A few days ago I mentioned I was finally thinking about the big question - when will this end? - but I was having some trouble focusing on the question. And as it sometimes goes with this rubbish little space, I've found that by not following the spark when it first flickered to light, my interest in the idea is gone, and with it the energy to finish the post. I guess in the end I concluded it doesn't matter, it's not like the end credits are going to roll on The Great Lockdown and we'll all just stroll out of the theater back into our old lives. This isn't going to just end, we are all going to continue adjusting, and try to be as well as it's appropriate to be during this long, long moment. My entire premise was flawed, so I sent it to the scrap heap.
This is no problem, though, because as it always goes with this rubbish little space, I've discovered once more that starting to write is the best way to generate new ideas. These thoughts, specifically about my reading process, were summarized a few days ago - I read so I can change, whether in response or as initiator, but while nothing changes I see little reason for reading. But even before lockdown my reading process was changing, particularly around my notes and how I used them for retention, because my process was coming under time pressure and I no longer felt it was sustainable for the long term.
Lockdown proved my prescience - despite all this time, I haven't caught up to my backlog. Funny thing, as we hit the start of month three I've yet to take a single note, or write a reading review. As stated earlier, I'm barely reading. But I think I have my plan in place for the future, something I'm loosely organizing as a "4-1-1" strategy, which fits because the goal is to have the information I need within easy reach. It came from advice I gave to someone else - I suggested writing down three things about every book, one agreement, one disagreement, and one change. Later that day, as I was patting myself on the back for yet another great bit of advice, I realized - I should probably follow my own advice.
In a sense, I was more or less doing the same thing already, but with less structure and discipline, which in turn meant less commitment, and also greater verbosity. My situation was an emergency of sorts, a true 9-1-1, as my notes were around nine things I agreed with for each disagreement, and each change. 4-1-1 feels better, four important sentences or so per book, along with a disagreement and a change. I'm hoping to build this into the reading reviews, once I restart those, and any notes beyond the 4-1-1 will be kept firmly out of sight in the darkest corners of my Google drive.
Until then, I plan to continue with the current crap. As always, thanks for reading, or not - in this moment, either way is fine.
