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I am going through a personal crisis. I used to love reading. I am writing this blog in my office, surrounded by 27 tall bookcases laden with some 5,000 books. Over the years I have read them, marked them up, and recorded the annotations in a computer database for potential references in my writing. To a large degree, they have formed my professional and spiritual life.<\/p>\n
Books help define who I am. They have ushered me on a journey of faith, have introduced me to the wonders of science and the natural world, have informed me about issues such as justice and race. More, they have been a source of delight and adventure and beauty, opening windows to a reality I would not otherwise know.<\/p>\n
My crisis consists in the fact that I am describing my past, not my present. I used to read three books a week. One year I devoted an evening each week to read all of Shakespeare\u2019s plays (OK, due to interruptions it actually took me two years).<\/p>\n
Another year I read the major works of Tolstoy and Dostoevsky. But I am reading many fewer books these days, and even fewer of the kinds of books that require hard work.<\/p>\n
The internet and social media have trained my brain to read a paragraph or two, and then start looking around.\u00a0 When I read an online article from The Atlantic<\/em> or The New Yorker<\/em>, after a few paragraphs I glance over at the slide bar to judge the article\u2019s length.<\/p>\n My mind strays, and I find myself clicking on the sidebars and the underlined links. Soon I\u2019m over at CNN.com reading Donald Trump\u2019s latest Tweets and details of the latest terrorist attack, or perhaps checking tomorrow\u2019s weather.<\/p>\n Worse, I fall prey to the little boxes that tell me, \u201cIf you like this article [or book], you\u2019ll also like\u2026\u201d\u00a0 Or I glance at the bottom of the screen and scan the teasers for more engaging tidbits: 30 Amish Facts That\u2019ll Make Your Skin Crawl; Top 10 Celebrity Wardrobe Malfunctions; Walmart Cameras Captured These Hilarious Photos. A dozen or more clicks later I have lost interest in the original article.<\/p>\n Neuroscientists have an explanation for this phenomenon. When we learn something quick and new, we get a dopamine rush; functional-MRI brain scans show the brain\u2019s pleasure centers lighting up. In a famous experiment, rats keep pressing a lever to get that dopamine rush, choosing it over food or sex. In humans, emails also satisfy that pleasure center, as do Twitter and Instagram and Snapchat.<\/p>\n Nicholas Carr\u2019s book The Shallows<\/em> analyzes the phenomenon, and its subtitle says it all: \u201cWhat the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains.\u201d Carr spells out that most Americans, and young people especially, are showing a precipitous decline in the amount of time spent reading.<\/p>\n He says, \u201cOnce I was a scuba diver in the sea of words. Now I zip along the surface like a guy on a Jet Ski.\u201d A 2016 Nielsen report calculates that the average American devotes more than ten hours per day to consuming media\u2014including radio, TV, and all electronic devices. That constitutes 65 percent of waking hours, leaving little time for the much harder work of focused concentration on reading.<\/p>\n In The Gutenberg Elegies<\/em>, Sven Birkerts laments the loss of \u201cdeep reading,\u201d which requires intense concentration, a conscious lowering of the gates of perception, and a slower pace.\u00a0 His book hit me with the force of conviction, intensifying my sense of crisis. \u00a0I keep putting off Charles Taylor\u2019s A Secular Age<\/em>, and look at my shelf full of J\u00fcrgen Moltmann\u2019s theology books with a feeling of nostalgia\u2014why am I not reading books like that now?<\/p>\n (I might add that most of these mentioned above are leftists)<\/strong><\/p>\n When asked about his secret to success, Warren Buffett pointed to a stack of books and said, \u201cRead 500 pages like this every day. That\u2019s how knowledge works. It builds up, like compound interest.<\/p>\n All of you can do it, but I guarantee not many of you will\u2026\u201d\u00a0 Charles Chu, who quoted Buffett on the Quartz <\/em>website, acknowledges that 500 pages a day is beyond reach for all but a few people. Nevertheless, neuroscience proves what each of these busy people have found: it actually takes less energy to focus intently than to zip from task to task.<\/p>\n After an hour of contemplation, or deep reading, a person ends up less tired and less neurochemically depleted, thus more able to tackle mental challenges.<\/p>\n If we can\u2019t reach Buffett\u2019s high reading bar, what is a realistic goal?\u00a0 Charles Chu calculates that at an average reading speed of 400 words per minute, it would take 417 hours in a year to read 200 books\u2014less than the 608 hours the average American spends on social media, or the 1642 hours watching TV.\u00a0 \u201cHere\u2019s the simple truth behind reading a lot of books,\u201d says Quartz: \u201cIt\u2019s not that hard.<\/p>\n We have all the time we need. The scary part\u2014the part we all ignore\u2014is that we are too addicted, too weak, and too distracted to do what we all know is important.\u201d**<\/p>\n In the last two years, Chu has read more than 400 books cover to cover.\u00a0 Willpower alone is not enough, he says. We need to construct what he calls \u201ca fortress of habits.\u201d\u00a0 I like that image.<\/p>\n Recently I checked author Annie Dillard\u2019s website, in which she states, \u201cI can no longer travel, can\u2019t meet with strangers, can\u2019t sign books but will sign labels with SASE, can\u2019t write by request, and can\u2019t answer letters. I\u2019ve got to read and concentrate. Why? Beats me.\u201d Now that\u2019s a fortress.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve concluded that a commitment to reading is an ongoing battle, somewhat like the battle against the seduction of internet pornography.<\/p>\n We have to build a fortress with walls strong enough to withstand the temptations of that powerful dopamine rush while also providing shelter for an environment that allows deep reading to flourish. \u00a0Christians especially need that sheltering space, for quiet meditation is one of the most important spiritual disciplines.<\/p>\n As a writer in the age of social media, I host a Facebook page and a website and write an occasional blog.\u00a0 Thirty years ago I got a lot of letters from readers, and they did not expect an answer for a week or more.\u00a0 Now I get emails, and if they don\u2019t hear back in two days they write again, \u201cDid you get my email?\u201d\u00a0 The tyranny of the urgent crowds in around me.<\/p>\n If I yield to that tyranny, my life fills with mental clutter. Boredom, say the researchers, is when creativity happens. A wandering mind wanders into new, unexpected places.<\/p>\n When I retire to the mountains and unplug for a few days, something magical takes place. I\u2019ll go to bed puzzling over a roadblock in my writing, and the next morning wake up with the solution crystal-clear\u2014something that never happens when I spend my spare time cruising social media and the internet.<\/p>\n I find that poetry helps. You can\u2019t zoom through poetry; it forces you to slow down, think, concentrate, relish words and phrases. I now try to begin each day with a selection from George Herbert, Gerard Manley Hopkins, or R. S. Thomas.<\/p>\n For deep reading, I\u2019m searching for an hour a day when mental energy is at a peak, not a scrap of time salvaged from other tasks. I put on headphones and listen to soothing music, shutting out distractions.<\/p>\n Deliberately, I don\u2019t text. I used to be embarrassed when I pulled out my antiquated flip phone, which my wife says should be donated to a museum. Now I pocket it with a kind of perverse pride, feeling sorry for the teenagers who check their phones on average two thousand times a day.<\/p>\n We\u2019re engaged in a war, and technology wields the heavy weapons. Rod Dreher published a bestseller called The Benedict Option<\/em>, in which he urged people of faith to retreat behind monastic walls as the Benedictines did\u2014after all, they preserved literacy and culture during one of the darkest eras of human history.<\/p>\n I don\u2019t completely agree with Dreher, though I\u2019m convinced that the preservation of reading will require something akin to the Benedict option.<\/p>\n I\u2019m still working on that fortress of habit, trying to resurrect the rich nourishment that reading has long provided for me. If only I can resist clicking on the link that promises 30 Amish Facts That\u2019ll Make Your Skin Crawl\u2026<\/p>\n Copyright \u00a9 2019 Philip Yancey<\/a>–<\/span>Originally published by Randy Alcorn EMP<\/a> <\/span>All rights reserved.<\/p>\n I am going through a personal crisis. I used to love reading. I am writing this blog in my office, surrounded by 27 tall bookcases laden with some 5,000 books. Over the years I have read them, marked them up, and recorded the annotations in a computer database for potential references in my writing. To […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":20978,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-20977","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-education","8":"wp-image-borders","9":"entry"},"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/watchmanmedia.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/why-we-must-earnestly-desire-spiritual-gifts-zo1a4tbi.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4bgnN-5sl","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/watchmanmedia.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20977","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/watchmanmedia.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/watchmanmedia.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/watchmanmedia.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/watchmanmedia.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20977"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/watchmanmedia.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20977\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20999,"href":"https:\/\/watchmanmedia.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20977\/revisions\/20999"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/watchmanmedia.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/20978"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/watchmanmedia.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20977"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/watchmanmedia.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20977"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/watchmanmedia.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20977"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"http:\/\/philipyancey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/bigstock-Focus-On-Hand-Of-Young-Asian-B-179407075-300x200.jpg\")
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<\/a>An article in Business Insider*<\/em> studied such pioneers as Elon Musk, Oprah Winfrey, Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, and Mark Zuckerberg. Most of them have in common a practice the author calls the \u201c5-hour rule\u201d: they set aside at least an hour a day (or five hours a week) for deliberate learning. For example:<\/p>\n\n
Though Chu underestimates the average book length at 50,000 words, his conclusion still applies. Now I really feel guilty.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/a><\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"