Brevity and the mind of Buzzy

An infatuation with brevity

While Birkerts is in his own right to argue that reading is the lynchpin for intellect, he is immature in his demeaning of media to something that is wholly lacking intellectual potential.

Learning to read

From day one of reading, I was always looking for ways around it, I liked being read to sure, but was not to crazy about reading. Focusing on understanding the words and grasping ideas did not leave room for my brain to wonder and imagine.

I was the first kid to learn to read in my class, well sort of. It was rather a brilliant scheme by my pre school self.  I picked a Sesame Street book that was available to me both at home and at school and every day for a few weeks I would have it read to me at home and once in a while at school. Eventually I had it memorized, so I proudly approached my teacher. I said, “I think I know how to read.”. She was ecstatic. She sat down and said pick a book and read it to me, so you can just guess which book I picked.  I read it flawlessly, or should I say I recited it flawlessly. I then read it to the class, and to my parents, who were actually a little suspicious, but none the less supportive.

Obviously one day I learned how to actually read, but the fact that this day is much more a happy memory just shows that reading really wasn’t my thing from day 1.

I can honestly say that I can count the number of books I have read from cover to cover on my two hands. I mean 150+ pages of meaty book. I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell, To Kill A Mockingbird, Life of Pi, just to name a few.

I take that back, I actually enjoy reading, but I have my limitations. I am a slow reader who enjoys conceptual ideas and short stories, short chapters and anything with breaks. 

This is because I am hindered in my speed-reading abilities. I have to read books aloud in my head as if the author were speaking to me, so a 200 page book is essentially a 200 page speech I am listening to from the author. I don’t have the patience even to listen to the most brilliant and intriguing people for that long, especially if the conversation is one sided.

As I have mentioned before, I am a visual learner and visual learning is my way of reading a 200-page book. I simply watch a documentary. A picture is worth a thousand words and a documentary is thousands of pictures, so its like reading a really like book and being able to grasp the concept.

I don’t usually read, but when I do, I read articles. Articles, photography books or books with really short chapters.