I CAN'T READ ANYMORE

When I was little I loved reading, I drank up books. I remember getting hooked on books and not being able to stop reading until I finished them, like now I get hooked on series. However, since social networks arrived and especially since I had a computer, all the time I invested in reading went to other stimuli, to other stories. For me, reading was synonymous with getting out of my teenage dramas for a while to enter other different worlds, something similar to what I already mentioned in another article that happened to me when I went to the movies.

Frame from the music video 'S' by LA PAINS - Gerseys

Lately, something that breaks my heart is that I am unable to finish any book. I have like four books half finished. Books of different genres and some that I have already read and wanted to reread because I loved it and even then. I've been thinking about this for a long time because I remember that I loved reading and it helped me disconnect and relax. When I was little I read a lot before going to sleep and I fell asleep very badly... Now I'm incapable of it, I always stay up late on my cell phone (which is also horrible for sleeping).

A few months ago, I went to some friends' house and saw that they had a lot of books. I asked my friend to recommend one and she told me to make a deal: She would recommend me and leave me a book and when I finished it I could come back, return it and get another one. That day she recommended and lent me 'The Character of Rain' by Amélie Nothomb. It is very short and very easy to read, it is fun and the truth is that it reads itself. When I started reading it I thought: This is the book with which I manage to break this horrible streak of half-baked books... And no. I take it everywhere and I think: “I'm going to take a train, I'm sure that in an hour I'll make a little progress, step by step.” And when I get to the train, I put on music, I open Instagram and before I realize I don't have time to read anything. 

'The Character of Rain'

I have read about the subject several times and the conclusion I always come to is that it is the fault of the overstimulation we have on a daily basis. We consume information compulsively, whether it is news, other people's lives on social networks, audiovisual content, video games... And everything seems better to us than reading, because it stimulates several senses at the same time, it is "more rewarding" in the short term, but in the long run It is making us not know how to stop consuming, slow down a little, that we do not know how to get bored and that we need constant stimuli. That's why starting today I've decided to read more and stop more, be more present. I want to use breaks between jobs, after eating, before going to sleep, etc. To read a little. I will start with the book that I mentioned and that I am already halfway through and I hope that when I finish it the impulse of having finished a book after... Years? and be able to get back on track.