Christmas of 2014, my mom gave me Reamde by Neal Stephenson. I started reading it last w
eek. You have to fully commit to a Stephenson novel, it’s not the sort of thing you just pick up. It takes commitment.
As much as I love the action-paced dystopic young adult novels (The Hunger Games, Divergent, even Harry Potter) there’s nothing like taking the time to immerse myself in a fictional world. I lost the ability to read long novels for a couple years, but I’m reclaiming it now. Part of the impetus for starting this blog was to reconnect with my high school and college self who could spend 10 hours a day just reading… although I had plenty habits back then that I don’t need to dig up!
You know those articles about our attention-deficient, social-media addicted age? This is my retreat from that world. We need balance in our intellectual lives. The energy of observing modern phenomena, reacting to it, starting a heated discussion– well and good. But we can’t contribute to those passionate, present conversations if we don’t have the foundation created by quietly probing our own minds. Stephenson always stretches my imagination. That phrase is overused, because I really feel like my brain is expanding when I read his books. It’s fantastic. But I need quiet time. No Facebook notifications, no spoilers. (I mean it! NO SPOILERS!!)
So, see you when I come up for air. Or when I’m unwillingly dragged back to reality by pedestrian needs like eating and paying rent.
Bibliophile 