Revisiting Some Old Friends
Why is it that children seem to revel in consuming the same exact content over and over? I remember watching a lot of movies with my family as a child, and whenever someone asked me what I wanted to watch, I would always answer Pollyanna. Though most of the time I was vetoed, this went on for a seemingly long time and I’m pretty sure I would have been perfectly happy watching that same movie each and every time.
When I was older, I had all my favorite books in bookshelves lining my bedroom, and I would just grab one and open it to a random page and start reading. For most of those books, I probably read parts of them more than twenty times, and not because I had poor memory so it would seem new each time (although that seems to happen more often now…). It felt familiar and comforting, like visiting old friends, though I guess I wouldn’t have known what that felt like at that age.
As a “grown-up,” I find myself looking for new content to consume constantly. New books, new articles on Google Reader, new tweets–streaming by me as I struggle to keep up. Despite having lots of gadgets for digital consumption, I still have hardcopies of the books I deem “worthy” of the physical space they take up because I want the physical experience of reading them as books again. But I never really do. Maybe as an adult, it seems wasteful to read something I already read, but then again, I waste plenty of time on the internet surfing around or watching crappy videos.
I’m trying to read more this year, and have the time blocked out to do so on my newish commute to SF. I think I’ll spend some of that time revisiting some old favorites. At least I’ll know they’re good already, right?
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> As a “grown-up,” I find myself looking for new content to consume constantly. New books, new articles on Google Reader, new tweets–streaming by me as I struggle to keep up.
Same here! I can’t even keep up with my ever growing read-/watch/do-later lists. The problem with me probably is that I’m so afraid I’ll miss out on something better on the internets that I don’t even bother catching up with the best I’ve got at the moment. An highly inefficient algorithm for the “Secretary problem”.