Next time you scroll social media ask yourself: but what if I read a book instead?

My favorite reads of 2024, Part 2 💃🏻🎉 (Non-fiction)

This morning I read a news article in which the National Park Service was searching for people with a dying super power. The super power they sought is not the one I wish I had. Who doesn’t want to be able to transfigure at whim into a hawk swooping across the vast void between the carmine walls of the Grand Canyon? The National Archives branch of the NPS is searching not for lycanthropes but those who have not lost—and I am not making this up—the ability to read and write in cursive.

You may be thinking: I came for the book recs, why are we talking about animal magic and my least favorite part of elementary school?!

Sure, even just typing the word cursive conjures a cramp in my right hand so visceral I feel like my cranky third grade teacher, Mrs. Kramer, is hovering over my shoulder as I write. And even though the news article’s sensational headline was a successful ploy to get my attention, calling cursive a superpower reveals the collective slipping away of our attention.

In the last twenty + years, the average time a person can focus on one thing has dropped from around 2.5 minutes to 45 seconds. Meanwhile, the ability of Americans to read and write cursive “has deteriorated significantly in the digital age.” A OnePoll study from 2021 found that 70% of Americans struggle to make out another’s person’s handwriting. Even so, writing by hand boosts brain connectivity in a way that typing can’t.

What are we giving up by constantly giving away large portions of our capacity to communicate to phones and computers? (Or, at least, to be mediated by phones and computers.)

Our minds and bodies are like small besieged cities, assaulted with a constant barrage of information. And researchers have been finding a correlation between the frequency of attention switching and increased stress. Every time your attention on your work or family is interrupted by a text or notification, your body experiences it as stress. Every time you are trying to decompress after work and are inundated by news of yet another asinine executive order undercutting the constitution you thought was cut in stone, stress hormones surge.

This isn’t a think piece, because, well, I don’t have the attention span for that this week. I’m just one disabled white lady with a curious mind and a sensitive body who is trying to reclaim sovereignty over herself in a world addicted to stress. I am more aware than ever that to live well, I must build better walls around my brain and body against the constant bombardment of news, opinions, and even the illusory “good” of “staying in touch” with people beyond my embodied orbit. I cannot sustain the attention it takes to love myself and those around me well when that attention is hijacked hundreds of times a day by both benign and brutal realities.

I am beginning to believe that the greatest defense against dictatorship might just be an undistracted mind.

Storytelling can set free our capacity for sustained attention. Immersive storytelling releases the empathy-driving chemical oxytocin in our brains and can engage the emotional centers of our brains to want to stay focused.

And I think you already know this. I think it’s possible you’ve just forgotten how good it feels to be captivated by a good story. I think we’ve unintentionally traded deep droughts of wonder for small hits of happiness or hate via screens. I’m beginning to think we feel so lost in our society today because, without meaning to, we’ve waived our mind’s great right and need to wander into worlds beyond our grasp.

And one of the most accessible ways to reclaim our attention is to simply practice the habit of reading books. Instead of handing over your attention to social media, harness it into stories, perspectives, and poetry that can expand your capacity be present here and now.

—KJ

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Here’s Part 2 of My Favorite Reads of 2024

In Part 1, I shared my favorite fiction reads of 2024, along with a little essay about the power of swapping one habit for another. (It would be fair to say today’s little rant was just another version of that. 😉) You can read that post below:

Today, we’ll be turning to my favorite non-fiction reads of the last year, which is available for paid subscribers.¹

You won’t find star ratings here as they make my skin crawl, but you will find some emotionally symbolic emojis for each book, as well as why I loved what I loved. Some include some of my favorite quotes.

The following contains affiliate links to Amazon, as that’s what I’ve been told is most accessible to you. But you can also find the entire list of my favorite 2024 reads on Bookshop.org to purchase from indie booksellers.