PROTECT YOUR READING
He spent three years not reading any newspapers because he found that their contents added only non-essential confusion to his life.
Greg Mckeown • Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less
Getting people’s attention has never been easy, but social media made it a nightmare. Someone reading a book 20 years ago had few other distractions in front of them. Today your phone offers an Olympic competition for your dopamine.
The solution for many writers has been a combination of clickbait, pandering, and fear-mongering. The loudest voi
... See moreMorgan Housel • Attention
The reader is someone with an attention span of about 30 seconds—a person assailed by many forces competing for attention.
William Zinsser • On Writing Well, 30th Anniversary Edition: An Informal Guide to Writing Nonfiction
Sir Francis Bacon—it comes from his essay “Of Studies”—concerns the reading of books: “Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed and some few to be chewed and digested; that is, some books are to be read only in parts; others to be read, but not curiously; and some few to be read wholly, and with diligence and attention.”
Alan Jacobs • The Pleasures of Reading in an Age of Distraction
Did you know as a child you wanted to be a writer?
No. I wanted to be a reader. I thought everything that needed to be written had already been written or would be. I only wrote the first book because I thought it wasn’t there, and I wanted to read it when I got through. I am a pretty good reader. I love it. It is what I do, really. So, if I can re... See more