I write here after a long time. I have added a page which
records the books I’ve been reading. The reading logged is not as much as I
would have wished, initially due to work and of late, I have been trying to limit the amount of time devoted to reading .
Background on the opportune time for reading IJ: I have
tried quite a few times since I bought IJ to open it up and read - always
devoting broadly a month of my time. But with work, at times I would get into
the book but realize that it is too involved and intense and I would then drop
out and forget the context just because of being away for long. The most I had
reached like this, after trying a few times was some 200 pages. And we are
talking in years here. The book is 1000 pages long with some 100 pages of
footnotes. Enter, sabbatical break. Still, I was tentative in my commitment.
Then, one inspired day in March, I decided to read this book thinking that if I
can’t read this now, when I have much more control over my time, it is unlikely
that I’ll read it in the near future. And hence, on the same day, I decided my major
targets for April (which in non-sabbatical state would be difficult to pursue).
And these were – run 100 miles and read IJ.
On my targets - I am hopeful of closing the month with the
run (And I have not been a runner before Feb 2012). On IJ, I linger at 700. But
I have reached that much loved stage in those few good books that one reads
where you want the book to continue for long, may be forever. You wish that you
could read about the people on and on. You savor every page and despite the target
achievement question mark, you will the book to slow down just to be with the
author and the ideas longer. This happened recently with Murakami’s ‘What I
think…running’ book, which is a quick read – if read in one go, may be a two hour
affair but I allowed myself to read only 10-20 pages daily so that it could
last longer. So effectively, I am having a lot of fun reading IJ.
The book rewards you with lots and lots of thoughts daily.
From a peep into the materialist, entertainment addicted future, to the pursuit
of excellence(in a sport), to the soul-help dashed out in ladle-full, to some
really insightful essays on topics which just make you wonder at the author’s
depth, complexity and width of thinking. From the concept of wheelchair
assassins to the hideous and deformed, to 12-steps, and an alternative reality
for the entertainment industry, to all the probing into the happiness pursuit –
is it the want or the have? Or should one take targets and
live by them or just move between different paths, and view one’s life as a set
of lines moving from one point to another (that is not stop at the target
point). It asks some of the basic questions of life and makes you think about
them. It is as much about the 1000 pages as it is about the amount of your waking
hours you keep thinking about the characters, their choices and all the food
for thought dished out in the book. It is enriching, enlightening, and as
Virginia Woolf says, like a good book, makes you ask as many questions
yourself, explodes a huge number of thoughts in your mind. I am very glad that
I am reading the book, and yes, looking forward to completing it, and looking
forward to reading it again sometime soon, and looking forward to reading all
the ideas and thoughts that IJ readers have spread across the internet.
Another note – on record keeping and target setting; Instead
of targeting 52 books or 30 books or x number of books a year, I now plan to
devote a limited amount of time to books. Otherwise, it becomes an all-consuming
pursuit esp when I am in second half of books and I then ignore many things, and
as a result, once I finish them, I stay away from books for a while, and also,
I ignore non fiction, long form, essays which I wish I could read more of,
which normally get second preference because of a faulty metric of counting
only the number of books. Humbling reminder that the plan stage and
set-the-target stage is by far the most crucial stage, after that, its about
execution and following your own commands. So the idea is to read better.