Why have I not been reading?

Read a book for godssake!

If Obama could find 30 minutes out of his obviously very busy Presidential schedule to read a book, he read over a dozen, possibly two or three, over a year every year, then why can we not the mere mortals upon whom the responsibility of the whole world does not lay?

This has been a conversation with many friends in recent days, we don't have commutes anymore, there is all the time in the world to read and explore, there is no need or expectation to spend time with other people or do anything outside your house even. This should be the best time to read books of all the times there are.

Yet we don't read, how come? We're surrounded by them, we acquire them with such thirst, such ferocity one could imagine we're just as voracious of readers. Yet we end up becoming mere collectors with hopes of consuming the entirety of our increasing collection one day than readers that have the pure unrestrained undying thirst for reading, knowledge, information, wisdom, of any kind.

What gives?

I've been reading a book a day for the last month or so, but that's just barely even. The reading is hard, Campbell''s book on the hero with a thousand faces is no light read. It's interesting but it ain't fun. There's so much to digest and consider. For somebody like me who dreams of writing characters based on mythology it's amazing for referencing certain traits and features, but doing an end-to-end read is turning out to be quite tough. Alas.

Reading is a commitment after all, and not just in time. It needs emotional energy. The better a book is, the more emotional energy it requires. When you finish reading a Harry Potter you can't simply clear your mind and get on with the next thing, you want to know what happens to him, if he's alright, if Hermione and Ron are going to be together, what about Ginny does she still harbor emotions for our hero, is Snape really a good guy or bad because we're sort of conflicted, there's been a lot of conflicting evidence. Oh and what's up with Dumbledore, he used to be a good guy we though why then has he abandoned our hero, not caring or informing him of what's happening, and why did he not make Mr. Potter a prefect, how could Ron, ole' Ronnikins have been made one, is it just nepotism because of his brother or is there really nobody else as qualified? So much investment. So many emotions. So much desire to explore and exchange views. To talk, imagine, fantasize even. A great book places us in the middle of a well-created universe and allows us as the readers to explore it inside our heads, with enough fidelity that our understanding of it is consistent with everything else in the story.

It's a lot of hard work, it is. A poor book is a waste of time, and an amazing book is tiring. Specially when we are already sapped of energy, drained of emotions, done completely with our ability to cope with our own world. We don't have the ability to explore other worlds.

This is why then that they read books in vacations mostly.

Makes sense.