The lockdown was pitched as a glorious time to read. On paper – bound to our homes, with essentials delivered to the door – perhaps it was. Publishers and digital platforms moved swiftly to offer daily literary temptations – entire catalogues of free e-books, deep discounts, chats with authors, and helpful listicles on all manner of reads to escape the exhaustion and grief of the health nightmare steadily creeping up on us.
But what did it mean for those of us who read books for a living? I had fully expected to use the extended lockdown – when very few new books and commissioned reviews were likely to come my way – to tackle the unfinished stack on my bedside table. That’s not what happened.
To read good and proper, I needed to disconnect from the terrible reality of the present – wishful thinking with the always-on-alert mode that the pandemic thrust upon us. A few pages in, my mind would wander, snapping out of the brief, quiet moment and I’d find myself reaching for my phone.
There were always new, urgent updates: messages about new Covid-19 positive cases in the neighbourhood, the latest articles shared by friends on terrifying new data on...
source https://scroll.in/article/965580/the-pandemic-has-made-concentrated-reading-difficult-how-are-book-reviewers-dealing-with-this?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=public
Hello, my name is Jack Sparrow. I'm a 50 year old self-employed Pirate from the Caribbean.
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