If you are a reader and a book-lover, the world can seem like a pretty bleak place right now. There’s not much good news coming in and all studies point to a doomsday looming over us all.
When Giants fall
And when the leading lights fall prey to the epidemic, it all begins to seem quite hopeless. Maryanne Wolf, an expert on the science of reading, is dismayed that she has, “begun to read more to be informed than to be immersed. I read too fast to comprehend deeper levels because I have lost cognitive patience.”
Acclaimed writer, Nicholas Carr, concludes that use of digital media has “chipped away his capacity for concentration and contemplation, turning him into a fidgety reader whose concentration begins to drift after a page or two.”
Slow drift towards digital
I empathize completely. After propagating the importance of reading all my life, I woke up one morning to find that I had lost the habit of reading and along with it, the skills required to sustain deep reading. But of course, it did not happen one fine day; it was a process, so slow and insidious, that I didn’t realize I was drifting away from a lifelong habit, until I had completely lost sight of land.
It all began with the habit of a quick whatsapp check before I turned to the bedtime reading. Over days, seconds evolved into minutes as I started to reply to the more important messages. And of course, there were always videos awaiting attention. As long as I was checking whatsapp, why not mails and facebook? So digital time increased, reading time shortened and the rest, as they say, is history. Before I knew it, a year had gone by without a single book being read properly and wholeheartedly.
Rewiring the brain
Reading habits create circuits in the brain and a change in reading habit rewires the brain. 
Reversing the process and rewiring the brain is possible, though of course, it’s easier said than done. But having decided on the course of action, I decided to stick with it. Every night, I went offline early and set aside a least an hour for reading. I would then grapple with the book, constantly checking the page numbers to gauge when the struggle would end; it was almost a relief when I turned the last page and closed the book. I got more pleasure from completing the book than from reading it.
I found myself muttering impatiently when I came to long, descriptive passages and sometimes skipping pages or even chapters because ‘where’s the action?’. Often, when I was sweating through particularly difficult passages, I wondered why I bothered at all. Why soldier on with an activity that was no longer a fun pastime but rather a tedious duty? But I was sustained by a lifetime of memories, hundreds of them, strewn across the years – from childhood to adulthood to motherhood. Books had created not just the most magical moments in my life; they had sustained me through the difficult times. I couldn’t just give up on them without a fight. So I read on doggedly, one book at a time.
The various flavours of coffee
And when this book arrived in my life, I was ready for the journey. The pace was unhurried and tantalising, drawing me in by inches until I was utterly overwhelmed by this tale of epic proportions. I trav
ersed the globe in search of the perfect brew, savouring the slow simmering of the plot as the story unveiled, breathless with excitement as page after page of magic unfolded before my unbelieving eyes. The book lasted a week; seven days in which my head was always inside the book while my body walked around in a bewildered daze doing daily chores. Never again will I be able to look at a cup of coffee without thinking of these words: “Its aroma is beguiling, its taste is sweet; yet it leaves behind only bitterness and regret. In that, it resembles, surely, the pleasures of love.” At 2am in the morning, when I had turned the last page, I was exhilarated and exhausted. I stepped gingerly out of the book and clutched it to my heart; I was in love once more! And this time I would not let the relationship flounder.
The digital world is a wonderful place and Google is every writer’s best friend. The trick is to be a mindful reader if you want to sustain an enduring relationship with books. And the effort is more than worth it, because a book is a thing of beauty, love, happiness and every other good thing in life.
A League Of Laid-Back Mothers 