When Worlds Collide #73: Stuck in Fast Forward? Slow Down!

Text of my ‘When Worlds Collide’ column published in Ceylon Today Sunday broadsheet newspaper on 7 July 2013

I’m a slow reader of books. I do it deliberately hemin-hemin.

Oh, I can read fast when I really have to — and do so with newspapers, magazines and websites. It’s an essential survival skill in today’s information society.

But when reading books, I take my own cool time. Books are not to be rushed through; they are to be absorbed slowly, one chapter or one idea at a time. And I’m not (yet) a fan of e-books and haven’t got any e-book reader or tablet.

Those around me are amused and puzzled by this slow reading. They know my capacity to marshal new information and ideas, so they wonder why I sometimes spend weeks reading one book.

I’m not alone. There are others who cherish slow and reflective reading. There…