I recently read a book called "When Breathe Becomes Air" about a cancer physician who treats cancer patients but contracts cancer himself and ponders on the meaning of life, how death plays a role in that life. Very interesting read, a great page-turner and felt like the author was speaking directly to me, the best kind of book in my opinion where I get to delve into the author's mind and basically have a conversation. While I was reading, however, I thought about how long it'd been since I had totally finished a book in its entirety, and I realized how little I read books (not newspapers, blogs, facebook feeds, or social media outlets,) full-length, softcover or hardcover, 150 page-or-more, BOOKS.
One of the best activities I've ever done is read books to children. Children's books are entertaining, charismatic, down-to-earth, easily understandable, usually contain cute characters, relates to kids, and more importantly, are SHORT and are within the attention span of a normal 5-to-10-year-old. It's like a Disney/ animated movie, always less than 90 minutes running time, get you out of there without dragging on (by the way, Finding Dory, not as good as it could have been, although some interesting aquarium-related creatures like the British-accent seal played by Idris Elba. It's really a joy to read to children, though, because kids are so ENGAGED with the books, they stare at the pictures like they've been absorbed into a different world and can't wait to turn to the next page of their adventure. They also don't have a doctor's appointment, have to go to work, or have to change their own kids' diapers, they can just be there and enjoy the reading of the book. Also, as an adult you can make all kinds of different voices to entertain the kids and even change specific words of a book to give creative license, so that's a bonus for the storyteller. But it's the engagement of the readee that is the best part about the experience, and Christmas time / winter time is the best time to do so.
I wish I could relive that nostalgia of reading as a kid. (That's usually when it starts). I too was in that phase of just listening to a teacher read a book (My parents never read to me in English because I quickly raced ahead of them in English proficiency, although they did read to my much-younger sister Emily with Chinese accents) I quickly moved on from listening to books to absorbing the books myself, and then progressed to becoming a voracious reader, reading whatever I can get on hands on, and often whole series of books like the Choose Your Own Adventure book series, the Encyclopedia Brown mystery series, the Redwall series, then (yes, unfortunately I was caught up in) the Harry Potter series. My favorite and most memorable book as a kid was one "Maniac Magee" by Jerry Spinelli because I could so identify with the main character, a boy on his own moving around and misunderstood by those around him. It wasn't just English-language books neither; my parents encourage me to delve into Chinese literature, not just to learn about Chinese culture but to keep my Chinese language ability skills proficient, which I did and I owe a debt of gratitude to my parents and grandpa for to this day. But Chinese novels were quite lengthy, but I trudged on through the classics of "Journey to the West" and "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms." What I loved about those times was how engrossed I could become in a book, that I could lie down on the carpet or couch, crack open a new book, and just read for 3 hours, without doing anything else. My mind was focused and not polluted by outside information, desires, wants, annoyances, Iphone, internet. It was just ready to grip all the information about the world that was inside the book, and wouldn't release that grip until dinnertime, or whatever mandatory break I had to take. I myself wouldn't take it, I would continue reading because I wanted to. Even my mom thought I "read too much," and was at risk of being a "book nerd," which translates just as well into Chinese as kind of a dorky loser as it does in English.
Even in college, I could get absorbed in good books (I had a bit better taste by then and knew what I wanted). Instead of trying to chase women or adventure, I chased book highs.....I once sat on the lawn of the engineering quad at University of Illinois after taking the LSAT and read a book cover to cover while the sunset came over the campus, one of my best memories, ever, then when moving to California I read in the passenger's seat while my dad drove during our 2-day road trip. Quite an enjoyable experience.
Nowadays, though, books are far and few between, and I just can't get through them quickly enough, not being able to budget enough time for them. I literally can't afford to get trapped in those worlds of books anymore, unfortunately, despite still having the voracity to get through a good book (It needs to be book, can't be a junk romance novel). I think that's one of the regrets all adults get, is just not being able to cuddle up with a book, sit there for hours on end, and read a good book. One of the great delights of humankind.
Fantasize on,
Robert Yan
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