I love to read. I love books. There are few things that bring me such joy as getting lost in the “sea of words” where characters are of my creation and I grow attached to fictional places. I have even mourned the loss as I ended a book series. The book itself is wonderful, but I am slowly crossing into the technology world by reading some electronically. The point of it all is that I enjoy the depths of the written word, pondering over the meanings of things, or finding how what I have been reading works into the things I already understand.
Then I read an article by Nicholas Carr called Is Google Making Us Stupid? which discussed how technology is changing the way we read, process, and absorb information. He used the analogy about how he was once a scuba diver in a sea of words, but now is more like a person covering a lot of area skimming along quickly on a jet ski. That is something that resonated with me in a deep way.
Before I started working on my PhD, I asked those in the program how difficult the work was and how that work impacted their daily lives. Everyone seemed to be in accordance, that “it is a lot of work, but it is manageable”. This loosely translated to the work was at a doable level, but just LOTS of it you have to do in a short amount of time. So now that I am nearing the end of my first year, I find out that the work is training me to be a jet skier.
I say this because I constantly feel like I’m not reading the material deep enough and having enough time to really process and consider what I’m reading. Which makes me sad. As much as I adore reading and learning, it is not feasible to invest the amount of time I feel necessary to each subject. So, alas, I jet ski. I read for the information I need to, process at warp speed (I am a slow processer naturally), and churn out my work. In my heart, many times I do not feel I am producing my best work. But it is the best I have at the speed in which I must go and I have found some balance in it as well as acceptance.
Nevertheless, I am a scuba diver at heart. I am looking so very forward to being able to find the time to read for pleasure and at the slower pace and depth I wish. Perhaps many things I will read again with some free time, as I found I did following my master’s program. Until then, I will keep my scuba gear close by in case I have the extra time, where I will eagerly leap from the jet ski and dive deeper!
drkareblog 
Right there with you Karen! I have books lined up to read even now that have been lined up for a while and I sometimes get the opportunity to read a chapter here and there which just makes me so happy…the warp speed thing though is out of hand…even the days of mix tapes, VHS, floppy discs are gone…leave alone the days of song journals, recipe books and hand written birthday cards. Now everything is easy and convenient. Hopefully we can keep our scuba diving gear at hand cause when the opportunity arises, I am sure it will be fun!
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One of the greatest lessons I learned through my now 5 years of working on the PhD is about work life balance. I totally understand your lament about reading and clearly you enjoy reading for fun; I would encourage you to make that a priority. For me, a slow reader who is easily exhausted by reading course materials, I have found the joy of audio books. It’s an opportunity to get lost in that sea of words without feeling like I am still working. Setting some time aside every week to listen to something fun has really helped me with my productivity and enjoyment of the the time I have as a graduate student. If you need a good, fun, linguistically interesting book to consider trying Luka and the Fire of Life by Salman Rushdie on audible.com or in book form, as well as the equally entertaining predecessor Haroun and the Sea of Stories (not available on audio).
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I think the era that a person knows everything is passed and now every person need to be specialized in a very very small area. In this approach, having a technology like google can be helpful since you are expert in a tiny area of your field and the google and the internet can help you for other areas that you are interested in but not expert.
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Exactly Karen! I also have the same problem when I read… I feel like I need more time to process and become comfortable with the material! As a PhD student there is so much that you need to read once you get started so I think it is not possible to take your time with every reading material… However what I have found is that as you move forward throughout your degree (I just finished my first year), you have a limited number of resources that really pairs well with what you do and in that case you have more time to really dig deep into your readings…
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I had a similar experience, Karen. I read a lot (at least every night before I go to sleep, and often more during the day). I’m used to reading novels and really getting deep into the story and characters. When I started my literature review for my dissertation, though, I was told, “Don’t read too deeply. Just skim enough to know if it’s relevant, and you can dig deeper later if you need to.” That was very jarring for me, because I didn’t have a lot of experience at skimming. Turns out, I don’t like it much, either, but I understand the need for it when it comes to getting through a lot of material quickly.
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I appreciate your analogy of scuba diving vs jet skiing in graduate school! While I don’t think that’s the intended effect, I think it’s increasingly common and something we don’t talk about enough! It is hard to have confidence in your developing expertise when the demands feel unfocused and numerous!
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