Reading

"The habit of reading is the only one I know in which there is no alloy.  It lasts when all other pleasures fade.  It will be there to support you when all other resources are gone.  It will be present to you when the energies of your body have fallen away from you.  It will make your hours pleasant to you as long as you live."
I know a lot of people for whom this comment would resonate.   
A friend comes for a visit. Her overnight case has one thing in it - a book.  A big, big book.  It looks like it weighs about 10 pounds.
I can feel the resignation in her voice.  "Yes, I know.  But what could I do?  I had already waited for 3 months.  The library called - and well, here it is".
We laugh as we get in the car.  I don't think she gets much of a chance to read while she's here.  But I hope she got that book read before she had to return it.
Many times I've been surrounded by women talking non-stop about the books they're reading.  "Have you read it?" is always the first question, and if you say "no" the flood gates open.  At the bridge table, Tim Horton's, or while the men are talking hockey, the women are talking books.  Oprah seems to be a good source, and I think they read their share of book reviews but it seems to me they get most of their ideas from each other.
And this is happening all on a background of "people aren't reading books anymore".  
I secretly admire these women.  I'm embarrassed when I admit to never reading books. I feel like I'm not keeping up, not dedicated.  
And I think this is true.  I'm part of the computer generation that is losing it's ability to concentrate.  I do most of my reading on the Internet and even my print reading is magazines and newspapers.  Everything I read is short.  Just the other day I noticed that the articles on one of my favorite web sites are becoming a bit long.  It's making me nervous.  I'm clearing my throat as I begin to feel my fingers getting itchy.  My eye is looking wildly down the screen to see how much longer this article is going to last.  
One of my web sites lets you read the full article for a limited amount of time, and after that you just get the shortened version.  This used to really bug me.  And then one day I realized that I liked the shortened version.
Even reading newspapers on the Internet, they often give you 3 paragraphs or less, and then give you the option of clicking "read more - "  Less and less I am taking that option, having learned all I wanted from the 3 paragraphs.  
I haunt the movie review web sites and read them all.  Watch the movie reviews and movie clips.  I wouldn't think of watching a whole movie.  It usually disappoints.
I haunt the book review web sites and read them all.  Increasingly we are given the option of reading the first chapter of the book.  I don't think I'll continue to do this.  I always like the book review better than the first chapter of the book.
I read a lot of blogs.  I read a lot of poetry.  But I don't read books.
I'm in bed right now.  Awake early, and reach for my computer.  I need to find out who wrote the words I quoted above.  In the search, I catch up with the world as we know it. A perfect start to the day.
You know that song?  "I know a little bit about a lot of things . . . . . . ."  That's me.
(The fellow who I quoted at the beginning is Anthony Trollope.  He wrote "The Way We Live Now" - a scathing 100-chapter of English greed (1875)