On Saturday, I taught the first class of How To Read Like a Writer to a new group of students. (HTRLW is a course I designed in the spirit of Francine Prose’s Reading Like a Writer, though my approach and content is quite different.) I begin by asking everyone why they read. (And, of course, I’m referring here to fiction and literary non-fiction; everyone knows why they’re reading Windows 7 for Dummies.) As I expected, as we went around the table there were various expressions of a desire to be “somewhere else” for awhile: People said they read for “entertainment,” “escapism,” “to get inside someone else’s head,” as well as
“learning.” But one man surprised me with, “Efficiency—I can get more experience in one hour of reading a good book than I can in one hour of life.”
I love that. Granted, you could argue that if one happens to have just won an Olympic gold medal, one may have had a greater experience in a few minutes than there is to be found in a hundred books. But otherwise, books—good books—do provide a bang for the buck in terms of time spent, don’t they? I read part of a novel last night and I walked down a back street in Barcelona in the early 1900s, I touched the scum of algae on the surface of a neglected swimming pool, I met an impoverished and bitter widow and I watched a young couple begin to fall in love. All this in less than an hour—talk about efficiency!
Please tell me, why do you read?
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
This post reminded me of something I read
about writing (it was some time ago; I can’t remember who said it). A
novelist said she was invited to spend a month in Europe and she turned it
down, saying: “Let them go. I’m going on a bigger adventure–for that whole
month, I’m going to be writing a novel.”
Well, she can’t have meant she was going to write an entire novel in one
month, surely. It’s the gist of her comment that has stayed with
me.
I find the argument that reading is a way to
experience a lot more of life an interesting one, for sure. I read a lot as
a kid and my mother was always after me to “get your nose out of a book once
in awhile and go outside and play.” Book experience is not ‘real’
experience, for sure–but who has time (or the money) to travel (time
travel, no less) to Spain and meet all those people in an hour? The older I
get, the more I appreciate ‘book travel.’
One thing I have noticed is that the older I
get the higher my expectations are of what I read.
When I was young I would never leave a book unfinished. Even the dullest
ones got every opportunity to salvage themselves before the final page.
Things are different now.
These days every chapter of every book must pass a test. I am always asking
the question “Is this the best way for me to be spending these moments of my
life?” With so many books and so little time, the wrong answer means that a
book gets free admission to some charity book sale or a free ride to the
nearest library return slot. To be fair, I do try to get at least 10% of
the way through a book before deciding to cut my losses. Even this may be
harsh because I am sure that a lot of effort goes into writing a book but
those authors who can give me better reading experiences per hour are even
more deserving of my attention and must not be kept
waiting.
Hi, Brian.
I like your attitude that the more deserving books should not be kept
waiting. Sometimes I read a book I consider far less than excellent just to
learn how not to write (discussed briefly in an earlier post on Bad Books
http://sharleenjonsson.com/2010/01/11/bad-books-why-theyre-good/ ) But on
the whole, I want to spend my reading hours with the best writers.
Thanks for commenting.