Slowing It Down

The other night I settled in to read Mike Birbiglia's book, "Sleepwalk With Me". (That's right kids, I spent my Saturday night staying in and reading. Welcome to life in your 30s.) Now, I'd been trying to secure a copy of this book for a while. At first I held off buying it myself because I had asked for it for Christmas and then my birthday. Once those dates passed I would have run out to get it, but by that time my enthusiasm had kind of drained away. (Hey, it happens. We're not talking about some kick-ass video game, it's a book.) That meant while I still wanted to read it, I wasn't going to make a special trip just to get it and thus it kind of slipped my mind, with the memory that I wanted it only coming back when I was in a bookstore and that doesn't happen nearly as much as it should, because there aren't that many book stores left. Even when I did remember to look for it, the place was usually sold out. Good for Birbiglia, bad for me. I ended up securing a copy from the library. (For my younger readers, the library is that old building near the center of town you've never been in. The way it works is anyone can borrow a book from them to read, then just bring it back when they are done. It doesn't cost anything as long as they bring it back within a certain amount of time, but even then the penalty isn't very severe. Hell, you can keep it for like a year and it's only going to cost you around $3 in late fees. The place is pretty wild.)

Anyway, I settled in to start reading around 8 and finished the book by midnight. Now, the book itself was very amusing and even though there were a couple parts where I found myself thinking, "Why would you tell people this?", there were other parts which had me literally laughing so hard I had to put the book down. If you are looking for a light, fun read for the beach this summer, I think you would really enjoy this book. But, I also got the feeling that I didn't really get to enjoy the full experience because I started and finished the book in one sitting. Before I go any further you should know that it is not as though this book was "War & Peace" nor was it Shakespeare, so I don't want it to seem like I'm bragging about how quickly I read it. It was about 180 pages and written by a comedian, which means large sections of it were just his bits written out. Also, since I'm a big fan of Birbiglia, that means I have seen him performing almost all of these comedy bits at one time or another, thus reading those passages did not require my full and resolute attention as I already knew the punch-line. Still, even on the pages where I wasn't familiar with the material and thus had to slow down to make sure I understood what I just read, I flew through this book.

Now, I've always been a fast reader. Some of that is based on being super-competitive and wanting to make the best time in just about everything I do, which is why I'm also a fast (yet still safe) driver. You give me a task that doesn't involve making this asthmatic kid run and I'll get it handled faster than most.You put a prize at the end and I'll take it up another notch. I may have used this example before, but back in the day my 6th grade class had a contest to see which person could read the most books and that person was going to be given a prize at the end of the school year. I read over 100 books. I smoked the rest of the class. Seriously, it wasn't even funny. (Also, it is suddenly becoming clearer why I wasn't more popular in 6th grade.) Obviously, had I known the prize was a stupid little card with the meaning of my name on it I might not have been as motivated. (However, it should also be noted that card is still in my parent's living room. The prize might have sucked, but it was still a first-place prize, so I'll be damned if it was getting thrown away.)

Still, that was then. In this case no one was timing me, no one was racing me and I didn't get anything for finishing first. I wasn't even up against a deadline, as the book had just arrived from the library. The point is I'm not totally sure things I do for enjoyment are things I should be in such a hurry to finish. Not every task needs to be taken on with the same, "Get it done and get it done now" mindset. That is probably why speed reading is not a skill I was ever interested in acquiring. Seriously, what am I in such a hurry to get to the end of good book for? Given the number of nights I am desperately searching for something to entertain me, I should be savoring the experience when something finally does come along. Clearly, what I need to do from here on out is change my mindset, take my time and maybe make sure that I really appreciate the experience. In fact, I bet I can change my way of thinking faster than most other people.... Then again, it may just be easier to start finding longer books to read.