and end up at Number 929.* You know what I'm talking about. You sit down to find out the cost of new shoes and the next thing you know, you've learned that squirrels have tails specially constructed to protect them from the elements. It's like a conversation! (Oh, come on. You know you've had conversations like that). And maybe learning about squirrels isn't the most world changing discovery. But that same serendipity leads us to learn things that change the world.
So, to celebrate serendipitous discovery, I'm going to share with you an article I came across (which also talks about a book that I now want to read, so yes, it is relevant, even if it's a stretch) through serendipitous discovery. Enjoy!
*Archives do provide serendipitous experiences. Because an archive contains documents, not necessarily connected to one another, there is more of a non-linear approach to using archives. Archival collections aren't like books, where to understand Chapter 15, you probably need to have read chapters 1-14. A researcher in an archive can read documents from one folder, but skip other folders--or even documents--entirely. And, archival collections are only described at a very general, high level. Not every paper is mentioned in the catalog entry, or finding aid. So, the researcher has lots of opportunities to make their own discoveries. Go archives!
All my research and evaluating has cause me to think about the way the internet has changed how we read.
?????
When you pick up a book, you read a page. Then you turn it and read the next one. And the next. And the next. The pages aren't linked. You can skip around, but there is a limit to where you can actually go. Now, expand that to a library. You read a book. It refers to another book. You get that book. You read that book. Then you connect to another one. But there are still physical boundaries.
One of the things I love AND hate about the internet is that it is so non-linear. I read something on the internet. I click a link. Now I'm on a completely different site. I click another link. Another article, from another completely different site. It's messy. It's confusing. It's a giant maze, and there's no way to follow my trail back to the beginning. Of course, that can be said of the library experience, but it seems more possible to go back to the books I used two weeks later than to follow my internet trail two weeks later. When I search on the internet, I know I have to leave breadcrumbs somehow. (Yes, Hansel. Make a crumb of that link. And Gretel, email me that crumb). I mean, it's the internet. It's huge. Uncharted territory. Easy to get lost in. Sounds scary, right?
But there is something beautiful about the non-linear search. It's called serendipity, my friend. That beautiful "happy accident", where, through no planning of our own, we start at point A and end up at Number 929.* You know what I'm talking about. You sit down to find out the cost of new shoes and the next thing you know, you've learned that squirrels have tails specially constructed to protect them from the elements. It's like a conversation! (Oh, come on. You know you've had conversations like that). And maybe learning about squirrels isn't the most world changing discovery. But that same serendipity leads us to learn things that change the world.
So, to celebrate serendipitous discovery, I'm going to share with you an article I came across (which also talks about a book that I now want to read, so yes, it is relevant, even if it's a stretch) through serendipitous discovery. Enjoy!
*Archives do provide serendipitous experiences. Because an archive contains documents, not necessarily connected to one another, there is more of a non-linear approach to using archives. Archival collections aren't like books, where to understand Chapter 15, you probably need to have read chapters 1-14. A researcher in an archive can read documents from one folder, but skip other folders--or even documents--entirely. And, archival collections are only described at a very general, high level. Not every paper is mentioned in the catalog entry, or finding aid. So, the researcher has lots of opportunities to make their own discoveries. Go archives!
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