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Underground > Books, Criticism & Writing >

How to balance academic reading with other reading?

22:56 / 22.10.02

I can't do it... and it's making me miserable. Gah. I;ve been here for two and a half weeks and in that time I've read The Chalet Girls Grow Up and about 200 pages of Bleak House. This is pathetic - I used to read about three/four books a week, and now look at me. I think the problem is that I am now spending most of my 'work' time in libraries trawling through the historiography for my subject, and when I get back here I feel guilty if I read something else (non-work-related) so I just refresh Barbelith a lot and wonder where everyone is.... sob...

On the plus side, my expenditure on books has plummeted. But so has my image of myself as General Reader (I'm carefully *not* looking at my reading logs here... I expect they reveal a sorry tale of children's fantasy and detective fiction and I don't want to dent my self-esteem any more than I already have).

How does one go about compartmentalising one's reading? I don't want to lose the reading-for-pleasure aspect of things... any tips welcome.

02:13 / 23.10.02

Different books in different rooms?

05:49 / 23.10.02

Do you travel on the bus? You could set that time aside for pleasure reading. I'll often have a different book for on the tube.
Otherwise, is there another 'separate' block of time ... before classes in the morning, or before bed, that you can think of as being for your own reading?
But probably the fact is that work reading will take up a lot of time and you'll read a lot less of what you like. You just have to make a point of taking some time for yourself.

08:09 / 23.10.02

It's very hard. It's nearly impossible. This summer I guess I read at least nine or ten books for sheer pleasure, not counting the stuff I read for the next term. I've read about 60-70 pages "for me" since I got back.

It's very hard, especially if you're a really voracious reader. And much as I love it, I get tired of the process of reading - I've spent x hours in a library staring at books, all I want to do is read, but if I see another page of print I'll go insane. Etc. The only way I can think of doing it is setting aside time every night. Even if it's half an hour, you just have to say "I will do nothing now but read". Problem was, I can't leave it too late here beacuse I'll probably be pissed or not in that early. But maybe some time after eating supper, or something, would be a good idea.

You just have to force yourself to compartmentalise. I tend to just about cope and then get to the holidays and remember I like reading. Sadly, I'm meant to work in them too, but I place my sanity above over-preparation.

It sucks.

09:00 / 23.10.02

Hi Kit Kat
I don't think you can fit them all in, not until they clone you an extra pair of eyes. Maybe you could just do pleasure reading for a bit or maybe even better, go and do something totally different that engages another part of you, without FEELING GUILTY, till you come back refreshed. Academic courses always give you too much reading. When I finished college I couldn't read anything factual for 6 months. This advice isn't that much help in the middle of a course I'm sure.

I still frequently overload myself wiith reading. A bit off topic but related to the whole idea of reading and learning: a snippet a read regarding magickal books years ago was that you should only own a dozen or so which you refer to frequently, generating new insights, cathcing all those subtleties that you've missed etc. I think this is especially true for magicial books but I don't see why it can't count for academic work as well. When you write your thesis or whatever it is, you'll probably only engage heavily with a few texts, which you'll know and love, with a suppporting cast of references that you don't know that well. We sometimes think that just cos we've read somehting means we know it, but you only truly know a text when it's become part of your thinking through familarity. Any thoughts?

BTW, you might find Photoreading interesting which is all about managing information overload. I play a round with it a bit and don't think it's the miraculos solution it presents itself as, but it's got some interesting ideas. If you wanna know more, I've got a book on it!

09:02 / 23.10.02

For someone who reads a lot, why can't I fucking spel?

10:58 / 23.10.02

I agree, it is difficult when you read a lot in your job but as I commute all the time I can guarantee myself at least two and a half hours reading a day which allows me "pleasure" reading. But it is always good for the grey matter to have a more serious novel and non-fiction work on the go at home too!

11:00 / 23.10.02

I can't offer any help, KKC, only sympathy. I am in the same situation and have been for several years. I used to read voraciously. In many ways I still do, but much of it is work related and incommunicable to the rest of humanity.

I have failed in keeping my pleasure reading going to the extent that I'd like. Moreover, I seem to have precious little time for serious reading that isn't maths. bah. If you find a way, please let me know.

11:07 / 23.10.02

And scrap the telly too! I wish that I could have time back that I have watched all the inanity on the box just because I was too lazy to pick up a good book or do something else as constructive.

12:26 / 23.10.02

I used to read about three/four books a week

Great Scott. That is mighty.

Not what you asked for, but that seems a very high standard to strive after... I agree more with Illmatic about doing something totally different and not feeling guilty a bit. It seems to me that the point of "pleasure reading" is the pleasure, not the reading. Maybe your subconscious doesn't want to read at home? Probably not healthy to think of yourself as separate from your subconscious... but that's how it is chez moi, I do what the little brat wants & the better for everyone. I think I'm coming off as insane, but seriously I have an article about this somewhere...

13:42 / 23.10.02

ps I meant the thingy about Photoreading seriously, I didn't look fully round the link above but if it's anything like the book it'll be full of adverts but missing the "technique". Lemme know if you wanna borrow yet another book.... oh , the irony!

15:24 / 23.10.02

If I do borrow it you won't get it back for ages, I warn you...

Persephone, yeah, it sounds like a lot, but do bear in mind that trash like Selma at the Abbey doesn't take very long - and I didn't have a television, and still don't, which left me with huge tranches of evening and weekend to fill. I seem to be using the internet as a substitute now though...

Thanks for the advice, everyone, and the sympathy. I can't see a way out of it yet, but might be better when I've finished my current paper (which is inducing major levels of guilt...)

15:52 / 23.10.02

And then it will be time to start on your next paper and improve your background knowledge. Each of us has an inexhaustible source of ignorance. The longer I've been in academia, the more I've felt that in my bones.

16:14 / 23.10.02

I'm having trouble dealing with this. In my last stint in university I had no academic reading, but damn this time around I'm dying. I do manage to read some in the 10min. between classes and sometimes during break at work, but otherwise I've been cut off from the wonderful world of fiction. (sigh) Only 2 months to Christmas Break...

23:04 / 23.10.02

Perhaps part of the reason is that I work best in the evenings (libraries in the afternoon just make me very very sleepy, and dribbling on books is *so* embarrassing at my age) and so I'm rarely back in my room until, hmm, one... and then I turn this thing on, and after an hour or so of that I'm too tired to do more than read two pages and go to sleep (with face in book, and probably dribbling on it).

01:34 / 24.10.02

Can you not then do your pleasure reading in the afternoon? I also find that reading before bed isn't so much a read as a transition to sleep. The real right thing is to read in the middle of the day, with tea and toast on the side.

01:06 / 27.10.02

read lots during uni? tell me of this strange custom.

The Return Of Rothkoid

03:47 / 27.10.02

I think that this is a problem that affects anyone who works with lots of text on a daily basis - not just uni students. My subbing/correction work means that by the end of the day, I jsut want to turn off. And I feel immensely guilty about not reading as much as I should - I'm trying to use my Allconsuming.net profile as some kind of a goad - you know, the sort of You Haven't Read Enough, Baby! kind of thing.

Alas, it's not working yet. I think the key is scheduling.

15:45 / 27.10.02

Persephone - yeah, I could, but then I feel bad because I should be in the non-lending libraries, you see. Things like long journeys are great, because no one can really read work books on long journeys.

I think I just have a problem with guilt...