[Katsunami]

Today I finally did it again: Zen reading.

For about 10 years, I've not been reading as I used to. I have had the feeling that I... was... reading... every.... word.... separately.

Today, I sat in public transport (bus), and it was really busy, and quite noisy. The result was an undetermined noise, but without any definable elements; even the the bus stop call system was off (or set too low for me to hear it).

After a few minutes, everything was gone. It felt like my brain was off, and I wasn't actively reading. I'd just look at the screen of the Kindle, slowly sweeping from top to bottom, and tapping when hitting the last line.

I almost missed the bus stop where I had to get out. When I got home, I saw that I read somewhere around 40 pages (using my own custom counting in Count Pages) in 30-40 minutes; that's about 60-80 pages an hour, and I remember everything.

Normally I've been reading 25-30 pages in one hour, so my speed was at least double of what it was normally.

In times past, this was my normal way of reading. Maybe I got too busy 10 years ago, as that is the moment I started to work full-time, but I wonder.

Could it have been that ambient, but non-distracting noise? Normally when at home, there is always some noise, but it's focused: a neighbor making a sound, the clock going "tick/tack, tick/tack", something going on outside, or whatever.

Would it be worthwhile to experiment with using a headphone, playing white noise on a very low level, or maybe even classical music something? Is this the reason why some people can only study or read while "some noise" is going on somewhere; that you/I may now need something to block out my own thoughts, while I didn't need that 10 years ago?

Any thoughts?