“… to read, we need a certain kind of silence, an ability to filter out the noise. That seems increasingly elusive in our overnetworked society, where every buzz and rumor is instantly blogged and tweeted, and it is not contemplation we desire but an odd sort of distraction, distraction masquerading as being in the know. In such a landscape, knowledge can’t help but fall prey to illusion, albeit an illusion that is deeply seductive, with its promise that speed can lead us to more illumination, that it is more important to react than to think deeply, that something must be attached to every bit of time. Here, we have my reading problem in a nutshell, for books insist we take the opposite position, that we immerse, slow down.”
– David L. Ulin, The Lost Art of Reading
Notes: Quote – Litverve. Photograph: Amoris-Causa
Live & Learn 
Yes!!
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i have enjoyed reading but nowadays – i struggle to use the time to read when I can get a whole story on a DVD in 90 mins. I need help
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Come on Scott. I see your amazing photographs, you get out.
I, on the other hand, need more than help. Intervention is closer to the solution. 🙂
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Of late, I have to consciously make myself read real books! Great quote. Thank you!
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I’m trying to get on the same bus too….Thank you.
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For me, the ability to filter out noise when reading is a good test of whether a novel is interesting enough. If I keep on getting distracted, then the author has failed to immerse me in their world. On the hand, I need total silence to read a text book full of facts, especially science ones. My mind has always had a tendency to wander with non-fiction, apart from a gripping biography or autobiography.
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I agree on quality of the noise filter directly related to the quality of the reading…right there with your Sarah.
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I love nothing more than to find a book that, after reading for a while, causes me to look up and realize, with no small surprise, that an hour or more has passed…
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Yes, exactly…
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and it is a wonderful and worthy art, indeed.
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Reblogged this on Rudy Oldeschulte.
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Thanks for sharing Rudy.
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I read first thing in the morning and last thing at night when there is silence and no distraction. I could read a good book more if I didn’t take time to read the blogs I enjoy.
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Me too Lulu, me too.
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M’lord!! This is right on the money!!
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It is!
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I loved this one because it’s so “correct”!!
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Reblogged this on Mistrz i Małgorzata.
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Reblogged this on It Is What It Is and commented:
Something to really think about!!!
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Have missed that luxury bus too many times lately…feel like I’m on a speeding matatu hanging out catching bits and bobs here and there.
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Smiling. Love the visual. (And in full disclosure, I needed to look up ‘matatu’.)
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I very very much relate to this post. We are addicted to distraction; we have forgotten being, how just to be. Many find it difficult to endure silence and solitude; but all good things, everything that has depth, and everything that makes one grow happens in silence and solitude. This overnetworking frenzy, this over socialization synchronizes periods and values. Connection with the price of becoming anonymous to ourselves is in essence a disconnection. It would be good if we could incorporate a day in a week in which we disconnect from everything other and connect to the Self.
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Hi Toomajj. I appreciate your thoughtful insights. Yes, we (I) are (am) addicted to distraction. I’m trying to inject some of what you recommend into various points in my week.
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I can’t agree more. Sometimes it’s not about finishing a book but the longing to never let it end because while reading it you explore another world and you don’t feel like to come back to reality.
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So true Sonia. I live in this same parallel universe when I read.
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Smiling.
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