So I came to an unsettling realization about two months ago. I realized that I hadn’t read a whole book in several months. SEVERAL MONTHS. And this is from a guy who has read hundreds upon hundreds of books. All of the novels Robert Ludlum, Roald Dahl, Vince Flynn, and many, many more. This was a really disturbing. So I tried to figure out how to do something about it.
I started buying several books on Amazon for my Kindle/iPad/iPhone, figuring that if I spent the money and got them on my device, I would get with the program and read them. But, alas, no reading occurred. I started them, but for some reason never finished them. I started getting frustrated, then annoyed, then sad. I really missed diving into a book and not being able to put it down.
Then I realized what the real issue was. Distraction. Plain and simple. These devices have wonderful apps, great screens, lots of buttons (at least the Kindle does) and I was getting VERY distracted by all of this “gadget noise”. So a week ago I tried an experiment. I locked all the devices away in my home office and settled down with a nice…. book. That’s right. The guy who hates paper cracked open a wonderful hard-cover book by my good friend David Gregory and dove in. It was splendid. It was miraculous. I was able to read for hours on end and dig into what turned out to be a great book (Thanks Mr. Gregory!) So I tried it again, and, lo and behold, it happened again.
So while I will continue to use my iPad for all my news and my Kindle and Kindle App for the light, quick reading, I’m going back… back into time. Dust off the hard-covers, let’s go for a read and kick that ol’ enemy called Distraction in the butt.
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