Coffee Table Books
Pretty much everybody on Earth wishes they read more. There are those out there who read less than a single book a year—people who have a half-finished paperback tucked away in the top drawer of their bedside table that hasn’t seen the light of day (or perhaps more importantly the light of their lamp) for months. These people wish they enjoyed reading more, or insist they simply don’t have the time, but try as they might, they struggle to ever establish a permanent reading routine; they fall into the shockingly high proportion (almost half!) of society that reads fewer than one book a year, tragically depriving themselves of one of life’s greatest pleasures.
Next up are the middling readers; until recently, I myself would have considered myself to fall into this category. These are the people who maybe manage three, four, perhaps as many as twelve books a year. They read semi-regularly, always with a book on the go, yet they chip away at each novel page by page, chapter by chapter, making progress steadily, slowly adding to their libraries, but not setting any speed records. To those who simply don’t read, the people who manage the loose goal of a book a month (a target I often stuck to) are an inspiration; but the readers sat in this category dream of what it would be like to achieve more. The people in this group have a pile of books sat next to their bedside table and on the digital shelves of their kindles that is forever growing and seldom shrinking. For every book read, two more spring up in its place that deserve to be read; you are faced with the depressing realisation that there are some series, some classics, that you will probably never find time for. In some ways, this is a more tragic situation than the non-readers find themselves in!
Finally, there are the juggernauts. Everyone knows that one person that read thirty books last year. Some people somehow read upwards of a hundred books a year (two a week for those keeping track!) and still manage to fit time in to do all the other normal dumb human stuff that the rest of us do, like sleep, work, and Netflix. Now, personally, I don’t know anyone who has managed anything close to the big one-o-o other than a few people on YouTube, but I know they are out there, and therefore it must be possible. Alas, even these gods among men are faced with the hard reality, that with the entirety of literary history at their backs, and an infinite expanse of future releases ahead, even these paragons will never turn the pages of everything worthy of their time.
In 2020 I read something like fifteen books over the course of the year. That was up from about thirteen the year before, twelve the year before that, and probably ten or so beforehand. I love reading, but cursed with a slow reading speed, I always felt like I was never making the progress I wanted. Some people seem to just inhale novels, flying through them with ease, always putting a finished paperback down to pick up the next! I want to be one of them! There are so many books out there which I want to read, but I honestly don’t know when I’ll find time for them. My reading schedule is booked up for months, if not years!
As a writer, I feel like to improve my own art I have to read. I don’t restrict myself to fantasy and sci-fi, as I find just as much inspiration and learn just as many, if not more, literary tricks and techniques from other genres as I do from indulging in my own field. I have however restricted myself over the last five or so years to fiction. I’ve always considered myself something of a polymath. I pursued science and maths through higher education, but I’ve always had a passion for history, politics, art, culture, and pretty much anything else you can think of. I love learning. I love non-fiction. But unfortunately, in recent years that passion fell to the wayside.
So, 2021 rolls around. Once more, I set the ambition of wanting to read more books over the course of the year, figuring I might add a couple to the tally from last year. But in the early days of January, I had an idea: Coffee table books!
Now, when I say, ‘coffee table book,’ I don’t mean the pretentious idea of having a massive hardback sat on my coffee table filled with pictures of interior design or minimalist artwork, accompanied by passages of text that neither I, nor any guest in my home, will ever actually read. What I mean is, a book that sits permanently on my coffee table (at least until I am done reading it!)
The idea is simple. I have a kindle. On that kindle, I have whatever fiction novel I’m currently ploughing through, there ready to go for bedtime, or if I fancy a spot of reading on the weekend. My book on kindle is my main book. It is what I’d tell people I’m reading right now if they were to ask. The book on my coffee table is different. It is for those moments in the evenings or on the weekend when I find myself on the sofa but have no intention of watching TV or switching on the PlayStation; conventionally, in those moments, I do what everyone else does in the modern world: I get out my phone and I start scrolling! Now, my vice isn’t Facebook, Instagram, or even Twitter, my Achilles heel is the news. I flick through articles, more often than not finding little new since the last time I checked my feed but scrolling on endlessly regardless. It’s a habit I don’t want to eradicate, but I’d be happy to minimise, and so, enter the coffee table book!
If I find myself doom-scrolling, I put down my phone and pick up the book. These so far have been non-fiction books that have taken my fancy. A couple have been beautiful hardbacks, whilst others have been slightly less beautiful paperbacks, but the point is, if I find myself wasting time, I actively stop wasting time and start doing something productive. Sometimes I get a single page in. Sometimes I get several chapters under my belt. Occasionally, I find myself opting to read instead of turning on the television, simply because the book cover proves too tempting to resist.
So far, it is working. I’ve not made much of an improvement at putting away titles on kindle—as far as it goes for this time of the year, I’m probably about par for the course. But having a second book permanently on the go that I’m whitling away at in time that I otherwise would not be reading, means that I’ve added an extra four books to my tally for 2021 already, and as far as that goes, I consider that a win!