I have always loved to read. As a child I read books, magazines, encyclopaedias and even catalogues. And as I grow older I find that I still love to read as much as ever – if not more. But I have been noticing a disturbing trend. My attention span is waning.

This is an especially disturbing trend to me because I find that it is disrupting on of the most positive activities in my life. The hours and hours that I spent in rapt pleasure leisurely reading my way to slumber has given way to hours and hours in front of a computer screen only to go to bed unable to sleep and leave bed in the morning with a headache (which I refer to as “cyberburnout”). I never felt time was wasted with a book but I often feel guiltily uneasy about my time on the internet.

I have a theory that this is down to the amount of time I spent at the computer. There are so many interesting and compelling pages on the internet that I find myself skimming from page to page to page. I get lost surfing.

In the past when reading books my mind would wander as well but the meandering was stimulated by the information laid out or the story being told in the book. My imagination would get a work out. Now though when I read books I am feeling a disturbing trend. My mind wanders to other things often related to the book only as a starting point.

My feeling is that web surfing is having a negative impact on my attention span.

Or could this be from something else?

Follow me on Twitter!:
http://twitter.com/GaryDale

On the one hand I thoroughly enjoyed this book but on the other hand I kept feeling a bit of forced guilt on the behalf of the author. Frank Beacham was anything but a Southern apologist, which he shouldn’t be anyway, I felt the story was written to attach himself and distance himself at the same time.

That being said Frank Beacham has done a wonderful job at telling the stories. There were three stories covered in the book: The origin of the shag – the official dance of South Carolina, the Orangeburg police massacre of non-violent students at South Carolina State University in the late 1960’s and the tale of a bloody crackdown in Beacham’s hometown during the Great Depression which has repurcussions to this day. (The author discovered via friends that the aggression was started by none other than his own grandfather!)

The stories are interesting and compelling. I’m glad I read it.

WHITEWASH: A Southern Journey Through Music, Mayhem & Murder by Frank Beacham

Follow me on Twitter!

The maid cleaned today then hurricane Caia rolled through! The “terribles” don’t necessarily end at two…

Website://www.GaryDaleCearley.com

Follow me on Twitter!:
http://twitter.com/GaryDale