Over time I have developed a bad habit, where when I am reading I will I will flick ahead to see how many pages I have left to read in the chapter. I will not do this once, but three or four times in the space of two or three pages. What purpose this serves I am not sure. Often I will be surprised that so few pages have passed since I last checked how many pages I have to read.
I like to think that my impatience when reading is my brain telling me that I should be doing something else. That rather than impassively taking in culture I should be actively trying to create it (this is a common theme, it may even be running through this diary) but I fear that this isn't the case. Instead what is more likely, is it is the result of a frighteningly short attention span and my penchant for reading a chapter at a time. Somehow between the age of 19 and 25 I have managed to turn reading into a chore.
From what I can tell the shortening of my attention span is not something I should be concerned about, it is a common thing among people of my generation and demographics according to an article I read in The Atlantic. I find that amusing, for reasons that I cannot articulate clearly. I would like to have a longer attention span and I am working on improving its length.
I like to read “highbrow” magazines like The Atlantic, Harpers, The New Yorker, The Nation and others because they make me feel like I am learning something. That they have taken the news and extended it, value adding to it with analysis and expert opinion that the newspaper and television news can't or won't give you. I also enjoy reading Guns and Ammo and Field and Stream despite not knowing anything about guns or hunting. I suppose I regret not taking advantage of the strong Australian dollar and figuring out how to buy an international subscription for some of them.
The last sentence of the above paragraph may seem obvious to you, and I am sure it would be to me had I looked at it properly but from the superficial glances I gave the subscription cards it seemed somewhat complicated.
