On Reading and Audible
I have been on a reading spree.
It all started with "Why Nations Fail- The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Proverty", written by Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson, the 2024 Nobel Laureates for Economics. Like Daniel Kahnemann"s "Thinking Fast and Slow", it was a smooth and an interesting read, unlike "Capital in the Twenty-First Century" by Thomas Piketty, that I struggled to read through in English. Perhaps the concepts behind thr writing were easier to grasp for the former two.
When I say "read", I mean to say that I listened to it on Audible. Ever since living in Hawaii and commuting to work with an audio book in my car, I have gotten accustomed to reading through my ears. It was a novel concept for me twenty years ago, but it did not take long to get used to it and enjoy multitasking as I dive into a complex concept that I would likely not have the patience to sit through and to read with my eyes.
Strangely enough, I have not yet listened to Japanese books through Audible and have persisted to read the ever so handy paperbacks. Japanese is suited for speed-reading, since I can take a glance and know the meaning with the scattered Chinese characters. That is perhaps one of the reasons that I still struggle to pronounce some of the words properly. I search for the meaning of the content and do not listen each word much for the narrative. On the contrary, when I catch myself misreading the singular or the verb sentence in English, I hear the squeek in my head and have to reread to rectify the wrong grammar.
After reading an academic take on the reasons for poverty to be the lack of equal opportunities and the absence of will for innovation, I was ready for some fiction. I picked up "Crime and Punishment" by Dostoevsky and found the English translation to be a surprising page-turner. Granted, some of the archaic English did not foster with me as smoothly as the contemporary works, but I was immersed in the mind of the intelligentsia and Russia of pre-revolution. I saw more clearly what poverty looked like and what serfdom meant.
When I come across a novel or a book that I enjoy, I choose chores like cleaning the closet, or even running on the treadmill, in order to be able to read. Instead of sitting down to read, I block a few hours to do manual work. Crocheting and reading is a favorite activity of mine, so much so that I stay away from doung so. It is almost a time-sucker like binge-watching a Netflix show for me (and I am a binge-watcher).
With the momentum to read, I tackled "Supercommunicators - How to Unlock the Secret Language of Connection", by Charles Duhigg, which was recommended by my husband who knows me better than anyone. Unlike my assumption on it being tricks to listen properly, it led more into how to have difficult conversations and to connect in a divisive world. An example was an attempt at bringing gun-control and gun-rights/Second Amendment supporters into a room and to have them see each other as a multifaceted person with different roles and dimensions and to respect the stories that the other side had to tell. Connection ceases with the emergence of Identity threat or lifestyle threat. These are common obstacles that make people feel attacked about who they are and what they represent. The book was quite an eye-opener for me, especially priding myself to be able to communicate fairly well and calling myself a Connector.
Now, I am reading "Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted Work", recommended by a former Air Force officer currently maintaining a nomadic lifestyle with multiple revenue streams.
Even though I have not yet completed this book, I would recommend this to my English coaching client. While the academic writing is not meant for entertainment, the reading is crisp as is the writing. (It sometimes helps when it is read by a professional reader versus the author.) The book establishes concrete and useable rules and presents interesting studies about our inability to focus, by constantly checking emails and social media, tricking us to believe that we are being productive. Knowledge workers become obsolete, unless we can be creative and produce elite work through deep focus and concentration. This takes practice, which I notice my client is extremely adept at, while I have long ways to go.
Hence, I am trying to write every day, to hone my creative skills and to be able to learn how to concentrate. I will also try to open the German novel "Trutz" that I have not gotten past the first few pages. When I sit down to physically read a German book, that is when my focus and attention will be truly tested.