"Ask anyone who has ever taken a sabbatical or an extended break from the corporate world, and one of the first things they notice is how primed for running on overdrive their nervous system is"
I kid you not, my first 2 months of sabbatical I only knew how to measure my worth by having a productivity spreadsheet that mirrored the same style as the one I kept for myself at work. And I re-watched all the TV shows that made me anxious, like Breaking Bad and Severance. It was like I had to feel that way to feel normal.
Camilo! Love the entirety of this. I’m supposed to be on a sabbatical but it turned into a two week vacation (story for another time). And I’ve been reading and writing a lot, trying to lengthen my attention span from minutes to at least an hour.
I loved this: “We discover universal truths wrapped in stories of dragons and wizards. We find practical wisdom that reshapes our daily lives. We recognize ourselves in strangers' memories of love and loss. But with each new book, we expand the very boundaries of our thought.”
Thank YOU for expanding my boundary of thought as well!
“After two years I’m taking my own advice” was a little gem that made me lol because..relatable. Also, I was just discussing with Claude how I could start reading fiction again which turned into fiction and Ramit Sethi’s book I wanted to go through cover to cover oh and this morning I ordered Mary Oliver’s how to poetry book, did I forget to mention I have so many copies of the New Yorker backlogged on my island that my sister is about to throw me out? So, relatable. Though I aspire to be as good of a book polygamist as you.
Oh man, magazines are my weakness. If it makes you feel any better, I have a subscription to The Paris Review, and I probably haven't read more than 10 pages from all the quarterly editions I've received :/. However, I have used their online archives quite a bit. But yea, just be with all the books Michelle!
Love the idea of this! Lately I'm in the habit of renting a bunch of books from my library, reading a couple pages from one and, if I'm not feeling drawn to it, I put it down, move on to the next book and potentially come back to the other one later. I've previously forced myself through a book and ended up killing my reading streak almost every time by doing so.
Yes! The whole I gotta finished has turned me off from reading for weeks. And then you start all over, which is a self-defeating game. Glad you like this idea!
Yes, but are you openly telling each book that you are reading other books? And are you using protection, lest you one day get a knock on your door from a little booklet claiming that you are one of its co-authors?
A beautiful reflection on a deliberate and persoanlized approach to reading. Good on you for figuring out what works best for you, rather than the pressure to read fast, or impress with certain titles.
"Ask anyone who has ever taken a sabbatical or an extended break from the corporate world, and one of the first things they notice is how primed for running on overdrive their nervous system is"
I kid you not, my first 2 months of sabbatical I only knew how to measure my worth by having a productivity spreadsheet that mirrored the same style as the one I kept for myself at work. And I re-watched all the TV shows that made me anxious, like Breaking Bad and Severance. It was like I had to feel that way to feel normal.
Ok, we need to talk about Severance next time we hang.
Ooooooo he's promiscuous for paperbacks
Just me grinding in the club to a leather-bound version of War & Peace
Camilo! Love the entirety of this. I’m supposed to be on a sabbatical but it turned into a two week vacation (story for another time). And I’ve been reading and writing a lot, trying to lengthen my attention span from minutes to at least an hour.
I loved this: “We discover universal truths wrapped in stories of dragons and wizards. We find practical wisdom that reshapes our daily lives. We recognize ourselves in strangers' memories of love and loss. But with each new book, we expand the very boundaries of our thought.”
Thank YOU for expanding my boundary of thought as well!
I hope you tell us about this story, James!
As always, the grace and clarity that you bring in your comments is quite the gift. Thank you for being so generous my friend!
I haven’t even read the piece yet, but am already drawn in by your beautiful comment aaand the essay’s incredible title: "Book Polygamy" 😻
I wish Substack would let you read through someone's comments like Reddit. James' and Rick Lewis' comments would be hot reads.
This is so juicy and good. ‘The gist is now worth more than the prose.’ Mhmm 🎶 insert Nelly here.
Not going to lie, I wrote that and immediately thought "that's a banger"
that same line jumped out for me too Kelly
“After two years I’m taking my own advice” was a little gem that made me lol because..relatable. Also, I was just discussing with Claude how I could start reading fiction again which turned into fiction and Ramit Sethi’s book I wanted to go through cover to cover oh and this morning I ordered Mary Oliver’s how to poetry book, did I forget to mention I have so many copies of the New Yorker backlogged on my island that my sister is about to throw me out? So, relatable. Though I aspire to be as good of a book polygamist as you.
Oh man, magazines are my weakness. If it makes you feel any better, I have a subscription to The Paris Review, and I probably haven't read more than 10 pages from all the quarterly editions I've received :/. However, I have used their online archives quite a bit. But yea, just be with all the books Michelle!
Yes, exactly! There’s still something nice about the physical copy even if I still end up reading most of it in my phone.
Love the idea of this! Lately I'm in the habit of renting a bunch of books from my library, reading a couple pages from one and, if I'm not feeling drawn to it, I put it down, move on to the next book and potentially come back to the other one later. I've previously forced myself through a book and ended up killing my reading streak almost every time by doing so.
Yes! The whole I gotta finished has turned me off from reading for weeks. And then you start all over, which is a self-defeating game. Glad you like this idea!
Yes, but are you openly telling each book that you are reading other books? And are you using protection, lest you one day get a knock on your door from a little booklet claiming that you are one of its co-authors?
Oh man, you are actually the *only* person that realized this piece isn't about books at all.
Unless the little booklets have prose that sounds like mine, I will never acknowledge them.
I remember being so shocked the first time I heard about the concept of “slow reading”! I wrote a post about it (https://shouldbereading.wordpress.com/2015/08/05/slow-reading-a-novel-concept/), because I was a book blogger at the time, and the idea just baffled me! 🤯
A beautiful reflection on a deliberate and persoanlized approach to reading. Good on you for figuring out what works best for you, rather than the pressure to read fast, or impress with certain titles.