४ एप्रिल, २०२४

"In 2009, Christopher Frizzelle... pioneered the first 'silent reading party' at the city’s Hotel Sorrento."

"Accompanied by live piano music, the in-person and virtual reading series fosters 'healthy peer pressure' and a sense of community, according to the Silent Reading Party website. Silent Reading Party offshoots are proliferating worldwide.... The $20 events take place at night and typically sell out weeks ahead of time. Curious to explore the power of healthy peer pressure, I paid $10 to attend a recent late-night Silent Reading Party on Zoom.... For two hours, a pianist accompanied readers with dreamy New Age music, occasionally interrupted by the icy clink of a bartender’s cocktail shaker. I read my book, occasionally forgetting I was not alone. Then I’d peer at the hotel scene, where participants read in silence, took notes and sipped their drinks...."

Writes Stephanie Shapiro, in "I’m retired, and I still won’t let myself read in the daytime. Why not?" (WaPo, free access link).

You'll notice that the bit I quoted has nothing to do with what's in the headline. But it's a sidetrack that caught my interest. When I'd first read about the idea of a "silent reading party," I thought it was a pleasant idea. I thought the website was used to let people know where the group reading would take place. I was surprised that you had to buy tickets (and that some clown would be tickling the ivories). If you want to read with other people around you, go to a café. Or — here's an outlandish idea — a library.

Enough of that distraction. The author's main idea, as reflected in the title, is that a lot of people feel they should be productive or physically active during daylight hours and they also feel that lying (or sitting) about reading is lazy. For them, reading is not unworthy when you're winding down in the evening, pre-sleep. Then, it's virtuous. Otherwise, they're nagged by a fear of indolence. I don't share that attitude, but I have some advice for someone, like the column writer, who wants to get over it: active reading. 

Figure out a way to read that is inconsistent with the worry that you're slothful. Read something difficult enough that you'll feel you're accomplishing something. Mysteries? Celebrity bios? The column writer never tells us what kind of books she reads. Set those books aside and level up. Read a challenging novel or serious nonfiction. Stop and think as you go along. Takes notes. Memorize passages. Etc.

Another way to read actively is to use an audiobook and go for a vigorous walk or run. Or do those household chores you seem to think are so important.

Or you could work to free yourself from that fetish for busyness. Here are 3 books you can read: "An Apology for Idlers" by Robert Louis Stevenson, "Essays in Idleness" by the Buddhist monk Kenko, "In Praise of Idleness" by Bertrand Russell. Forgive the "commission earned" links. I copied the booklist from an old post of mine and I am too lazy to redo them. I'm lazy about everything I think is not worth my time, and I'm proud of that laziness. Value your time, and use it well. If your reading doesn't meet that standard — if it's not worth your time unless it's part of putting yourself to sleep — you need better reading. 

The most ludicrous part of all of this is the idea that if people pay to sit around reading — $20 for those silent reading parties — it makes them think it's worth it. There's a market price on it. No, the most ludicrous part is that you pay $20 for silent reading and somebody plays the damned piano.

४१ टिप्पण्या:

Kate म्हणाले...

I often think of an old clip from the Steve Allen show where he noodles on piano while Jack Kerouac reads aloud from his book to the audience. Perhaps people pay $20 to try to capture that cool jazz feel. Perhaps everyone is reading "On the Road", sipping a drink, and imagining themselves in a bygone America where they can smoke a cigarette in a black-and-white haze.

rehajm म्हणाले...

The author's main idea, as reflected in the title, is that a lot of people feel they should be productive or physically active during daylight hours

If you are a retired or partially retired PIP (previously important person) you spend your waking hours infuriating your friends and neighbors with committees or the lawsuit club or pickleball addiction. I would pay for a lifetime of silent reading events for a few of my neighbors…

Kevin म्हणाले...

Finally, a party for introverts!

iowan2 म्हणाले...

PT Barnum lives among us.

Christopher B म्हणाले...

No offense intended but at least in my experience reading in a library isn't a particularly social experience, and a cafe (like a starbucks or panera) is full of noisy distractions like loud conversations and squalling kids. Not saying it can't be done in those places (I have in the past) but the reading party sounds like an entirely different experience.

Danno म्हणाले...

When the WaPo readership has angst for reading, the world is in danger. Clearly a first-world problem of major importance.

Meanwhile, the Biden administration is slowly turning the U.S. into a third-world shithole. Or is that turd-whirled?

Ann Althouse म्हणाले...

"No offense intended but at least in my experience reading in a library isn't a particularly social experience, and a cafe (like a starbucks or panera) is full of noisy distractions like loud conversations and squalling kids."

You'd have to find the right cafe or library. And you could use a website (maybe Reddit or Facebook) to collect readers in your locality and pick a time and place to go to do a silent reading session.

"Not saying it can't be done in those places (I have in the past) but the reading party sounds like an entirely different experience."

The reading party might draw a better dressed, better looking group because everyone will have paid $20 and will know that's true of everybody else.

Ann Althouse म्हणाले...

"infuriating your friends and neighbors with committees or the lawsuit club or pickleball addiction."

LOL

Ann Althouse म्हणाले...

You know, when you are retired, you're making a contribution just by not making trouble and not needing assistance. So go ahead and read all day if you want. Don't feel obligated. Young people don't want you to feel you need to extend yourself and "help." Correct me if I'm wrong, young people.

rehajm म्हणाले...

The Savannah airport often has a piano player and groups of people reading. Pre-security so free…

rehajm म्हणाले...

PT Barnum lives among us.

…kind of mad I didn’t think of it but I do have a rich environment to copy…

tim maguire म्हणाले...

$20 seems excessive to read in a room of readers, even with live piano music. Paying $10 to read alone at home on zoom just might be the saddest thing I read today (at home, alone, for free).

Aggie म्हणाले...

The library is what immediately came to mind, for me. And since they're all different, finding a good one is worth the trouble.

A really comfortable chair also gets rid of any unnecessary pangs of Protestant guilt for reading during the day. I have a big fat distressed leather recliner that's The Most Comfortable Chair In The World, where I can nest, dive into the book, and occasionally glance outside to see what a nice sunny day I'm squandering. There's a lot of satisfaction in that, if you're doing it right. And who's to say that reading during the day is indolence, anyway? Not me - I could be reading or whacking down trees with a chainsaw, either one is a satisfying endeavor. Reading is never time wasted.

JRoberts म्हणाले...

Occasionally, my wife and I will retreat to a certain Embassy Suite hotel about 60-90 minutes from home and spend several days sitting in the atrium reading (with a little people watching). There's usually some quiet background music and a water feature in the atrium to cover any minor sound from the front desk. Sometimes I listen to instrumental jazz on my iPad while reading.

I couldn't do it every day (or even every month), but as we age that's become our idea of a nice vacation.

JRoberts म्हणाले...

"rehajm said...
The Savannah airport often has a piano player and groups of people reading. Pre-security so free…"

Atlanta airport used to have a sitting area and piano in their atrium, but homeless people became a problem and all the seats and piano were removed.

My Kids' Dad म्हणाले...

Why the hostility to pianists? "[s]ome clown would be tinkling the ivories", really? I would gladly pay the $20 - and pretend to be reading - just so I can listen to a good set of live piano music.

cubanbob म्हणाले...

Fools and their money.......

gilbar म्हणाले...

Fayette County has this places that are Already set up for this.
There is seating,and you can bring food (and music).. if YOU want.
They are big enough, that IF there's something you don't want (talk/dogs/music) you can walk to a new spot.
The spots are outdoors, with beautiful scenery and all that!
Don't Want to be in the sun? much of the seating has cute little coverings, that Also keep out rain.
You can even stay over night If you want; but then, it's NOT free. Camping is $5 night

REALLY surprised that Madison doesn't have some places similar. Even MORE surprised Althouse didn't suggest it

Nice म्हणाले...

If you are talking about Circadian rhythms, then late night suggest activities that don't require a lot of light, particularly artificial light, listening to music, or listening to books on tape. Whereas, during increasing periods of n-a-t-u-r-a-l
daylight, particularly around this time of year, it makes sense to concentrate heavy reading then. Of course, tell a College student not to read during late night, and just do all studying during the day, see how well that goes over.

Ann Althouse म्हणाले...

"Why the hostility to pianists? "[s]ome clown would be tinkling the ivories", really? I would gladly pay the $20 - and pretend to be reading - just so I can listen to a good set of live piano music."

I can see going to hear a really good pianist and I understand that it might be nice to have a book to look at a bit to stave off possible boredom.

But I don't like any music when I'm focused on reading. I find it really distracting, especially if the music is good. And if it's bad, I don't want to hear it at all. In this case, the article tells us it was "dreamy New Age music." That's why I felt like writing "tickling the ivories"... a phrase I've never used before in my life, I don't think.

Did anyone here watch "Olive Kitteridge"? That show had a lady piano player (and singer) who'd appear here and there. It was funny, because it was pathetic — well meaning and not horrible but pointless and sad.

Howard म्हणाले...

If I'm reading around a piano man it would likely be something by a real estate novelist.

Rob म्हणाले...

But you didn't write "tickling the ivories," you wrote "tinkling the ivories."

Kate म्हणाले...

It's tickle, not tinkle.

Well, I googled, and apparently some people use tinkle. It offends my sense of grammar and piano playing simultaneously. Tinkle is already a verb that means nothing like its adjective form.

Temujin म्हणाले...

20th Century: Libraries.
21st Century: Silent Reading Parties.

And my retirement career as a pickleball player has been canceled because of 'knees'.

I prefer my friends and neighbors in small doses. And I never, ever think about reading with other people. What's the point of that? How do you immerse yourself into a story or a non-fiction book packed with info while your eyes are browsing around, looking at others trying to read, while their eyes are browsing around...

Why not just go to a cafe or bar? Bring a book. Hope someone strikes up a conversation with you because you're the only other person they've ever seen reading "My name is Saroyan".

Kirk Parker म्हणाले...

Am I the only person who thinks that, while listening to an audiobook may be a very fine and splendid thing to do, it's not reading??!!?.

Certainly not for you, the listener; and as for the lector, it's a different experience than ordinary reading for them too, most likely. We moderns have come full circle from Origen -- who reads ordinary prose aloud to themselves?

Rusty म्हणाले...

I find music distracting when I read. Unlike random noise on an airplane or a mall music intrudes. It demands I listen.

Brian म्हणाले...

The reading party might draw a better dressed, better looking group because everyone will have paid $20 and will know that's true of everybody else.

The reading party is a place to see and be seen. You are all there reading, you all paid $20 to read so you are all invested. It's at night so nobody is in sweatpants. There's a common social experience. It's low conflict because everybody is reading. But I'll bet there's a lot of pressure to read the "right things". I expect a lot of NPR bumper stickers in the parking lot.

I'm reminded of the scene in The Breakfast Club:

John Bender: Hey, Cherry. Do you belong to the physics club?
Claire Standish: That's an academic club.
John Bender: So?
Claire Standish: So academic clubs aren't the same as other kinds of clubs.
John Bender: Ah... but to dorks like him, they are. What do you guys do in your club?
Brian Johnson: Well, in physics we... we talk about physics, properties of physics.
John Bender: So it's sorta social... demented and sad.. but social. Right?

As someone who is recently semi-retired, I'd join.

Narr म्हणाले...

I don't like 'tinkling the ivories' either. You tickle ivories, which may then tinkle.

Anyway, silent reading parties with or without good or bad music sound dreadful to me, but paying for it is next level stupid.

I've always read a lot whenever and wherever I've had a good book to read. Any waking hour might include reading, and at times I've spent the majority of waking hours in my day reading.

I definitely count spent time here and my other favorite webplaces as reading time, and I can listen to music I choose pretty easily too . . .

And sip coffee!

Michael म्हणाले...

Glenn Gould plays for me through my noise cancelling headphones while I read.

Christopher B म्हणाले...

But I don't like any music when I'm focused on reading. I find it really distracting, especially if the music is good.

It's antecdata but I've found that my wife and I are opposites on this. She plays audio books all the time, waking or sleeping, but I've found that spoken words or noises that are arrhythmic like spoken words engage my brain. Instrumental music or rhythmic sounds aren't distracting to me at all but music is distracting to her in the same way. I think her musical training (she was a professional vocalist and teacher) kicks in and her brain starts to analyze it.

Anthony म्हणाले...

I've been to one "type-in" where typewriter aficionados get together and. . . .type. Yes, it's a bit weird seeing people out in public typing -- it's a rather solitary activity, requiring one to concentrate on what one is doing -- but otherwise we do chat about all things typewriters.

Still feels a bit weird though.

n.n म्हणाले...

A poetic cult that takes a vow of silence. #ESP

Michael McNeil म्हणाले...

We moderns have come full circle from Origen — who reads ordinary prose aloud to themselves?

My spouse and I read together all the time — not at all as portrayed in the above post, but aloud, to each other. Late in life, in my final relationship, I finally discovered how to get your mate to read and enjoy the novels and books that thrilled you earlier in life (maybe even some [gasp!] new books) — read them to/with her.

So for nearly a decade now we get together almost every day and view Kindle book(s) displayed on the 42" Ultra-HD TV screen that I mirror my iPhone (and computers) on while at home, reading aloud while simultaneously viewing the text. We've been proceeding lately through half a dozen classic SF&F books, as well as Winston Churchill's History of the English Speaking Peoples. We love it.

In addition to Churchill's history, here are the SF&F books we've been reading lately (not in any particular order):

The Weapon Shops of Isher, by A.E. van Vogt
Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen, by H. Beam Piper
Nine Princes in Amber, by Roger Zelazny
The Creatures that Time Forgot, by Ray Bradbury (a.k.a. Frost & Fire)
The Stars My Destination, by Alfred Bester
The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress, by Robert A. Heinlein

Except that we recently finished The Weapon Shops (“The right to buy weapons is the right to be free!”) and Creatures, and correspondingly just started:

Mother of Kings, by Poul Anderson
Outpost of Empire, also by Poul Anderson

We've made it through many dozens of books over the last almost decade — for instance, Harry Turtledove's entire Videssos series of about a dozen books — a terrific fantasy based on the history of medieval Byzantium. Then there's Turtledove's Hellenistic Greek Trader series of historical novels (we recently finished reading the 5th of those…).

Ann Althouse म्हणाले...

“But you didn't write "tickling the ivories," you wrote "tinkling the ivories."”

LOL

You have to get clichés exact.

Ann Althouse म्हणाले...

I’ll fix it. I didn’t mean to rack the boat.

wildswan म्हणाले...

The library in my old town had comfortable chairs, semi-silence, and all the magazines and newspapers. If it had only had coffee. The new library is noisy, crowded and filled with PBS-type titles, hectoring signs (No Mo' Mow), minority of the month month posters and general noise. However, here I have a beautiful garden to enjoy for half the year. As far as guilt-free, pain-free reading, I think with the others that reading series, be they history or historical fiction or Dante For a Hundred Days or the Bible all the way through, helps with concentration and helps the Jimmy-Run-Arounds "understand." But, in a way, you have to be kind of tough about reading what you like. Sometimes rando reading comes in handy but no one has ever asked me, even once, a question about plant anatomy and plant form which I read about all the time.

wildswan म्हणाले...

The library in my old town had comfortable chairs, semi-silence, and all the magazines and newspapers. If it had only had coffee. The new library is noisy, crowded and filled with PBS-type titles, hectoring signs (No Mo' Mow), minority of the month month posters and general noise. However, here I have a beautiful garden to enjoy for half the year. As far as guilt-free, pain-free reading, I think with the others that reading series, be they history or historical fiction or Dante For a Hundred Days or the Bible all the way through, helps with concentration and helps the Jimmy-Run-Arounds "understand." But, in a way, you have to be kind of tough about reading what you like. Sometimes rando reading comes in handy but no one has ever asked me, even once, a question about plant anatomy and plant form which I read about all the time.

Craig Mc म्हणाले...

If reading feels like a bludge, maybe people should be writing instead.

EAB म्हणाले...

It’s funny to me what people find to feel guilty about. I’ve never felt guilty spending a day reading - it would never occur to me. Done it my entire life. I’m someone who struggles to put down books that I’ve started. I binge read. I do kind of like the idea of being around people but not engaging - it’s comforting to me. My town library has very comfy chairs, a gas fireplace and beautiful views. I don’t get the logic that paying $20 and just being in a group makes it less indolent, if you consider day reading indolence. Weird.
Reminds me of the time my husband and I were in the wine country, Sonoma. Everyone at our B&B took off right after breakfast to do various activities. My husband and I sat on the big lawn in Adirondack chairs reading until we went out to lunch that afternoon.

Mikey NTH म्हणाले...

I'm reading this at a bar.

Mikey NTH म्हणाले...

In addition, I belong to a sailing club. I've gone there, sailed, read, kayaked, read some more, drank beer, read.

Rather relaxing to do that, be as active as I want when I want, or be idle and just hang out when I want.