Ezra Klein had a conversation with Nicholas Carr on Ezra's podcast. Carr wrote a book about what the Internet is doing to your brain:The Shallows. They talked about that book. They also talked about the value of deep reading and what it does for your brain. When I say I love to read I mean deep reading. I love when a book pulls you under into the deep.
When I started reading the Library of America Baldwin books I didn't think about how many books I'd be reading. Two volumes but seven or eight books. There is third volume, which I intended to order but am sort of glad I didn't. Yet. I need time to digest. When I got to Another Country I thought I might take a break. But first I thought I'd just read a page. Yeah. I was in really deep. Really fast. The last book was Going to Meet the Man, which I did not read well. It's not a long book. He uses some of the names of characters from Another Country and I couldn't adjust. I was still emotionally involved with them. Still am.
Both Ezra and Nicholas talked about needing to put the phone across the room so that they could sink into the read. I get that. I pick my phone up in the middle of every other page. Not every time but more often than I care to admit.
I have a thing that happens. Usually when I'm reading magazines or on line. I can't take the words in. I know in a few moments if I'm going to be able to settle. Sometimes I push and some times I'm glad I do. Usually I flip the page. I have always loved magazines and have had deep reading experiences with them. Right now I just want books.
I haven't been buying things. Not even books. It's OK. Since I usually do over buy books, I have a supply. But I didn't get any books for my birthday, which actually made me cry. Big baby that I am. So I bought myself Eddie Glaude's new book. Begin Again: James Baldwin's America and Its Urgent Lessons For our Own. Perfect. It's helping me to feel through everything I just read. It is also making me want to reread a lot of it.
For me, when you get deep into a book you're still sort of in it even when you put the book down.