Do you remember this movie from the 1980s? I loved it!
This scene, actually, sums up how I feel in my dual role as an English chairperson and a graduate student. There’s so much “input” that I want and need; if only I could process everything as quickly as Johnny 5! Instead, my own reading is a slow process. Sometimes the only time I have to sit down and read is when I’m winding down for bedtime, and there’s a small window of “input” opportunity before my eyes begin closing, my vision blurs, and I’m snoozing before I get to the end of a page.
I have so many goals for reading this year. In no particular order, they are to:
- discover high quality young teen books that might be popular with the middle school students I work with
- catch up on the contemporary YA reads that the high school kids are buzzing about
- read some of the canonical classics that I missed in high school in college (I guess to continue flexing the part of my brain that formerly taught AP Literature and Composition)
- read the assigned texts for both of my cohort classes
- read the buzzworthy professional texts related to best practice in English and literacy education
- read the buzzworthy texts on leadership that are useful for the professional growth of any school administrator
- read the books I want to read!
All of this is a pretty tall order, and there’s simply not enough time in the day to read as much as I want to… which reminds me of another pop culture reference:
So – I can’t be Johnny 5, and there will never be “time enough at last” to get all of this reading done, so I came up with what I think is a pretty good solution which I’m calling hybrid reading.
I was tasked with reading Thank You for Being Late: An Optimist’s Guide to Thriving in the Age of Accelerations by New York Times columnist Thomas L. Friedman for one of my classes. While the premise of the book was intriguing to me, the length (500+ pages) was downright intimidating. As well, I’m not well-versed enough in concepts of globalization to fully “get it,” so it took a while to “get into it.”
There was no way I was getting through 500+ pages of dense text in 5 minute-before-sleep increments, but I did find a way to increase my available reading time… during my commute to work.
That’s right – it takes me approximately 35 minutes to drive to work each way (sometimes a little shorter if I manage to avoid rush-hour traffic home), but I typically spend that time listening to the radio in the car. Why not put that 1 hour a day to better use?
I downloaded the Overdrive app to my iPhone, and using my public library account, I was able to download an audio version of the book. On long drives, I would pick up a section of the book where I left off in my reading. When I got home and could use the physical book, I was able to skip ahead several pages to pick up where the audiobook left me.
Now this wasn’t always a perfect idea. As happens to many of us as we’re driving, my mind tends to wander. My drive in to work is particularly a difficult time to focus, as my mind is running the mental “to-do” list for the day ahead. When I found that I was too distracted, I would turn the audio off, turn on some music on, and let myself go.
This system works for me, though. It allows me to maximize the time I typically use during my commute to gain some time for “input.” Furthermore, having access to audiobooks allows me to “read” when I’m doing other things that don’t demand a whole lot of mental energy… enjoying a walk, folding laundry, cleaning the kitchen.
Sometimes I’ll come across a particularly engaging portion of a book on audio that I want to go back and examine more deeply in the text. It’s easy enough for me to “bookmark” the location by taking a screenshot of the chapter and location, then go back into the physical text and find the passage I’m looking for to highlight or annotate.
I definitely recommend this strategy for anyone who has an awful lot of reading to ingest and not a lot of time to do it. It’s amazing to me how much more I learn on long car rides and how many more books I can get through in less time!
Inside the Launch Window 