The Book and Wide Reading, written by Lee Jung-hoon. A book I picked up on a reading group's recommendation. It is a book that offers a new perspective on the trend of the times that says read widely, read a lot and learn a lot. The author tells us to clear out books that sit on the shelf unread, books already read, and books with no likelihood of ever being read. But when it actually comes to throwing them away, we hesitate, thinking we might read them someday.
This is the reading-habit self-diagnosis that appears on the first page. I check my own reading method against the problems. If seven or more apply, it is time to improve your reading habits. I don't know which book to read. Even after reading a book I don't really understand what it was about. I want to read, but when I actually sit down to read it feels somehow burdensome.
I read new releases or bestsellers rather than the books I want to read. I have more books I failed to finish than books I read to the end. My shelf is full of unread books, yet I buy more books whenever I go to a bookstore. I do not reread a book once I have read it.
Reading does not make me feel joyful or that my life is richer. I have an obsession that books must be read fast and in large numbers. Even while reading, no curiosity or questions arise. P. 124. The psychology of people who flaunt how much they have read rather than reflecting on how they read it is, I think, a phenomenon in which the anxiety of wanting to stand at the top of some competition is expressed outward.
Is a world where you have to feel sorry for resting a normal one? Fundamentally, to live a happy life you must play well and rest well. p.137. When unread books outnumber read books, such a person, even though there are still books to read, habitually carries home a new book when the time comes. They say "everyone calls it a good book" or "it's a bestseller." Their criterion for choosing books was the choice of the majority. Was my own choice ever free from the majority? My schooling was like that, my employment was like that, my marriage was like that, my dream was like that. In that vast sweeping current there was no room for choice. And yet the world blames the individual for the problem. Sadly, people still live conforming with effort beyond effort and patience beyond patience.
The fact that our society has come to suffer from an obsession with reading a lot may be a predestined choice brought on by specs and competition. Try thinking of it as letting go of books and being rewarded with opportunity. As you clear out your bookshelf, you clear away excessive desire along with it.