Over the weekend, I planned to finish reading a book.
It was a fiction book. “The Ruins” by Scott B. Smith. What made me want to read the book was that it involved killer plants. That was the plot of a story I’d read many, many years ago as a child. I wanted to see if that story was inspired by this book.
I’m not an avid book reader. In fact, these days, all of my reading comes from the web. I can’t remember the last time I finished reading a book. Seeing that I was immediately hooked to “The Ruins” as I started reading it, I decided to push through and actually manage to finish it this time.
I’d given myself two days. I finished it in one.
I had a sense of accomplishment having finished reading a book after a long time. The reader in me (that I had lost growing up having to read a bunch of books in school) resurfaced.
There was another accomplishment. Reported by the “Screen Time” feature — first introduced in iOS 12 –I had spent more time reading the book than I did on Facebook. (I read the book on iPhone.)
This felt good. I try to avoid spending time on Facebook as much as I can. In fact, I spend most of the time on Messenger and not on Facebook. But it’s not possible to quit. At least, not while I’m still living in Bangladesh. Pretty much all of the information about current affairs — from the current traffic condition to anything we need to know about the current political situation in Bangladesh — comes from Facebook. Yes, it’s not always reliable, but it’s faster and more direct-from-other-citizens than any media organization.
So, quitting Facebook is out of the question for now. But spending time reading books instead of aimlessly scrolling down on Facebook newsfeed is something I can refer to as a better use of time. And I managed to accomplish it for once.
I’ll not be able to keep up this sprint-reading, but I am trying to get back into the groove of reading. And this little Screen Time notification from iOS this morning indicated that I was on the right way.
If you’re interested, you can read about my experience of reading on Apple Books.