Love it? Do it?

I wasn't a big reader growing up. I loved reading, but I wasn't a big reader. That doesn't really make much sense. I have often wondered why. The same can probably be said of sketching. I loved it but don't quite understand why I didn't have reams and reams of sketches from when I was growing up. Outside of active pursuits, I love it when my home is really tidy. A treat while living the bachelor life and working was to get someone to come do my ironing and tidying up a bit once a week. I loved coming home on Thursdays to a spotless home. The theory of 'revealed preference' suggests that I didn't like reading, I didn't actually enjoy sketching, and I prefer the freedom of tossing clothes on the floor and picking a clean cup rather than cleaning a dirty one to the beauty of a clean home.

Something has never felt right about that though. I really believe I am closer to the truth when I say I love reading, sketching and a clean home. Why I am also confused is that in many areas I am actually a very self-disciplined character. Closing in on 100 blog posts in 100 days may be testament to that. Although some friends accuse me of doing things because I love the stats rather than loving the thing. There are lots of pockets of things where I really have absolutely no excuse or desire not to do things that don't get done.

I have largely cracked the reading dilemma. At times I have cracked the sketching dilemma. The tidiness dilemma requires a house guest or visitor to inspire me to action, so is safely in the 'Unsolved Trev Problems' pile. I will touch on the reading issue because I think my barriers were very similar to other peoples.

1. Hard Work - Reading is actually hard work if you read slowly

When we read, we don't read like when we are a kid. We don't sound out each word. Gradually we start to 'chunk'. There was a meme that went around saying that as long as the first and last letters of a word were correct, we could read anything - an ability called Typoglycemia, although in looking this up on Wikipedia it appears that is being challenged. The point is that we do start to recognise rather than read words and groups of words that appear together often. This extends to phrases. Like having to work out fractions or multiply in your head, you can only do it if you do it often. I have an Actuary friend who admits to not being able to add a 10% tip in his head. For those who don't know what an actuary is, it doesn't matter, just know that that is a worry. Back to reading... the more you read, the easier it gets. This is true even if you are older. So part of the answer if you want to read more is... read more.

"I cdn'uolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg: the phaonmneel pweor of the hmuan mnid. Aoccdrnig to a rseearch taem at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Scuh a cdonition is arppoiatrely cllaed Typoglycemia .

"Amzanig huh? Yaeh and you awlyas thguoht slpeling was ipmorantt."

2. Silly Rules - Reading just one book at a time, and always finishing it is a silly rule

I only ever read (past tense) one book at a time. Since I knew I didn't read that often, I always chose books that were supposed to be good. Often this meant books that were harder to read and so I got bored more quickly and put them down. I would get stuck on books. As an example, I read Mark Behr's 'The Smell of Apples' and really enjoyed it despite it being a dark book with a very disturbing twist. I quickly followed that up with another of his books 'Embrace'. This book was much longer and much darker. Slowly I read it less and less, and by definition I read less and less. By definition because another of my silly rules was that I would always finish a book. Many people have this rule and it really makes no sense. We don't have just one friend. We don't watch just one TV series. We don't enjoy just one sport. Why is it that reading gets lumped into this crazy category of one-at-a-time-ness? Different books suit different moods in the same way as friends, TV and sport. If you get bored reading one book, pick up another. When we were asked in our last year of school to discuss 5 books we had read recently, I had to extend back a few years to make up the number much to the disgust of my English teacher. It would take me a further decade till I broke that annual running rate.

3. Technology - The advent of Kindle and Audiobooks, and entertaining the Elephant

When you read a fantastic book, you can fall in love with the actual object of the book. The smell of the paper and all those cliched things people describe about loving reading. By breaking my one book rule, I started reading more and 'recognising words' so reading more easily and so by the time Kindles came I was ready for the clincher. I am a technophile so despite my 'but I the tactile object' feelings also being there, I was keen to try e-books. My first e-book, a Sony, didn't really get out of the gates because it was so difficult to purchase books. My second, a Kindle, was awesome. I have a standing bet with book-loving friends that I persuade to give the Kindle a try. If they read a full book on the Kindle and aren't converted, I will pay for the Kindle. I have a 100% success rate with this bet (so far). That same love of a book gets channeled into the love of the Kindle. You don't move on to another object though. It just gets more and more love. Jeff Bezos, the unusual businessman that he is, knows this and so has openly said Amazon's aim isn't to get ebooks onto the upgrade cycle. There is no reason you can't keep the same Kindle for years and years as it becomes your precious. The 'real books' you buy can then be for art and of a higher quality.

I was slower to adopt audiobooks, and still prefer reading my Kindle when at home. That said, if you really want to make a big dent in your reading pile, there is no better way. It is physically tiring to sit for long periods of time reading. Your elephant gets bored. The same can be said for sitting at an office desk for hours on end. If you really want to concentrate, you have to give your elephant something to do. Audiobooks can let you go for a long walk while the narrator does the hard work and your elephant is content. I have found myself able to get through some really tough books, the kind where you read three pages and your head is spinning, by walking.

So just doing it till it gets easier, breaking some silly rules, and technology have unleashed my love of reading. That I didn't read wasn't a revealed preference. 

Onto solving some of my other weird dilemmas.