I am slowly and steadily creating a parallel library of e-books to paper
books, so that if I ever suffer a fire or housebreaking that I won't be
missing that many books. It's also a measure of how much we're living in the future that I can put this many books in my pocket. In a way, it's much easier to get used it since I've been doing the same process with music for years. My phone has more music on it than I could reasonably carry in any previous format. Likewise, my e-reader has a huge number of books I enjoy. I've been noticing that my tendency is to both buy new books, to grab things which haven't been in print for ages, but mostly it's been to get digital copies of favorite books.
As I said in the last post about rereading, a lot of knowing that my favorite books are at home is that satisfying feeling of being aware of where I can find those stories again. I don't have to wonder when I can read them again, or speculate about who the author was. I can go home, look at the bookcase until I spot the cover, and know instantly what it was I wanted to read. Having the books in the index of my e-book reader gives me the same level of comfort, but with even greater immediacy. They're right there, at arm's reach, and I can pull up a comfort book within seconds.
I've also used a service that's allowed me to
keep a digital record of everything in my personal library. Keeping
track of what I've read is both interesting, and in some ways,
illustrative of who I was at that point in time. Sadly, I don't have the
stamina to write down what I've read when, so it's a very incomplete record in that way.
One of the things I've noticed about my personal reading is that I tend to read in long chains of interest. I'll get hooked on a specific topic or author and read it almost to exhaustion. I've done this with books about specific trends in pop culture, with history, and more. What I'm reading often drive the choice of what to read next, and often I see more parallels in what I'm reading, because I'm reading inter-textually, threading one set of ideas in with another similar set.
If I were actually tracking my train of reading it would probably look something like this:
Interesting book on Main topic of interest >
Second book on Main topic of interest >
Book on secondary topic of interest pertaining to Main topic of interest >
Book on primary figure associated with Main topic of interest >
Book written by eyewitness >
Book that offers insider perspective on topic >
Book that gives an overview of the cultural history surrounding Main topic
I find this kind of reading cycle helps me really inform myself about a topic, particularly a historical topic, without restricting my notion of what happened in a specific situation or get a one-sided view of a particular scenario. I often talk to people about my reading and get the impression that they have read only one book on the topic, if any, or they've picked up their impression of the goings-on through hearsay and history classes. That's not to say that the only way to learn about something is to read about it exhaustively. That's what works for me. Seeing how all the parts go together is something like solving a puzzle, and being rewarded with a whole picture. Each piece that's filled in gives a richer grain to the image.
The hardest part, for me, is remembering where I read a specific fact. Often the facts that I gravitate to as being the most interesting take on that 'but I've always known this' quality that sometimes happens when we've thoroughly assimilated knowledge. It's hard to remember not knowing about it.
Part of being able to credit the reading you do is being able to remember when you didn't know specific facts about the topic, and being able to go back to that pre-knowledge point and remember what that was like. In fact, the idea of the progressive growth arc that we get from reading is not all that dissimilar from what we create in a story in order to show that a character has changed. Reading changes us by giving us more data to work with. It changes us by giving us opinions and choices about what we will believe. It gives us multiple perspectives on events, and ultimately, that makes us better storytellers.
One of the things I've noticed about my personal reading is that I tend to read in long chains of interest. I'll get hooked on a specific topic or author and read it almost to exhaustion. I've done this with books about specific trends in pop culture, with history, and more. What I'm reading often drive the choice of what to read next, and often I see more parallels in what I'm reading, because I'm reading inter-textually, threading one set of ideas in with another similar set.
If I were actually tracking my train of reading it would probably look something like this:
Interesting book on Main topic of interest >
Second book on Main topic of interest >
Book on secondary topic of interest pertaining to Main topic of interest >
Book on primary figure associated with Main topic of interest >
Book written by eyewitness >
Book that offers insider perspective on topic >
Book that gives an overview of the cultural history surrounding Main topic
I find this kind of reading cycle helps me really inform myself about a topic, particularly a historical topic, without restricting my notion of what happened in a specific situation or get a one-sided view of a particular scenario. I often talk to people about my reading and get the impression that they have read only one book on the topic, if any, or they've picked up their impression of the goings-on through hearsay and history classes. That's not to say that the only way to learn about something is to read about it exhaustively. That's what works for me. Seeing how all the parts go together is something like solving a puzzle, and being rewarded with a whole picture. Each piece that's filled in gives a richer grain to the image.
The hardest part, for me, is remembering where I read a specific fact. Often the facts that I gravitate to as being the most interesting take on that 'but I've always known this' quality that sometimes happens when we've thoroughly assimilated knowledge. It's hard to remember not knowing about it.
Part of being able to credit the reading you do is being able to remember when you didn't know specific facts about the topic, and being able to go back to that pre-knowledge point and remember what that was like. In fact, the idea of the progressive growth arc that we get from reading is not all that dissimilar from what we create in a story in order to show that a character has changed. Reading changes us by giving us more data to work with. It changes us by giving us opinions and choices about what we will believe. It gives us multiple perspectives on events, and ultimately, that makes us better storytellers.
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