I don’t have a long post for you this week, on account of (a) working through a pile of Sundance screeners ahead of the festival (which starts Thursday, and is all-virtual once again, and if you are in the US you should get tickets and join the fun!) and (b) it’s another holiday weekend and I am not feeling creative.
Instead I thought I’d post a thread, because the last one was so fun!
I have been working hard on planning out how I am going to read everything I need to read over the next few months, for both the book and for some tweaks to one of my courses this spring (finally figured out how to shoehorn the Frankfurt School into my postmodernism class, but now I need to write a lecture). Writing Salty, I worked out a system that works for me, which is to work backward from key dates (a class date, a day I hope to start writing) to plot which weeks I need to read particular books, and then at the start of that week, break the book up into chunks of roughly equal size and schedule them per day.
This kind of works as incentive for me: I can read more if I need to, but as long as I read what I’ve assigned myself, I can do anything else I want, like watch some trashy TV show (or good movie) or read a novel or just scroll TikTok for a while.
But a lot of people read a great deal more than I do. People: what is your story? When do you read? What’s your secret? (Even if you don’t read a ton, please share.)
Also, has anyone solved the problem of never being comfortable for very long in whatever chair/couch/bed situation you read, and if so, how? I need help.
(Oh, speaking of reading: I worked on this “Syllabus for a New World” piece for a couple months and it finally has been published, and I’d be honored if you’d read it.)
While my reading styles keep shifting over the decades, currently there are three streams to my reading, all of which crisscross. All three streams start with my magpie eyes gathering myriad reading possibilities (on social media, in the footnotes of things I am currently reading, in conversations with friends, wherever) and stacking the books and articles into want lists (using online list functions provided by my public library, academic library, and Amazon). I comb through my lists as time allows or as my priorities demand, dividing the flow into three: things I want to read primarily for rest and entertainment, things I want to read to inform my practices (including my scholarly practices, but not limited to those), and books I want to hold and look at as beautiful artifacts.
Things I want to read primarily for rest and entertainment flow on into my audiobook holds list at the public library or (rarely, if I really, really want to hear them, but the library does not have them) my Audible wish list), and I listen to them mostly while doing chores (washing dishes, doing laundry, preparing meals) or first thing in the morning when my brain hasn't woken up enough for anything else.
Books I want to read to inform my practices I try out through a library loan of a paper book first, and if they look like I will really make use of them, I buy them. Journal articles I get through the library, scan in digital format, and print out if I will really make use of them. Printed books and articles about my practices get read multiple times with many pen markings (not really consistent, but meaningful to me over the years) and sticky tabs. (This stream constitutes a very small part of the word count volume of my reading, but the larger part of my time investment in reading.) I read these at a desk or (using a clipboard and sitting on a couch or in a reading chair) so that I can easily mark them up. Many of the readings in this stream end up in one or another of my teaching syllabi at least once. Some of them my partner and I read and talk about together (when they have bearing on a shared practice, like our household finances). Almost all of them get quoted on index cards, or in notebooks and slide decks. Depending on the requirements of my administrative work, I have between three and twelve hours a week (including parts of Saturdays) available for the reading, writing, teaching preparation, and research administration in which these books and articles figure, in any given term (of which there are three in my academic year: Fall, Winter, and Spring-Summer), with more hours during the month of July.
Books I want to hold and look at go on my Amazon gift wishlist, which is shared with my children and partner with a view to birthdays and Christmases. When I get one of these, I spend a lot of time of them, but stretched over years, as they live in piles around our apartment, near at hand for moments of pleasurable leisure during holidays or on Sundays. Most recently: Leslie Williamson's "Still Lives" and "Interior Portraits," and Nina Freudenberger's "Biblio-Style."
I schedule my reading too… whether it’s research for my book, novels that help keep me alive, theological works, or poetry. I have to schedule pockets of time and chunks in multiple books I’m going through. I’m also a part of a couple of reading groups (one on race and one of contemporary nonfiction) which bring more time constraints that I have to work backwards from. Where I can, i also get a little help from Audible which I’ve grown to love.
I've tried various things, from being super organized to letting myself be intuitive about it. One thing we do around our house a lot is making a combo reading/cocktail hour at the end of the work day. We (or I, since my husband is living in another state right now) say okay, now I am done with work, and the cocktail/reading time is a nice transition to the evening. We have this one area near a window where there's a recliner and a sort of chaise thing with a little table between, so we pick our drink and our seat and put on some lowkey piano jazz and have the hour dedicated to that. It ensures we get an hour of reading and a drink, and the cat gets lap time, and everyone is happy.
Then there's usually another spurt of reading in bed before lights out. I do most of my reading on my kindle, because it cooperates best with my aging body. (Holding a hard cover book in bed?? No way. Seeing the little print in most paperbacks these days? Ha!) So I'm sending Libby loans to my Kindle, sending articles to Instapaper, which sends them to my kindle, etc. I still buy physical books and like them for certain things (especially things like essay collections or other creative nonfiction/spiritual writing that's suited to consume in readings over coffee in the morning).
Overall I'm slow, though, and probably only read like 40 books a year plus a lot of longform articles. Like most modern people, I find it difficult to focus the way I did before web 2.0. And like most modern people who see themselves as readers, I'm trying to change that.
ETA - work reading is a different thing. Like I will often read student work on my ipad and make notes with apple pencil during the work day, or just read/comment on my laptop. If I'm working with a consult client on a novel-length thing, I can send THAT to my kindle, too, and make highlights to remind me where I have comments and suggestions - I can look at all my highlights later on the kindle app on ipad and remember what I was going to say when I make the in-doc comments in word. Basically I am very into my kindle? Even though I hate being so dependent on a monopoly?
I have never been as disciplined a reader as the other commenters here. I wrestle with myself to set my phone aside and pick up a book. I go in spurts. Last weekend, for instance, I read three books over the weekend and started a fourth. That fourth is still sitting next to my chair waiting to be finished a week later. Somehow this still gets me through 60-70 books per year.
I don’t have a good answer to the comfort question. I used to read in bed a lot, but as I get older and my back becomes less tolerant of that slouch, I rotate between sitting at the dining room table and in a recliner in the living room.
I love this question! I'm always behind on my reading, partly because I always plan more reading than I can actually do. No surprise to any writer.
My current writing project is long-term and has a lot of reading. I finally landed on organizing reading lists by time of day. Earliest is reading prior to meditation (spiritual stuff, a short list), next is reading prior to drafting (mostly poetry), next is definitely-read-during-the-day (highly technical stuff, psychology, philosophy, and anything likely to make me anxious), and finally nighttime reading (a specific list of spec fic related to my project, plus easier nonfiction).
Setting aside the last two weeks of Covid quarantine where my whole schedule's been shot to pieces, I've been shutting off screens two hours before bed and dedicating the first hour of reading to the daytime list, so I feel free to read spec fic before bed. My goal has been 300 pp/nonfiction per week but I think 150 pp is more realistic. It takes a long time to cross a title off either of the first two lists - something I'm working on this year with a better planner.
Last year and this year I've been using Goodreads, too, just for fun.
I recently deleted my most used social media apps and put the Libby and kindle apps in their places. I check social on my laptop every few days, but spend those in between moments, where I have my phone but don’t necessarily have the book I want nearby, to read. For some books I end up buying or checking out a hard copy too to read in the evenings.
When I was a kid, we weren't allowed to watch television except for special occasions. I read a ton, though, and it became like TV is for many other people -- fun, entertaining, something I'd just flop into a chair to do, an inextricable ongoing thread in the fabric of life. And that's pretty much held true for my entire life (except now it has to compete a little more with movies, TV, my smartphone, etc). Basically, I've never had to consciously make time to read, because I can't even imagine my life without it. I do think it might be a bit different if I had to read extensively for my job (outside of regular work hours) or for classes, but that's almost never been the case except during my college years.
These days, I devote several hours most weeknights after dinner for the bulk of my reading, saving movies and TV mostly for the weekend. I read fairly fast, so that's enough time to get me through 70-90 books a year (about a 70-30 fiction/nonfiction split). I find it's a better experience when I leave my phone in another room or somewhere I can't reach it, but that doesn't always happen.
One thing my wife tried successfully was subbing in nonfiction audiobooks for most of the podcasts she'd been listening to. That's helped her read a lot more than she used to, although she still prefers print books for fiction. (I don't really do podcasts or audiobooks -- I prefer reading on print, and the occasional ebook, with music in the background.)
While my reading styles keep shifting over the decades, currently there are three streams to my reading, all of which crisscross. All three streams start with my magpie eyes gathering myriad reading possibilities (on social media, in the footnotes of things I am currently reading, in conversations with friends, wherever) and stacking the books and articles into want lists (using online list functions provided by my public library, academic library, and Amazon). I comb through my lists as time allows or as my priorities demand, dividing the flow into three: things I want to read primarily for rest and entertainment, things I want to read to inform my practices (including my scholarly practices, but not limited to those), and books I want to hold and look at as beautiful artifacts.
Things I want to read primarily for rest and entertainment flow on into my audiobook holds list at the public library or (rarely, if I really, really want to hear them, but the library does not have them) my Audible wish list), and I listen to them mostly while doing chores (washing dishes, doing laundry, preparing meals) or first thing in the morning when my brain hasn't woken up enough for anything else.
Books I want to read to inform my practices I try out through a library loan of a paper book first, and if they look like I will really make use of them, I buy them. Journal articles I get through the library, scan in digital format, and print out if I will really make use of them. Printed books and articles about my practices get read multiple times with many pen markings (not really consistent, but meaningful to me over the years) and sticky tabs. (This stream constitutes a very small part of the word count volume of my reading, but the larger part of my time investment in reading.) I read these at a desk or (using a clipboard and sitting on a couch or in a reading chair) so that I can easily mark them up. Many of the readings in this stream end up in one or another of my teaching syllabi at least once. Some of them my partner and I read and talk about together (when they have bearing on a shared practice, like our household finances). Almost all of them get quoted on index cards, or in notebooks and slide decks. Depending on the requirements of my administrative work, I have between three and twelve hours a week (including parts of Saturdays) available for the reading, writing, teaching preparation, and research administration in which these books and articles figure, in any given term (of which there are three in my academic year: Fall, Winter, and Spring-Summer), with more hours during the month of July.
Books I want to hold and look at go on my Amazon gift wishlist, which is shared with my children and partner with a view to birthdays and Christmases. When I get one of these, I spend a lot of time of them, but stretched over years, as they live in piles around our apartment, near at hand for moments of pleasurable leisure during holidays or on Sundays. Most recently: Leslie Williamson's "Still Lives" and "Interior Portraits," and Nina Freudenberger's "Biblio-Style."
I schedule my reading too… whether it’s research for my book, novels that help keep me alive, theological works, or poetry. I have to schedule pockets of time and chunks in multiple books I’m going through. I’m also a part of a couple of reading groups (one on race and one of contemporary nonfiction) which bring more time constraints that I have to work backwards from. Where I can, i also get a little help from Audible which I’ve grown to love.
I've tried various things, from being super organized to letting myself be intuitive about it. One thing we do around our house a lot is making a combo reading/cocktail hour at the end of the work day. We (or I, since my husband is living in another state right now) say okay, now I am done with work, and the cocktail/reading time is a nice transition to the evening. We have this one area near a window where there's a recliner and a sort of chaise thing with a little table between, so we pick our drink and our seat and put on some lowkey piano jazz and have the hour dedicated to that. It ensures we get an hour of reading and a drink, and the cat gets lap time, and everyone is happy.
Then there's usually another spurt of reading in bed before lights out. I do most of my reading on my kindle, because it cooperates best with my aging body. (Holding a hard cover book in bed?? No way. Seeing the little print in most paperbacks these days? Ha!) So I'm sending Libby loans to my Kindle, sending articles to Instapaper, which sends them to my kindle, etc. I still buy physical books and like them for certain things (especially things like essay collections or other creative nonfiction/spiritual writing that's suited to consume in readings over coffee in the morning).
Overall I'm slow, though, and probably only read like 40 books a year plus a lot of longform articles. Like most modern people, I find it difficult to focus the way I did before web 2.0. And like most modern people who see themselves as readers, I'm trying to change that.
ETA - work reading is a different thing. Like I will often read student work on my ipad and make notes with apple pencil during the work day, or just read/comment on my laptop. If I'm working with a consult client on a novel-length thing, I can send THAT to my kindle, too, and make highlights to remind me where I have comments and suggestions - I can look at all my highlights later on the kindle app on ipad and remember what I was going to say when I make the in-doc comments in word. Basically I am very into my kindle? Even though I hate being so dependent on a monopoly?
I have never been as disciplined a reader as the other commenters here. I wrestle with myself to set my phone aside and pick up a book. I go in spurts. Last weekend, for instance, I read three books over the weekend and started a fourth. That fourth is still sitting next to my chair waiting to be finished a week later. Somehow this still gets me through 60-70 books per year.
I don’t have a good answer to the comfort question. I used to read in bed a lot, but as I get older and my back becomes less tolerant of that slouch, I rotate between sitting at the dining room table and in a recliner in the living room.
I love this question! I'm always behind on my reading, partly because I always plan more reading than I can actually do. No surprise to any writer.
My current writing project is long-term and has a lot of reading. I finally landed on organizing reading lists by time of day. Earliest is reading prior to meditation (spiritual stuff, a short list), next is reading prior to drafting (mostly poetry), next is definitely-read-during-the-day (highly technical stuff, psychology, philosophy, and anything likely to make me anxious), and finally nighttime reading (a specific list of spec fic related to my project, plus easier nonfiction).
Setting aside the last two weeks of Covid quarantine where my whole schedule's been shot to pieces, I've been shutting off screens two hours before bed and dedicating the first hour of reading to the daytime list, so I feel free to read spec fic before bed. My goal has been 300 pp/nonfiction per week but I think 150 pp is more realistic. It takes a long time to cross a title off either of the first two lists - something I'm working on this year with a better planner.
Last year and this year I've been using Goodreads, too, just for fun.
I recently deleted my most used social media apps and put the Libby and kindle apps in their places. I check social on my laptop every few days, but spend those in between moments, where I have my phone but don’t necessarily have the book I want nearby, to read. For some books I end up buying or checking out a hard copy too to read in the evenings.
When I was a kid, we weren't allowed to watch television except for special occasions. I read a ton, though, and it became like TV is for many other people -- fun, entertaining, something I'd just flop into a chair to do, an inextricable ongoing thread in the fabric of life. And that's pretty much held true for my entire life (except now it has to compete a little more with movies, TV, my smartphone, etc). Basically, I've never had to consciously make time to read, because I can't even imagine my life without it. I do think it might be a bit different if I had to read extensively for my job (outside of regular work hours) or for classes, but that's almost never been the case except during my college years.
These days, I devote several hours most weeknights after dinner for the bulk of my reading, saving movies and TV mostly for the weekend. I read fairly fast, so that's enough time to get me through 70-90 books a year (about a 70-30 fiction/nonfiction split). I find it's a better experience when I leave my phone in another room or somewhere I can't reach it, but that doesn't always happen.
One thing my wife tried successfully was subbing in nonfiction audiobooks for most of the podcasts she'd been listening to. That's helped her read a lot more than she used to, although she still prefers print books for fiction. (I don't really do podcasts or audiobooks -- I prefer reading on print, and the occasional ebook, with music in the background.)