Thoughts on Procrastination

...I'll get to them later. Just kidding! ;)

I just finished reading The Art of Procrastination, a tiny little book about one philosopher's experience with "structured procrastination," or putting off big tasks in favor of completing small (and frequently insignificant) ones. John Perry, a philosophy professor at Stanford, wittily puts fellow procrastinators to ease about the habit. He also offers tips, such as "horizontal organization" or teaming up with non-procrastinators for projects.

The book is only 92 pages long and Perry's writing style makes the reading go quickly. Although, I have to admit, I set time aside to read this instead of using it to procrastinate.

But it got me thinking about my own procrastination. The level Perry describes in his book makes me anxious. Not meeting deadlines? Just thinking about it makes me tense! I do put things off, but never for so long that I "get behind" or end up asking for extensions.

College doesn't like procrastinators. Every semester a professor wags her finger and says "I don't give extensions! Use your time wisely." I highlight every due date, put them into my planner, and count back how many days it will take for me to complete the assignment. Perry, I have a feeling, would not go to such lengths.

But procrastination doesn't have to be a bad thing. It's a great motivator for me. I do much better work at the last minute than I do when I start early. My favorite papers don't come from a week of writing. They come from frantic writing the morning before the paper is due (always leave time to edit!). I feel more inspired when I'm under pressure to complete an assignment.

Of course, that isn't true for everyone. My friend Hattie finishes things weeks before their due, and does very well on them. She often ends up with more "guilt-free" time than me, but that's okay. We all have our own way of getting things done. That's really what Perry made me think about; procrastinators aren't inherently bad people. They just have a different way of getting things done.

And as long as things get done (and done well), does how they get done really matter?

How do you procrastinate, or does the thought of putting off tasks make you cringe? Any advice for college procrastinators?

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Woot woot, Below the Line!

• If you'd like to see more about John Perry and his book, take a peek at his website!
• I did a little tweaking on the blog this weekend. See if you can tell what's new!
• Any of you bloggers? I'd love to check out your blog. Leave a comment below so I can find your site.
• A corn question: do you eat corn-on-the-cob horizontally, like a squirrel, or all the way around? My family was discussing this yesterday :)

Real Books Rule, and Kindles Drool

Yeah. I really just said that. And I'm sure you're thinking, "what is she, 10?" And while a lot of people think I am, indeed, 17 (I'm not), I am ready to defend this post's title. And by the end of this post, I'm pretty sure you're going to be with me.

Here's the thing: I have nothing against Kindles (or any e-reader) as tools. I think they have introduced a lot of people to reading whom might have otherwise ignored reading and books. I also personally know people who love their e-readers. Typically, these are people who travel a lot or who are constantly on the move in their everyday life and need something slim to bring along. Sometimes, however, it's just their preferred way to read. My boss likes her Kindle for the countless reading options it offers her in only one slim device. She never has to choose just one book.

I get all that. I hear ya. E-readers are not soulless devices come to kill print. I even used the Kindle app on my iPad mini when I went to Italy. I wanted to have several books on hand without toting along a library. So I EVEN KIND OF USED ONE ONCE.

But.... I was not converted. Here's why Kindles drool:

1. There's no real way to annotate a book on an e-reader. At least, not the way I like to, with arrows and sprawling cursive squeezed into the margins (my blog isn't called "Scribbling in the Margins" for nothing!). Yeah, I can highlight, but can I add extra exclamation points when something shocking happens? I think not.
2. I couldn't see how far I was in the book. Okay okay, yes, there was a bar at the bottom of my "book" saying how much time I had left or showing me progress in the form of a percentage. But that doesn't tell me anything. I like to see my progress in thickness. How many pages are before my bookmark, and how many are after? I started to feel a little lost inside my Kindle books, and not in a good way.
3. Finally, I really disliked the screen deciding I was reading too slow and blacking out on me before I got to the end of a page (disclaimer: I wasn't using a real Kindle, so it could just be the iPad that does this. I'm aware. It was still annoying.) LOOK KINDLE. Some of us need to go back and re-read really excellent paragraphs, okay? GIVE ME TIME.

A real life, up-close and personal example: I found F. Scott Fitzgerald's This Side of Paradise for free on Amazon's e-books site. I had just purchased the paperback, so I figured I'd start it on the iPad and finish it real book style. But on the Kindle, the story just dragged on...and on....and on.....

I kept getting lost on the plot, and I couldn't easily flip back to a part that would help clear my confusion. I felt forced to read on without ever getting a real handle on the story. Now, here we are six months later, and I have absolutely no clue what that book's about. I have to start over, and that greatly frustrates me.

As soon as I got home from Italy, I returned to the comfort of my physical, beautiful books and never looked back. So here's why books rule:

1. The smell. This is something my sister and I both love about books, their pure, wonderful, ink-on-paper smell. Woody, musty, and fresh, all in one whiff. Seriously, grab one of your books and give it a deep smell. I'll do it with you *grabs a book, smells it*. Ahhhhhh. I feel better already.
2. The sense of satisfaction. From the moment I get a book (library, book store, Amazon- doesn't matter), the excitement begins. Then, I get to start the book, which is one of the more exciting times in my reading process. As I read on, I watch my progress both in the number of pages read and how invested I am in the story. Finally, closing a book for the last time always just makes me feel good. I have an attachment to the book when I close that back cover. I have a feeling of accomplishment simply using my finger to flip to the last page doesn't give.
3. And for the grand finale:

BOOKS ARE BEAUTIFUL

I'm on the hunt for beautiful covers of The Great Gatsby, and you probably have your own favorite book you "collect." But just looking at books, holding books, displaying books, feeling books- it's all an experience. I don't read books just for the words on the page. I read books for their paper, for their chapter layouts, and fonts. I read books for covers I can't stop looking at, and for the crinkly-whoosh sound of turning a page. I read books to take a break from a screen, and immerse myself into a world in which I don't have to worry.

And that, folks, is why books, simply put, rule.

What do you love about books? Are you an e-reader user? I'd love to hear what you think about the whole e-reader vs. book discussion.

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And for today's Below the Line...

• Oh my goodness, you still haven't checked out my Twitter? You're missing out. Find Scribbling in the Margins at @scribblemargins.
• I really need to get better about setting aside time to read. I will not fail on my To-Read Books this Summer! 1 down, 4 to go...
• Thanks so much to Sophie the Bookworm for listing me as one of her favorite bloggers! It was so sweet of her to include me. Congrats on 50 followers, Sophie!

On Location | Landmark for Peace Memorial

If I was a poet, this is the place where you'd see a lovely lyric about the meaning of the Landmark for Peace, what it was like to be there and maybe even a flashback to Robert Kennedy's speech.

I am not a poet (and I probably never will be). But there was something cool about seeing the Landmark for Peace Memorial. I've been taught for years about the speech Robert Kennedy gave in Indianapolis the day Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated. How his speed is accredited for stopping any riots that might have occurred.

But this sculpture is more than that. A couple from Michigan was at the memorial at the same time my friend Jordan and I were there. The man couldn't look away. His wife had already walked back to the car, but he thoroughly read both signs and looked up at the two men reaching out towards each other. He seemed deep in thought, and I felt as if I was intruding.

It's when I see this picture that I get what that guy was thinking. How these two people, both important in the Civil Rights movement, reach for each other, but can't seem to touch. How, even now, their dreams are not fully realized. But how easily the space between their hands could be filled- if only.

I got to stand there with one of my best friends, who actually suggested we check out the memorial. I didn't even know it was there. But I also got to stand there with the thousands of Hoosiers who stood there before me, hearing the news that Martin Luther King was killed. They had a choice how to react, and they chose peace.

And I thought, "Surely one day, the hands can close."

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Hello Below-the-Line readers! I hope you enjoyed this post. I thought I would try a little writing exercise, taking a photograph from the past week and freewriting about it. I'm thinking of doing this more often, if it works out.

Also, if you haven't already, check out the Scribbling in the Margins' Twitter at @scribblemargins! I tweet out new posts, as well as little random tidbits throughout my day.Think of it as a little "behind the scenes."

Happy Tuesday!

The Best Book I've Ever Read

"You like to read? So what's your favorite book?"

I went a long time constantly answering that question with "well, right now it's insert book I just read here." I didn't really have a favorite book of all time. Every time I read something wonderful, it became "my favorite book." I typically will only read a book when I'm pretty sure it's actually going to be good (or if it was assigned to me for class). It's rare I read a book all the way through that I really didn't like.

Insert recruitment. That changed everything for me. It only took one person to say "I love reading too! What's your favorite book?" to make me panic. I have to prepare myself for small talk. I have to be ready with answers, and for this question I simply didn't have one. Rambling ensued.

Until I remembered that I did.

I've always liked The Great Gatsby. It's one of the few books I brought with me to college. I used it for a creative writing assignment calling for "the most beautiful sentence." And when I first read it, junior year of high school, it was the first assigned book I couldn't wait to read every night. My friends and I would discuss each readings' events like it was a soap opera, rushing to each other every morning to replay the last few chapters.

But it wasn't until I read it a second time that I realized it was, quite honestly, the best book I'd ever read.

It was before the movie came out, and my family went on quite the Great Gatsby kick. We all reread the book, then watched the two older movie versions, and for the grand finale, my dad made a Great Gatsby feast from the newspaper, featuring dishes such as "Daisy's Lemon Bars" (the BEST lemon bars I've ever had, too).

As I reread the book, with fresh, college educated eyes, I realized just how beautiful the language is, just how spectacular the characters and plot and scene are. I was amazed at the talent in that short, 180 paged book. And just like that, I had an answer to the recruitment question (albeit, five months too late ;)).

Here are just a few of my favorite quotes I've highlighted in my copy:

"It was the kind of voice that the ear follows up and down, as it each speech is an arrangement of notes that will never be played again." Chapter I

"There were twinkle-bells of sunshine in the room..." Chapter V

"So he waited, listening for a moment longer to the tuning-fork that had been struck upon a star." Chapter VI

"[Her voice] was full of money- that was the inexhaustible charm that rose and fell in it, the jingle of it, the cymbal's song of it....High in a white palace the king's daughter, the golden girl...." Chapter VII

Fitzgerald has this way of making words sing for him; they don't compose a sentence, but a song. I only hope that one day, my words too can sing like that, and make each rereading even more musical.

I'm sure most of you know what the story is about- doomed love, wealth, the inherent flaws of people- but that's not the most important part of The Great Gatsby to me. The most important part is how Fitzgerald makes all of those things happen. How his words inked on a page not only create a story, but a reality.

If you're still with me at this point (yay for long posts!): favorite books may, yes, come and go. Just like when I was a kid, you never know when the next best book will come to you. But it's nice to have that one book you can always count on, the one book you know you'll always enjoy reading (even if it's the fifth time...).

So we beat on...