Read Light, Green Light: Stop and Go Reading Frustrations

Currently Reading: The Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut

If you just looked at the “Currently Reading” and thought to yourself, “Still?” – trust me, you’re not alone.

For the record, I had intended to be done reading The Sirens of Titan in time to make it my third blog post. However, I have finished neither reading the book nor coming up with a specific and interesting enough topic related to it to warrant a post. Nevertheless, I’m afraid of losing oh-so-precious momentum, so I decided it was better to post something, even if I’m still not discussing a particular book like I’ve been promising to do, than to just not post at all.

So instead, I’m going to take this opportunity to vent a little about the main frustration I’ve encountered while reading The Sirens of Titan: the importance of pace.

So much of how you feel about a book depends on the pace at which you read it. It’s truly a shame that life very rarely allows for you to completely indulge in reading a book and escape into its clutches to the point where you can read a 300 page book in a day. I don’t think it’s an unfair claim to say that no one can have a career as a professional bookworm – but if you can, please hit me up and I’ll send you my resume STAT! – so for the most part, we all have other commitments that get in the way of this uninterrupted pace that allows for the most enjoyment. And it’s frustrating to me that it can absolutely affect your feelings about the book.

For example, I love the book Life of Pi by Yann Martel. In fact, I just finished re-reading it. It’s one of my most recommended books and has one of the most beautiful, symbiotic viewpoints on world religion I’ve ever come across with a fantastic twist that messes with your head and gets you thinking. So when I began dating someone not long after finishing the book the first time, I insisted that he read it! I just knew he would love it as intensely as I did and was excited to start discussing it once he was done. (Because who wouldn’t want to go on a date where all you do is discuss a book? Hot stuff, right?) To my disappointment, it took my boyfriend months to barely get halfway through the book. I’m fairly certain he finished it, but we definitely never had any discussions about it beyond him saying, “I thought it was good, but I didn’t think it was that good. Not a lot happens.”

I was indignant. WHAT?! Not a lot happens?! The kid is only stranded at sea with a TIGER! And who cares either way when the book is so beautifully written?!

In my mind, this was almost a dump-able offense.

However, I realized upon my second reading of the book that the fact that he and I initially read Life of Pi at vastly different paces validated his opinion. I forced the book on him during his second semester of junior year in college, a notoriously stressful time at my college. He had papers, tests, service trip fundraising, club positions, and a job to fill up the time he wasn’t actually in class. Not to the mention the not insignificant time-suck that was dating me… Finding time to read for pleasure in that kind of environment is almost on par with finding a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. So major kudos to him for even making the effort let alone actually finishing the thing!

On the other hand, my first reading of Life of Pi was pretty much in the polar opposite environment. It was my travel book for what was essentially a day-long trip from South Carolina to Pennsylvania with a layover in Chicago. I was cut off from other distractions – friends, school, phone calls, emails, Facebook, DVDs, etc. – and had no commitments, just time to kill. It was glorious uninterrupted, guilt-free reading for hours! I devoured that book, resenting the airplane for landing in my final destination when I was so tantalizingly close to the end! So upon returning to my dorm room, I promptly ignored my suitemates and homework (that had piled up from a weekend away) until the shocking twist had been revealed and I could close the book with intense satisfaction.

It’s a small wonder that for me the book was fast-paced and addicting while he found it somewhat slow and good, but not great. After all, reading it a second time – when I also had a full time job and other commitments to contend with – I realized that the protagonist is stranded at sea for over half the book. It’s not like there’s a whole lot changing beyond his developing survival skills until he discovers the incredibly bizarre and confusing Meerkat Island (seriously, does anyone know what that was about?!?!?!).

Despite the fact that it seems like a well-written book should be considered a great book no matter what, pace will absolutely factor into that evaluation. I’m not saying it’s impossible to recognize the merits of a novel on its own, but I contend that your enjoyment level of the novel is almost directly related to the pace at which you read it. If you constantly have to stop and start a book, it’s almost impossible to get a good flow going and you’ll never allow the book to transport you into its world, one of the most amazing experiences reading has to offer.

To me, it doesn’t seem like stop-and-go reading should be this way. I often get as attached to characters in a novel as I get to my flesh and blood friends so I consistently think that picking up a book after a long break should be like picking up with friends after a long separation. You may have to refresh each other on what’s just happened in your lives, but it should feel comfortable and easy. Unfortunately, the experience is usually much more akin to driving in D.C. traffic during rush hour. Either you’ll inch along painfully slowly or you’ll get chunks where you can go the speed limit but still end up slamming on the brakes every 3 miles. It’s jolting and frustrating and usually leads to fits of road rage from even the most mild-tempered person.

So if you’re thinking of starting a book in this kind of environment, it might be worth it to just wait until rush hour’s over. Because it won’t matter if you have great music on the radio, nice enough weather to keep the windows down, or a scenic drive. The stop-and-go flow will still make the experience suck at least a little bit.