ONE of the first places I visited was the library. My mother was studying for a degree when I was born and time and essay deadlines wait for no woman.
At 10 days old, in a sling, surrounded by books. It was to set the tone for an ongoing bookish childhood. An only child who moved home and school not infrequently, books were a constant pal.
Everywhere I’ve visited in the world, and that’s more places than my carbon footprint guilt would like to acknowledge, I’ve hit up the local library just for a look.
I visit bookstores and bring home new friends from my travels. There is nothing I like better than a pot of tea and the time to read.
Ah, until the pandemic. The pandemic, and I know I’m far from alone here, has shot my concentration span into a million mismatched fragments.
The most upsetting result of which has meant I can no longer read a novel. Even the shortest of short stories are a chore and the loss of reading’s soothing meditation has had such an effect on my wellbeing.
Technology has long been a fat barrier in the way of deep, dedicated reading but this has ramped up in the pandemic. I’m in 23 active WhatsApp groups now. I have 17 different Slack channels for work. I use two Twitter accounts, three Facebook accounts and nine Facebook pages.
I have five emails accounts to keep on top of and exactly umpteen Teams threads (or whatever they’re called. I ran of out steam long before Teams was added to the mix).
If you search online for “ways to improve concentration span” a great glut of results will suggest removing distractions. Gee thanks, wouldn’t have guessed.
Sometimes it’s not possible to remove distractions. Even with the phone on Do Not Disturb and the laptop’s notifications on silent, they still quietly pulse for attention at the back of the mind.
What am I missing? What if someone needs something? This is boring?
There is, of course, a pre-coined phrase for this situation of being: continuous partial attention. CPA was the brainwave – good for her, imagine having brainwaves – of Linda Stone, a former consultant for Microsoft and Apple.
It describes a state of never fully switching off, of always being prodded alert here and there by various stimuli but never really giving our full attention to anything.
This is fine in the short term, but in the long term the constant adrenaline cortisol surges wreak havoc with our bodies.
Relentless mental whiplash is the antithesis to immersion in a good book. The leisure time normally spent reading has, instead, been replaced by the oeuvre of Dick Wolf. Don’t make me shame myself by explaining, just look it up for yourself.
This week, though, is Book Week Scotland, the 10th anniversary of the event. Scottish Book Trust, the charity behind the annual celebration of reading and writing, has launched a Reading Map of Scotland, which showcases what the country is reading right now.
You can hop on the website and plot your location and book of choice on an interactive map. Delightfully, Philippa Cochrane, Head of Reading Communities at the Trust, promises a “riotous collection” of events and activities throughout the week.
D’you hear that? Riotous. Get those images of douce and stuffy, sedentary events out of your mind. We’re on the ran-dan this book week.
My plan is to use this riotous time to re-engage with reading. I would like to be part of the map again. For my birthday in June I received Jack by Marilynne Robinson, one of my favourite authors.
This week I will, painstaking line by painstaking line, become a reader again. My brain will be tasked with focusing completely, even just on one page, until my eyes can stick to a chapter without twisting off to a screen.
Book Week Scotland is also marking the event with the #ILoveMyLibrary social media campaign, asking people to share memories of their local or most treasured library. Bittersweet for those of us taking part in Glasgow, where some local libraries still remain closed indefinitely following the coronavirus lockdown.
I’m sure the Coupar Institute campaign and the Save Whiteinch Library campaign will have much to tweet this week. And so will I. Books, friends, I’m coming back for you. Stand ready.
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