reading in all its glory
He described reading a book as being “in conversation” with the author. But reading has the added benefit of allowing you to concentrate deeply, move as fast or as slowly through an argument or idea as you want, and formulate and reformulate your thoughts as you move through the text.
Reading is the nourishment that lets you do interesting work
Emily Temple • Life Advice from Jennifer Egan and All Your Other Favorite Authors
Reading, because we control it, is adaptable to our needs and rhythms. We are free to indulge our subjective associative impulse; the term I coin for this is deep reading: the slow and meditative possession of a book. We don’t just read the words, we dream our lives in their vicinity.
Sven Birkerts • The Gutenberg Elegies: The Fate of Reading in an Electronic Age
Reading is alluring. It has a nameless quality beyond satisfying desires for information and pleasure. Despite more colorful and interactive media, reading text somehow remains more refined, more seductive.
“The quality of your thoughts is determined by the quality of your reading. Spend more time thinking about the inputs.”
Fully engaged, we work with the writer to build our own book.
Sven Birkerts • The Gutenberg Elegies: The Fate of Reading in an Electronic Age
In our busy and distracted society, deep reading is increasingly rare. Deep reading changes people.
Sharing the books you read with others can be an intimate invitation into your brain — what you are drawn to, what you think about, and the life experiences that shaped those interests and thoughts. Even a book chosen based solemnly on aesthetics or its cultural context is still a choice that says something about its owner, or at the very least, co... See more
For while it can be many things, serious reading is above all an agency of self-making.