One of the first things we tend to do when we get busy with work, is to cut out the time we spend on our hobbies. And naturally, the more time consuming it is, the less is the motivation to actually pursue it. This is the case with my reading. I spend hours on youtube but hardly ever pick up a book to read which isn’t an academic requirement.
I have always liked reading and if I happen to stumble upon a good book, I’d get lost in it and won’t resurface until it’s over. I remember browsing through the library shelves in school, trying to find a book that’ll hopefully turn out to be good enough to lose sleep over. When in school, I used to wish for more free time so that I can read. When I went to college, I spent all the free time I had in watching movies and TV shows on my laptop. Picking up a book and going through it cover to cover was too much effort as compared to just watching a video. So I would hardy pick up any book unless, it’s one in a series that I had been following or some good friend recommended it to me.
I cannot remember the last book which I’ve read more than once, but I have seen some movies many many times. It’s so easy to just sit and watch. One episode after another, finish a whole season in a day. I’m basically addicted to it and I can actually spend days staring at the screen with my headphones on doing nothing else. I have in fact done that many times, soon as exams end or a deadline gets over. But pondering over something long after you saw it, that’s the good stuff. Just mindlessly watching it isn’t. Taking in too many hours of videos makes me retain very less and by the end of the week I sometimes even forget most of what I saw except the most interesting stuff. Whereas, I still remember some of the books I read, parts of which have got stuck in my head. How a particular twist in the plot made me feel at the moment or how much I could relate to certain experiences being described.
I thought I’d try to strike a balance, less videos and more reading. Take in less in my head each day and spend more time imagining and interpreting it’s meaning. Books make me want to do that, whereas it’s hard for me to get off my laptop unless I’m hungry. So I bought a couple of books online, all somewhere around 200 pages so that it won’t take a decent amount of will to get started with. So far in this month, I read Einstein’s Dreams which is absolutely amazing, a must read for everyone & Hunger Games. This one is longer though and people are right when they say that the movie is better. Anyway, I have a lot of short, unread books on my shelf now which I’m looking forward to read!
I’ll let you know how it goes! 🙂
Aakritty 