Jo Tovey isn't reading less, but she is reading less literature. She looks at how the "attention blackhole" of online life is affecting our reading habits and how to beat it.
'Last month I texted a friend to ask if she wanted to start a book club with me.
“What about a club where we talk about our favourite TikTok memes and viral dances instead?” she suggested. “I always baulk at the idea of book clubs because I fear it would show me up as being a bad reader. Have been on the same book for ages!!! I’m terrible!!! I scroll social media before bed, ie I am a BAD PERSON.”
I felt seen, to say the least. My limp attempt to start a book club was a product of similar guilt. It was early September and I had only just finished a novel I began in April. In the same amount of time the first Gulf war was almost over.
For months the novel sat atop a mounting pile of other, unread books on my bedside table, a stack that started as aspirational but grew into a tower of shame.' ... Keep reading on The Guardian
'Last month I texted a friend to ask if she wanted to start a book club with me.
“What about a club where we talk about our favourite TikTok memes and viral dances instead?” she suggested. “I always baulk at the idea of book clubs because I fear it would show me up as being a bad reader. Have been on the same book for ages!!! I’m terrible!!! I scroll social media before bed, ie I am a BAD PERSON.”
I felt seen, to say the least. My limp attempt to start a book club was a product of similar guilt. It was early September and I had only just finished a novel I began in April. In the same amount of time the first Gulf war was almost over.
For months the novel sat atop a mounting pile of other, unread books on my bedside table, a stack that started as aspirational but grew into a tower of shame.' ... Keep reading on The Guardian