Read What Gives You Delight

I wrote this week’s newsletter in my head one night before falling asleep. It was so clear and perfect, I even dreamt about it. The words rewrote themselves in my mind over and over again, like a schoolchild memorizing for a test, until the realms of consciousness blurred with the endless frontier of my subconscious.

Of course, when I was ready to jot down my midnight writings the next morning, everything had vanished and all I could muster was a sentence, maybe two at most. Does this ever happen to you?

We leave for a mini-vacation at the end of the week, so I’m writing this newsletter early.

August whizzed by and I haven’t read as much as I’d like to. I tend to read like my brain: scattered and in fragments, constantly renewing the same books from the library because I never finish them on time. It’s hard to commit to a single book and tell myself, ok I will not start another one until this one is done.

I picked up Alan Jacobs's The Pleasures of Reading in an Age of Distraction, hoping it might help with my reading dilemma. Growing up, my mother–a self-proclaimed nerd and bookworm–had several books on how to read well. I always thought these types of books were rather lame, dense, and somewhat pretentious.

Reading about reading also seemed like a waste of time, especially when I could, you know, actually be reading the novels and stories those books talked about.

But I’m surprised to be enjoying Jacobs’s book so much. While most of the arguments he makes are rather obvious, they are a reminder of our biases and skewed notions about reading. Many also apply to writing, which is what motivates me to keep reading the book.

As the American poet, Mary Oliver, says:

“[…] to write well it is entirely necessary to read widely and deeply.

-Mary Oliver, A Poetry Handbook

I find it easy to have a long TBR (To Be Read) list, constantly adding books I “should” read, books that are “serious” and “intellectual”. The problem is that sometimes, this takes away from the pleasure of reading.

Jacobs gives this advice which I rather prefer:

"Read what gives you delight–at least most of the time–and do so without shame."

-Alan Jacobs, The Pleasures of Reading in an Age of Distraction

So that’s the plan for this upcoming mini-vacation: finish reading whatever book I’ve started, as long as I find it delightful. Frankly, this is something I could apply more broadly in my life. Do you also get caught up in the “shoulds” of life?

Here are a few other links on reading:

• Mairead Small Staid wrote an essay about reading in the age of constant distraction.
• Cyndi Giorgis, editor of the latest Read-Aloud Handbook, talks about the benefits of reading out loud with kids in this podcast episode.

Still want to relish in a few more days of summer?

• The Summer Book by Tove Jansson (author of the Moomin books) is a delightful (and quick) read about a little girl and her grandmother who spend the summer on a remote island in Finland.
• Will Holland aka Quantic is playing in Paris this weekend. I will not be going, but I've been listening to his SoundCloud mixes, which make for a good end-of-summer playlist.
• I also recently listened to an interview with French music producer Bob Sinclar. His hit song Love Generation is the quintessential summer anthem. So go dance the last days of summer away and pick up that guilty-pleasure book without shame.

Cheers,

G.G. Law

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