Black and White and Read all over

If there is one thing that I would really like to do more of, it is the reading of books. 

Many things have to come together to enable this to be the complete immersion experience that it should be but I rarely have any of them. 

The key factor is of course time but that has become a rare and therefore valuable commodity in modern lives. Most of us might only be able to spare time when on holiday, travelling when someone else is in charge of the journey or in the unfortunate circumstances of illness. 

My most recent book-fest was enforced when I was confined to rest after having my appendix out. Rather than finding this to be a restful, relaxing and recuperating period I was completely traumatised by the content of two books by Anthony Beevor on the D-Day Campaign in 1944 and the Battle for Berlin in 1945. The sheer volume of facts, anecdotes and personal reminiscences combined into a full onsluaght on my tender sensitivities to the point that I suffered nightmarish falshbacks as though I had myself been involved in the violence and mayhem. 

I have a stack of books in just about every room in the house (including the littlest) in readiness for that elusive spare time but invariably find that the only opportunity to delve into the mixture of fiction, fact, biography and fantasy is in those brief seconds just before my eye lids become unbearably heavy and I fall into a deep but fitful sleep. 

I have started many of the world's greatest literary works with great enthusiasm only to i) doze off,  ii) lose concentration, iii) go off and do some chore or other or iv) all of these things. As a consequence I have a detailed recollection of the opening few pages or at best a chapter of those books that are a must-read before departing this life. 

The problem is that these snapshot snippets have, over the years, amalgamated into a super-story but of the utmost incoherence and confusion. I am under the impression that I read about a group of Hobbits embarking on an epic quest to save the sole member of a once proud North American native tribe whilst cooking up a budget family meal and solving the mysteries of the universe. 

It appears that my failure to finish reading a book is not unique. 

Many, it appears have that surge of ambition to take on a classic novel or masterpiece of its genre only to abandon it half way through a chapter or even, it appears becoming disillusioned after the intial sentences of the introduction or even just the summary on the back of the book jacket. 

The Mathematician, Jordan Ellenberg has conducted some research in his attempt to identify that unenviable title of "the most unread book of all time". The gathering of any representative data on this issue can only be near-impossible given the great variety of books available and the individual reading habits and practice of the wider population. 

Ellenberg adopts an interesting statistical base in studying the "Popular Highlights" feature on the Amazon web pages. It appears that every book's Kindle page lists the five passages most highlighted by readers. If every reader is indeed completing the read then the distribution of the Highlights would, logically, be taken at points throughout the whole book. By definition, if nobody manages to get past the first few chapters then the highlighted highlights will all be towards the beginning. 

It is possible, using a mathematical approach, to establish an Indexation, by taking the page numbers of any one book's five top highlights and dividing that number by the total number of pages in that book. This way, a high number suggests that more readers have progressed well and hopefully to completion and conversly a low number that fatigue, boredom or distraction have been the stronger influence. The potential for interpretation of the data does not provide for a widely accepted scientific protocol but can be interesting when applied to the current best selling books on offer. 

Best on the shelf is a Donna Tartt novel "The Goldfinch" at a huge 98.5% rating under the system. The classic American novel "The Great Gatsby" records only 28.3% although it is likely that familiarity with the storyline and characters comes more from the recent movie than the written word. "Fifty Shades of Grey" has a rating of 25.9% but then again having dipped in and out of the explicit depravity scenes I can imagine readers having to put the book down and rush out for a quick cold shower or to seek out a loved one.

The recipient of the dubious honour of the most unread book of all time currently lies with Stephen Hawking's "Brief History of Time" but shortly to be toppled by the Thomas Pikkety Best Seller of "Capital in the Twenty First Century". 

I can feel my eyelids twitching at the sheer anticipation of catching up with these notable works quite soon or not as the case may be....................