Since June 2008, when I got it by mail from Amazon, James Austin’s Zen and the Brain is always within my reach at the dining table, where I do all my reading.[1] I rarely pick it up, though. After so many months, I have read not more than a quarter of it only. For some reason, every book that comes my way takes precedence. Having read it for a few hours this evening, I suddenly asked myself why have I not finished it already. Am I repelled by it for some reason? For instance, do I find the writing insufficiently interesting? Or have I lost interest in the subject itself? As none of the above struck me as a good answer, I just sat there for a while. When my mind went completely blank, it flashed through my mind that all my questions were wrong-headed. In fact, I am eager not to finish the book too soon. I wish to stretch the experience as much as I can. Given my expectations, I want to make sure that I digest it as well as I possibly can. And then I smiled and rested my hand on Austin’s book. It will surely be within my reach at the dining table many more months.

Addendum (November 27, 2009)

For some reason I forgot to mention that the sequel to James Austin’s major book, Zen-Brain Reflections,[2] arrived by mail in the same Amazon package. It is nearly as thick as the first book. Resting under Zen and the Brain, it is always within my reach, as well. And it gives me an enormous pleasure even though I have not yet read a single word from it. On purpose, too.

Footnotes

1. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press, 1999, first published in 1998.

2. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press, 2006.