Neil Fein's Blog

I'm relearning the skill of reading with many distractions buzzing around me. Until recently, I've needed ab-so-lute quiet to really get any reading done; considering that I used to read with music blaring, this isn't much of a surprise.

This morning, I missed my train by about thirty seconds and I ended up waiting for my train at Newark Penn Station for about 40 minutes. Sometime in the last several years, it subtly transformed into a pretty nice place, with security and nicer shops and satisfactory coffee all available. I read through a book chapter while watching the main board with one eye, sipping at the satisfactory coffee, while the almost-yuppie next to me was jabbering away on her cell phone. But even better, was when I read while walking all the way home yesterday, watching the sidewalk in my peripheral vision.

Years of reading work-related documents may have fostered in me the mindset of concentrating exclusively on the text, lest I miss something. Perhaps with this relaxation, my reading speed will go back up to what it once was. Although what I'm relearning is really just a compartmentalization technique, it makes me feel like I'm back in school: Taking the train into the city with a large not-yet-dry oil painting under one hand, my school bag in another, all while reading a novel held in yet another. If I had been drinking coffee back then (I'd not yet tasted any that was decent), I'd have been a insectoid art student.