On Reading
Method and Practice
I can never read all the books I want; I can never be all the people I want and live all the lives I want - Sylvia Plath
My recommendations on what has enhanced my reading.
For screening of books, I often use my inter-library loan for an initial screening, over a thousand books pass through my hands a year, most are attractive when presented by their lovers or are very well advertised but until they are in your hand and before your eyes, all exist in abstraction. The concrete book with a brief flipping often has more warts and flaws than ones conceptualization of it. A quick once over allows one to catorgize a book into the should be read, saved for later or returned unread bins. I purchase most of the books I read but I want to purchase and store a much more limited quantity, I’d rather by 50 or 60 books a year instead of a 1000.
I screen a small sample of the book. A rule of thumb poor epigrams mean an author has not spent the time to actually find a good quote if they cannot do that they probably will not right a good book. I find if the prose or verse is bad at the beginning it will not get better at the end. I usually inventory the chapters and flow of the book and read a small sample. A rule of thumb is if a book starts poorly it often doesnt get better. Another rule of thumb is it is harder to abandon a bad book as you get closer to finishing it. I error on missing a good book or 10 than reading one bad one. If a book is worth reading it will get rescreened, and often many people will try to sell it to you. I am ruthless in screening but I will revisit.
I receive over 20 books never before seen and passionately recommendations a day, books are a practical infinity to any reader. Screening is a necessity and I find that there needs to be an idea of a permanent do not read list. The books on the do not read list are books that everyone readers and non-readers alike feel I should read. An exemplar is almost no-one has read is Infinite Jest, but everyone assumes they want to read it but few do it is mammoth, complex, opaque and a time hog in length and obscurity of the prose and infinite notes . I have heard several readers (and surprisingly a large cadre of non-readers) say they will take this on someday, a pipe dream. I know people love this book and multitude people are enamored with idea of this book in the abstract. I am not saying if this is on my do not read list, I do not publish the list or tell people what is on it. The list is personal if you tell people what is on the list you become a book ostracized luddite of who hates their most beloved book. The idea is to commit not to read the things that are truly in your mind a waste of time. I find it strange that everyone embrace Faulkner's or Joyce's literary project. It is a tool so that you can ignore people when they push a 1500 page brick upon you. I find life is too short and there are too many literary Everest to climb to feel guilty about not climbing them all.
I read predominately in English, with some Latin, but I rely heavily on translators. If you are going to read the Iliad and the Odyssey, the Hebrew Bible, or Borges you are likely going to be married to a translator for the duration. I first shopped translations of when I read War and Peace when I was in my teens as I was very unhappy with the first few translations I was exposed to. It is worth checking out from your library all the translations you can find, and know what you are looking for, do you want beauty of prose (or verse), dedication to that original, the notes or lack there of, a modern loose translation or a historic older one. Also reading a few translations gives you a very different view. I rather like Penguin and anything translated by Edith Grossman and Natasha Wimmer. I have read a plethora of translations of Oedipus Rex and the Iliad , certain books offer themselves up to multiple translation and benefit from multiple translation perspective.
I shop biographies and histories as well, I recently rejected 5 biographies of Mozart based on weird Freudian takes, trying to fit him into a quote from Picasso of all artist being lairs, Mozart wasn’t innovative. There is an infinity of subpar biographies with strange takes.
I think one should climb literary Everests one must pick ones challenges with some forethought and planning. I have found that often breaks on these challenges and abandoning these challenges happen. I benefit from themes rather than goals. I have had a year of plays, I read a lot of plays but mostly I kept plays in mind when I was reading, I went to see plays and operas the theme did not have a goal, but I feel it was better than a goal and its’ constraint. My current Everest is The Hebrew Bible translated by Robert Alter has been restarted after a 2-year break.
When reading I go with the hot hand if I am enjoying verse I read verse, if I am reading plays I read plays. If I start on Shakespeare I read many plays. I live vicariously live through books, I embrace the ability to be outside my head space and it is low risk to have others ideas in front of you. I encourage reading verse, plays, novels, librettos, non-fiction and essays. I think read across a wide time frame and writers from everywhere.
Medium is important to the reader but not universal, I love paper and audio books and consider audio books reading. Audio books are often very strong when an actor can interpret dialog for you. I screen experimental books as audio books , it is about 20 -40 extra books a year. I do love books read by the author. Yet I know hard core readers who hate paper books and read on tablets and phones, I find being a zealot on medium to be of almost no value. I love high end hard backs and paper backs, but I know people who want books to be totally disposable and some people who want digital storage instead of shelves of books. I relish in my beautiful book people, this is the golden age of publishing and a have incredible access to wonderful used books at our finger tips digitally.
I don’t try to figure out why I read as it varies and my love of books is nebulous to me, I try to encourage others to read and leave the motives to themselves. I do tend to judge what they read privately, as this allows me to not listen to those pushing trash, and the unimportant books.