Tuesday, April 14, 2009

To Tell You the Truth

I have a confession to make: I am an English teacher (that's not it) who (I'm not sure I can put this in writing) very rarely (Oooh, it makes me wince just to think about it) finishes a book.

There. It's out. I don't really feel any better, but let me explain. I just don't have the attention span to read books anymore. I'm not sure where it went; when I was a kid I read avidly. Now, I start lots of books, and I skim tons of books, so that I can discuss them intelligently with my students, and I certainly read all sorts of articles, both in print and on the internet, but I just don't read many books all the way through.

Of course, in my profession, I am surrounded by readers, and I have learned to dread the question, "Have you read it?" because I won't lie, but I will allow people to assume that I have read whatever it is we're discussing. My family reads, too. My mother and brother always find time in their busy lives to read a kazillion books; how, I don't know. I have a student this year who reads at least 4 or 5 books a week, and today she came in after spring break with Little Women. " I read that when I was in sixth grade!" I told her. "Did you love it? Don't read Little Men next-- you'll only be disappointed." It was a great conversation, and it reminded me that I want to read, I really do. I want to recapture that feeling I remember so well from when I was a girl, curled up in the green chair, pounding through book after book, lost in the story and the setting and the characters.

One strategy I use to up my page count (so to speak) is to listen to audiobooks. Often, they will get me hooked, and since I don't really have that much time to listen (my commute is eight minutes, if there's heavy traffic), I lose patience and go ahead and finish the book. That's what happened with both the Twilight and City of Ember series. I try to find unabridged recordings of books read by the author, which is usually an intense and magical experience, even apart from my non-reading ways. Most recently, I listened to The Kite Runner on a roadtrip to and from Atlanta over spring break. Here's what I wrote to my friend, Leah, about it:

We spent yesterday barreling through the Carolinas, listening to The Kite Runner. My eyes were on I-85, crossing the Tugaloo River and changing lanes to avoid somebody's clothes that were strewn across the road for miles (did a suitcase open in the back of a pick-up, or did someone throw them out the window, maybe in the heat of an argument, just to make their point?), but my mind was in Afghanistan and Pakistan: Kabul, the Khyber Pass, Peshawar and Islamabad, wondering how Amir would ever find redemption.

About thirty miles out of town, I called to order take-out from the Afghan restaurant. We picked it up on the way home and then sat at our dining room table eating mantu, palau, sabzi, and kadu, and listened to the last thirty minutes. For you, a thousand times over.

Wow. What a great book. But have I read it?

4 comments:

  1. Bravo for your honesty Tracey. Now you might not finish books, but you do write and finish pieces of writing. How many teachers can say that?
    As for reading, the Kindle has made it much easier for me.
    I don't finish a book unless it forces me to stay with it.
    Bonnie

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  2. I'm right there with you...so to make myself read more I formed a book club with some friends. Like you, I'm easily distracted. I get the most reading in when I am sitting on the beach, far away from home, with nothing but the ocean to distract me.

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  3. Can you say that you read the book if you listened to it? I just had this debate with my cousin. I won't tell you who won or if any one did. I will say though, It did take courage for you to admit to, let's just call it, "the book thing". I read a lot, but I think sometimes this is my way of getting lost. It's my time to tune out work, the kids, my husband, and what ever else is demanding my attention.

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  4. I too have taken to audio books because I am in my car more and more lately. And yes I did actually read the Kite Runner but I also would count it as read if I listened to the book on CD.

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