I have a dark secret. A compulsive behaviour that happens mostly late at night. It goes like this . . I'm reading something in a book or online when another book or author is referenced that sounds very interesting indeed. So I open up my buying app to add the title to my out-of-control wish list and then . . well, it's a blackout of sorts. A blur in consciousness where my limbic (emotional) brain races my neocortex (the rational bit) to the checkout, a purchase occurs and by morning I've forgotten all about it. Then the surprise package arrives and there is nowhere to put it and no additional time to read it.
Ironically, most of the books I binge buy are about psychology. Many explore habits and offer lifestyle hacks like Gretchen Rubin's Better than Before and Charle's Duhigg's The Power of Habit. Others attempt to broaden understanding and redefine addiction - like Matt Noffs and Kieran Palmers Addicted? or Gabor Mate's In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts.
But the author that's helped me most with my problem is Oliver Burkeman - the former productivity and time management seeker who ended up surrendering - embracing imperfection and equinamity. His blog post on being overwhelmed by the things you want to read tells the tale of 'too many needles'. The old problem of looking for a needle in a haystack redefined in the information era as the problem of having to confront haystack-sized piles of needles.
This dilemma can apply to many things in life and comes down to the finiteness of our time and attention (and is acknowledged as something of a first-world problem). The solution Burkeman proposes is to treat your "to read" pile like a river - a stream that flows past you, and from which you pluck a few choice items, here and there, instead of seeting it like a bucket (which demands that you try to empty it).
"Coming at life this way definitely entails tough choices. But it's liberating, too, as you slowly begin to grasp that you never had any other option. There's no point beating yourself up for failing to clear a backlog (of unread books, undone tasks, unrealized dreams) that it was always inherently unfeasible to clear in the first place."
From this (which he expands on in his book Four Thousand Weeks) emerged my Reading Regimen for 2024 - a concerted attempt at control that after eight months, is 'mostly' working to curb my habit with the promise that if I read more of the books I already have then I might, at some point, be able to justify the purchase of more.
For this year, and maybe next, I am reading one book every week - on average. Some books take longer than others so I'm measuring quarterly. For each three months another 13 books must be completed.
For accountability: I stack the books as they are read and photograph them at the end of the quarter. (Pictured: April - June 2024)
For success: I alternate between new, shiny books and older books that I started at some point and somehow moved on from. This means I've got a headstart on some of the books - which is a good way to support building a habit.
For variety: I make myself consider if I'm reading too many authors of a particular gender, or too many books of a particular style (memoir I'm looking at you). As the year has gone on I've made this component more complex and rigid - there must be at least one fiction, one science or history, one textbook related to my current studies, a classic and a 'therapy' tale. For July - September I went further, too far perhaps, by looking at the diversity of colour of the book spines. It sounds overly restrictive but there is a paradox where more limits is helping make my'next choice' easier and therefore get on with the actual reading!
Some exemptions to scratch the buying itch - pre-orders that support well-loved authors with advance sales are ok. Today I got to pick up a surprise package - William Dalrymple's The Golden Road - How Ancient India Transformed the World and it won't be long before Burkeman's latest offering Meditation for Mortals arrives.
Pictured below: April May June 2024
NOTE: While this is a tongue-in-cheek take is about my love of books which brings only joy, for those battling serious and life-altering addiction/s, dependencies and/or compulsions, I have only respect and admiration for the tough road you travel.
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