Some random musings about reading ( on employing the ever dwindling reading time to better use )

In the current era, a person is wont to weigh the pros and cons, the opportunity costs ( for man values leisure time too ), of almost everything he does, for time is possibly the scarcest  resource he or she has. In such a context, how should a person look upon reading as a hobby, as a means of enjoyment and leisure, given that it is relatively a time consuming activity ? These are some random musings that crossed my mind as I dwelt on the matter - namely on the subject of reading fiction ( meaning novels and short stories ), and non-fiction.

Let's start with fiction - having read hundreds of novels over the last couple of decades, my thought process tends to compare them with test matches. Test matches have it all - the character to persevere, the unexpected twists, the chance to wait out for the opportune time, correct one's mistakes (if you will) and the chance to put show one's skill and talent. If one can afford to spend five days over a good test match, it is indeed a rewarding exercise. The English and the Australians still do it at large, and the other countries, to different levels. Tests have traditionally been  considered the litmus test, for a cricketer, for it is thought to sharpen and shape him, and give him character. If one takes a good test match it can be thought of as resembling a miniature life span. With that  try to cut across to its resemblance to a good novel.  The writer of a novel puts in a lot to make it a complete experience. Her experiences, her ideologies, the forms and the techniques that she thinks can best carry her creation. Usually reading a good novel is a winding journey. The reader should have the patience for the atmosphere of the novel to take root, live through the highs and lows, the fast moving and the slow, taste the nuances and savour what the author expected the reader to live through ( for it is a good novel that we talk of here). A good author like Dostoevsky can create characters who will reside in the back of your head for life. It can present the complexity of life, while being part of what appear to be as a whole, lives of selected people over a given time.

The question is can we afford the subtleties, the nuances, the ups and downs of a test match, or a novel, in the present era. Here enters the shortened format - the T20, the fifty over match or the short story. These days the novel that am reading is "The Milkman" by Anna Burns - the Man Booker award winner for 2018. It paints a vivid picture of '70s Ireland with all its petty divisions, the mistrust and the religious bigotry. It is presented from the point of view of an eighteen year old girl, who builds a wall surrounding her, leaving her mother, and her neighbours of the village she was born in out of her world. Even her boy friend is not in her full confidence. It is an engrossing read, as the reader sits within the girl's mind as she presents the narration  mostly in terms of a monologue. The insecurity of the girl, the trying times which she tries to handle as best she could, friendless with terror all around her makes it a journey, through her ups and downs - mostly,  downs. But at times, I begin to wonder, probably for the first time - do I really have the time to go through the whole mental agony that the girl lives through, across this whole narration?   Can't I live through "a slice of her  life" and more or less obtain an experience as closer to this as much as possible? And that brings us to the short story. A short story, more comparable to a shortened version of a cricket game offers us "a slice of life" as someone said. The incisions to demarcate the focal area is so deep that it ends in a severance, and then it  stands by itself as a short story. The profound impact is almost always same or even higher than with a novel, and it is quite capable of imparting the same emotions, conflicts, insecurities while spending fewer time for the results. Haven't I experienced the issues of the human condition captured to full effect in the work of Chekhov, Hemingway, Alice Munro, Lahiri as well as our own Kammallaweera, Wijemanna and Illayappaarachchi, in their short stories ?  Like how the T20 is the game of the time, isn't the short story the fiction read of the era ? Just like how we can afford to sit through 20 overs or 40 overs after work, can't we squeeze in a short story or two during the day, leaving the lion's share of reading for a different, rewarding experience?

And what is the different rewarding read that I hint of here ? A rewarding read that can only be compared to an academic work which reduces one's ignorance while making one understand life, the world and the universe more. A read which makes you go "eureka" as you read through, and make you feel good about your self. I've always found it a challenge to read a sufficient number of non-fiction. This year towo I've read but about half a dozen. These days am on the last quarter of Yuval Noah Harari's "Sapiens", and it has challenged my views on the supposed Eco-friendliness of the early homo sapiens, all religions and  about capitalism. The other most unforgettable read was Priyamvada Natarajan's  "Mapping the Heavens". It is about the road we've come in the field of cosmology and where we know, what we know and what we don't know, presented in a way largely readable to a lay reader like me. The humbleness of these knowledgeable authors itself is enough to awaken the reader.  Such books, repeatedly remind me that there are better reads that I should spend time on and the time spent on fiction, however well chosen and whatever their quality is, should be highly bargained and only an essential handful selected. In essence, if the non-fiction is the work that one spends his Lion's share of time on ( the analogy is applicable when the work in question is challenging and rewarding - and not mundane as some experience ), the short read/story  ( i.e. the short game after work ) to relax you and possibly a long wind down with well a selected novel over the weekend - similar to how one spends a day or two at the grounds watching a test match. Keeping it to a bare minimum. Don't get me wrong, I will still read The Milkman to completion as well as other consciously, competitively selected novels. But it will not be as much as in previous years.

 I trust that these thoughts will guide me in selecting my reading list for 2019. Possibly these are thoughts I've written for myself, and put on record for no apparent reason.  If you have read so far down, appreciate that you did, and hopefully I made some sense in your future reading selection too. And if you did read this far, but disagree with me, I would love to hear your thoughts as well.