Lets Start a Movement Slow Reading Pat Leach TEDxLincoln

I'm graduate of the Bob leach school of driving Bob leech is my dad he's great driver it can be little irritating to drive behind Bob leach in town because he's always driving under the speed limit but on an icy day you have to hope that every other driver on the road is Bob leach his approach reminds me of the slow food movement slowdown savor maximize the experience his tag lines would be slowed down you're not going to fire or slow down you'll live longer actually those could be the tag lines for the movement that I'm promoting today we could call it the Pat leech school of reading but instead let's call it slow reading slow down savor maximize the experience you know when look out on this audience see lot of people who respond to problems by doing things and clearly doing some pretty effective things slow reading looks inward and it looks lot like doing nothing but it's preparing our internal soil for growth and good work basically slow reading means investing the time to read challenging books with undivided attention it's not really about reading slowly but it is one of those things where something that's right in front of our noses something that we probably take for granted can make huge difference the idea of slow reading didn't start with me other people have wanted to start these movements in the past but here's why our slow reading movement will be successful we're going to promote reading as something that goes beyond solitary activity that we love we're going to promote reading as collective activity where we maximize the experience by telling our internal soil preparing our better civic selves and getting ready to do good work together research shows that readers live longer that they're more likely to vote and that they develop stronger sense of empathy developing better civic selves now don't want to imply by any stretch that I've become any kind of saint through slow reading but have had terrific experiences feeling like lived in story that happened continents away or that saw the world through the eyes of someone very unlike me through slow reading when we immerse ourselves in book it's like we opened window through which new ideas can come in there's something about the stillness created by reading book that creates more vibrant mind worry because studies show that Americans are doing less of this kind of literary reading less and less and yet more and more we need people whose minds have been stretched and strengthened and opened recently finished the novel the sympathizer it's spy novel about double agent it's also book about the Vietnam War as seen by Vietnamese man won't think about that war or the refugees who came here afterwards the same way after reading that book it probably took me 10 or 12 hours to read the sympathizer 10 or 12 hours immersed in that man's life don't spend ten or twelve hours in conversation in year with some of my favorite friends think of the impact of ten or twelve hours in conversation with somebody but really that's what reading book is that author has shaped his or her story for you to take in over time not that there's anything wrong with Twitter exchanges in Facebook and binge TV watching and movies this isn't it either or it's an and think we also might want to take moment to reflect on how fortunate we are to live in this democracy where an informed population is considered public good and where our public schools teach all children rich and poor male and female and you know that couldn't be here talking about an informed population and education without mentioning terrific American institution the public library thank you we learned to read in public schools for free and for the rest of our lives we have access to books in all formats for free through your tax supported public library it's the perfect intersection of impact with affordability my dream is that cool kids nerds social butterflies engineers dancers lot of people in khakis and blue polos will claim this power of slow reading maximizing the experience by choosing challenging books that bend our brains and have us feeling like we've grown some kind of metaphorical garden between our heart and our brain through slow reading lucked into way of reading these very books about 25 years ago was the supervisor of the South Branch Library on South Street here in Lincoln when dear older woman came in when and said she was looking for librarian to talk with her church book group about the American Library Association notable books list she was kind of person you don't say no to so said yes and then learned that this annual list is 26 books 12 fiction 12 nonfiction 2 poetry and over the years I've kind of fallen in love with reading the books on this list it's announced in January and takes me to about October to get most of them read and lot of my friends can't believe that don't exercise free reading choice for nine months out of the year but it's worth it every year this list has me reading books that hadn't heard about terrific books as we think about how polarized our society has become we also have to think about how we self-select and how we narrow the news and information that we take in through reading the books on this list get outside of my usual reading groups sometimes find that am confronted with something new to learn something new to think about maybe spend some time with some characters don't especially like but like to think that doing this has led me to consider experience and sometimes truly even value point of view that's not my own some of the notable books have been sort of life-changing for me and think about them almost every day for instance Susan Cain's quiet book about introverts in world that's ruled primarily by extroverts her description of personality type that's characterized by the need to sometimes just be quiet and alone and just take things in really resonated with me she gave voice to my feeling that being an introvert isn't about disliking people it's about set of characteristics that benefits extroverts as well or the book thinking fastest by Daniel Kahneman he's Nobel prize-winning economist who studies how we make decisions was afraid this book would be dry read what call all cornflakes no milk but no it's fun it's engaging his research shows that we way way overestimate how well we understand the world and we way underestimate how biased our own thinking is if you read just one book in the next six months make it Thinking Fast and Slow confess forget lot of the books read talk about books lot and that helps but forget lot of plots and forget lot of endings what do remember is how book made me feel and remember images now some of those are ridiculous the scene of man shoplifting fresh salmon from grocery store by sticking it down the front of his pants some of them are sublime the feeling created by new housekeeper in motherless home and that she whistles while she works makes all the difference others little bit mind-bending how would our planet recover and respond if one day all of the humans on the planet just poof disappeared some have been challenging really never thought about what life was like for German women at the end of World War two when systematic rape followed the fall of Berlin and one of the most compelling books from this year's list between the world and me by Toni he Coates begins with the image from lynching and how does father prepare his son for world in which that is our heritage my hunch is that just now as was talking about those images some of your thoughts were wandering toward mine shifting moments in your own reading so would like for all of us to take moment quietly together and invite all of you to reflect on those books and those images slow down savor maximize the experience it's not by accident that the Nazis burn books and that Isis destroys libraries books hold power in medieval times the church considered books sacred and refer to them as miraculous objects look at all of you today here to think about how do we bring people together and do see the start of slow reading movement that will reclaim the power of those miraculous objects we're going to maximize the experience by understanding that together we're tilling our internal soil we're ready ourselves for action so that together we can do the work of bringing people together slow down savor maximize the experience we'll be building and nurturing our most Civic and civil selves so that together together we create more civil world thank you