“I used to be really good at this. Finishing off 300 page books in a single sitting of a couple of hours was child's play. As a student, I never was routinely diligent. Yet I could read the night before the exams in one concentrated burst and still make a pretty decent grade. But I seem to have utterly lost my ability to read books now. I still buy them, but seldom get beyond a few dozen pages. I can't even watch good documentaries in a single stretch. I have heard it said that this is a regular malady caused by multitasking, which I definitely do all the time. The Internet conditions you that way, and so does a corporate job. It's not that my conceptual ability has diminished. But the concentration span and the patience sure has. Even if this is a sign of our times, how does one reverse its effects?” - × × ×