Solitude, silence, and a book

I had a nice time reading today.

But I realise something: I couldn't sit in one place reading for a long stretch of time. My four years here have made me unused to long periods of silence. When I'm in my room, often the laptop provides me with background noise. I'm also often with friends. There's also the traffic or the rain outside the window. Oman was quite different. I'm not in front of a computer so much. I have a whole house to walk around and a large garden too. We're far from any traffic, so often it's just the sound of sparrows chirping. Very quiet and peaceful.
I think I should regain my fondness for silence.

I finished Dostoevsky Crime and Punishment at last. It's a very good book, though a bit dark and brooding at times. I liked the Epilogue the best.

Finally here's something I relevant from a book I bought two days ago titled The Pen Commandments: A Guide for the Beginning Writer, by Steven Frank:

We live in a world increasingly hostile to free time; students are assaulted with homework, parents are abducted by their jobs, and people everywhere are rushing to the next appointment, activity, or event. In fact, we're in such a hurry that our feet are making the earth spin faster - and time really is speeding up.

We've lost our solitude too. We walk around with electronic leases clipped to our handbags, backpacks, and belts. As soon as we get a moment of silence, a moment to think, our hips vibrate or our pockets ring, and the thought is chased away. In know people who always take the stairs because they're afraid that their pages or cell phones won't get reception in an elevator. And while this may be good for the heart, it's terrible for the soul.

There is a way to fight back - with your pen. Every sentence you write is a sign of defiance against the undertow of time. When you write, you are just leaking ink onto the page; you are leaving a piece of yourself permanently behind. And by writing, you carve a small space out of the frenzied, intrusive world and you say, "Hands off! Not here. This place is for me." And it's in this place, of silence and solitude and peace, that you are free to form your own thoughts without anybody else butting in.