Do not read, as children do, to amuse yourself, or like the ambitious, for the purpose of instruction. No, read in order to live.
— Gustave Flaubert
Dylan O'Sullivantwitter.comDo not read, as children do, to amuse yourself, or like the ambitious, for the purpose of instruction. No, read in order to live. — Gustave Flaubert
My reading habit is driven by an intense longing to live well. To expand my mind, broaden my understanding of the world, enrich the act of living, and draw closer to the essence of what it means to be human. To develop a meaningful philosophy of life. To better serve others. It's a pursuit of genuine wisdom by becoming more deeply aware of the grea... See more
book that simply demands to be read, for no good reason, is asking us to change our lives by putting aside what we usually think of as good reasons. It’s asking us to stop calculating. It’s asking us to do something for the plain old delight and interest of it, not because we can justify its place on the mental spreadsheet or accounting ledger (lik
... See moreAlan Jacobs • The Pleasures of Reading in an Age of Distraction
Reading fiction is important to understand the cross-sectional variation in humanity, to understand how difficult generalisations can be, to just get a sense of how different social pieces fit together, and to get a sense of different historical eras – and plus, reading fiction is often just plain flat-out fun.