Reading isn’t an efficient means of consuming art. At least not compared to watching a film, listening to an album or gazing at a painting. We forget 90% of what we read. Yet, we recollect the scenes of a film, the lyrics of a song and the colors of a painting decades after last experiencing them. So, why read at all?

I find the act of reading to be so much more than the absorption of information. It’s a means of both ideation and meditation. Folks get down on themselves when their minds wander while reading. But, I’d argue this is a great gift of reading. I’ve read entire pages only to find I wasn’t reading at all but instead mulling over an idea for an ad, poem, short story or song. If you are struck with an idea that distracts you from reading, it’s likely a good indicator the idea if worth pursuing.

Rarely do we allow our minds the space to wander without constant distraction from our many devices. And so the time spent day dreaming while reading is not wasted. Occasionally, we will happen upon a book that is so enrapturing, we do not day dream at all but instead experience unparalleled presence. Is this not meditation? We leave a reading session like this latter one and we feel lighter and perhaps even enlightened, as if we spent an hour walking some alternate plane.

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