Reading well is an endurance sport. I sometimes talk to people who want to become serious readers and so pick up Kafka’s The Trial or something like that—it is about as pleasant as running a marathon untrained.
You are an excellent writer. I admire your commitment to high intellectual standard when it comes to your literary selection. If I can offer a piece of advice I have learned from my own research, which has helped me recently: running an actual marathon or just improving your fitness level a little bit at a time, will also improve your reading & writing abilities, because the health and functionality of the prefrontal cortex in your brain, which grows stronger by pushing your body physically, this prefrontal cortex is where your working memory functions, and the more powerful your working memory, the better able you are able to hold complex information from the beginning of long sentences until they reach the end of the sentence. Physical exercise will improve your reading comprehension the more you do it. The ancient Greeks used to have their libraries lining the edges of their gymnasiums for this reason: because they understood that physical training and health of the body was directly linked to the health of the mind and the expansion of the intellect.
Indeed! Our culture still likes to compartmentalize everything— while not addressing the interconnected natures of mind, body, spirit, etc. All linked and all powerful players to daily wellness— not to mention mental acuity, creativity, productivity, etc. “Binge-ing” is so numbing, and your being “shuts down” due to streaming overload. Next stop… headaches, ADHD, sleeplessness, and a host of negative health after-effects. We’re not wired for such nonsense. Ah well, be sane all who heed these admonitions!
Amazing how much comes to mind on a walk. Interesting about the Greeks with libraries lining the walls of their gymnasiums. Maybe to combine books with workout areas a trend to start?
hey Daystar. I have been doing both (Running and Reading) and have even done a podcast each on both the topics.. but had never thought of the inter-relatedness as you described it. would love to read more on this.
Wow. It's October 1st, and this might be the best article I will read all month.
So much in there deeply inspires me, both on reading techniques and on the intellectual rigor required to craft environments for deep thinking. The quality of our thinking is not determined by the volume we read, but by the rigor of our engagement and the questions we dare to chase.
I read Mortimer Adler's book when I was 26 (I am now 32) and have since become an avid reader, starting around 100 books a year and finishing 40. I am extremely picky as well, but your piece pointed to sources I have not yet tried.
I am most struck by your embrace of "real confusion" as a signpost of progress.
Your internet-less "default life" is something I want to adopt. I have just returned from a week with 200 humans in a French castle without phones or computers, and I still marvel at the quality of thoughts and interactions that environment made possible.
I would be curious to learn more about your routine. How, for example, do you remain in exchange with other thinkers and this community while protecting your focus? I also wonder if you have a retention system for organizing what you read (beyond writing about it)—any particular tools for thought you use?
This is brilliant. I admire your spaced repetition and active processing. The farthest I tend to get is what Peter Elbow suggests in Writing With Power:
> If you want to digest and remember what you are reading, try writing about it instead of taking notes. Stop periodically — at the end of each chapter or when something important strikes you — and simply write about what you have read and your reactions to it. This procedure may make you nervous at first because you can’t ‘cover’ as many points or make something as neatly organized as when you take notes. But you will remember more. Perfectly organized notes that cover everything are beautiful, but they live on paper, not in your mind.
I really like the way you describe reading as an endurance sport that you have to train for. My sister and I are both reading a fantasy book right now, but she feels embarrassed by it because she fears it makes her look dumb. I asked her if she thought I was dumb for reading it, but she said no because I read other, "less dumb" things as well.
I don't agree with her, but your essay made me think about why she may feel this way. Sometimes I read to be entertained, the way I watch reality tv, and sometimes I read to learn. And I know that by reading things purely for joy, it keeps me reading when I may have less mental capacity to be really working out hard in the mental gym. If you see anyone that's in immaculate shape, even they fluctuate in their dedication to the gym based on what their personal lives allow for (Hugh Jackman will talk about how when he trains for being Wolverine in X-men he only eats chicken breast and that is not how he looks in his regular life). This is why I often read a book that's easy on my mental processing at the same time as one that's more difficult to keep me excited about reading. If I ever accidentally read only one book, and it's difficult and loses my attention (aka, I try to read a book akin to the experience your friend had reading The Trial, and then fall off the wagon for a while) I have a few entry-books that get me back in the swing of things easily (often something by David Sedaris, or a romance/fantasy). They're similar to getting myself back in the gym after not going for a while. I have found this helps with the fatigue, and act as 1) a fail-safe workout plan for when I've been skimping at the gym or 2) built-in rest days when training.
I have never had someone describe the searching/chasing dichotomy and it's beautiful. Once again, you're always pushing me to think, and it's really cool when I see you address things in your essays that I talk to about my friends, but add new perspective / citations I hadn't seen before. When you wrote "But with good writing, this is an illusion: it keeps getting more and more interesting the deeper I process it"... this is how I feel about your work. I often re-read your essays or even print them out and give them to friends after I highlight them.
PS- Do you publish your reading list? Would love to see what 50 books made the cut this year.
I've been coming back to this article over the last few days. I've never had a problem with reading - but the part about selecting books carefully struck a chord. I have a hard time walking away from books I start.
Sometimes it's uncertainty about what I'm feeling. Sometimes it's hope for the future ("I remember enjoying something else by this writer, maybe it gets good after the 30% mark"). Sometimes it turns into a trial to prove something to myself (Patience? Endurance?) A chase-oriented method of reading would help a lot with this, for non fiction. But with fiction, I still find it hard to let go. The fleeting high of completing a book is a bit too addictive at times.
Your post reminded me of this long quote from Gene Roddenberry:
“I consider reading the greatest bargain in the world. A shelf of books is a shelf of many lives and ideas and imaginations which the reader can enjoy whenever he wishes and as often as he wishes. Instead of experiencing just one life, the book-lover can experience hundreds or even thousands of lives. He can live any kind of adventure in the world. Books are his time machine into the past and also into the future. Books are his "transporter" by which he can beam instantly to any part of the universe and explore what he finds there. Books are an instrument by which he can become any person for a while—a man, a woman, a child, a general, a farmer, a detective, a king, a doctor, anyone.
Great books are especially valuable because a great book often contains within its covers the wisdom of a man or woman's whole lifetime. But the true lover of books enjoys all kinds of books, even some nonsense now and then, because enjoying nonsense from others can teach us to also laugh at ourselves. A person who does not learn to laugh at his own problems and weaknesses and foolishness can never be a truly educated or a truly happy person. Also, probably the same thing could be said of a person who does not enjoy learning and growing all his life.”
OH!! reading about reading and how to read and why to read ALWAYS makes me extraordinarily happy. thank you for this. i am,however, a complete hold out for the LLM and chatgpt etc. this will be our downfall.
Such a fascinating exposition. You don't mention when and why you read fiction or how much you do. For example when you were immersed in chasing ancient greek superiority, did you read Homer? Reading fiction is a very different experience, obviously. What sense do you make of the distinction in your reading system?
I took so many notes from this and paused a few times to really process what you were saying. I can already tell reading will be a whole new experience with deeper engagement from onwards! Love when a piece of writing makes me feel taught.
I love that you clarify the kind of reading this post is about. It is the singlemost important clarification. I forced himself to listen to audiobooks at higher speeds for much longer than I found the experience enjoyable, because I heard people around me talk about 2X speeds. But I ignore that I may have been at an earlier stage of my development or they were reading (more) for pleasure.
That reading is an endurance sport is a wonderful metaphor. I read Robert Pirsig (ZMM) in my senior year and it was so painful. Years later, the second read was much easier. I do feel that when you start reading any book, you bring to bear the full weight of all the books (and your life experiences) you've ever read. So, reading makes reading easier. Although, like running, reading never gets easier. You just learn to read stuff that's denser (like you run faster).
You are an excellent writer. I admire your commitment to high intellectual standard when it comes to your literary selection. If I can offer a piece of advice I have learned from my own research, which has helped me recently: running an actual marathon or just improving your fitness level a little bit at a time, will also improve your reading & writing abilities, because the health and functionality of the prefrontal cortex in your brain, which grows stronger by pushing your body physically, this prefrontal cortex is where your working memory functions, and the more powerful your working memory, the better able you are able to hold complex information from the beginning of long sentences until they reach the end of the sentence. Physical exercise will improve your reading comprehension the more you do it. The ancient Greeks used to have their libraries lining the edges of their gymnasiums for this reason: because they understood that physical training and health of the body was directly linked to the health of the mind and the expansion of the intellect.
Indeed! Our culture still likes to compartmentalize everything— while not addressing the interconnected natures of mind, body, spirit, etc. All linked and all powerful players to daily wellness— not to mention mental acuity, creativity, productivity, etc. “Binge-ing” is so numbing, and your being “shuts down” due to streaming overload. Next stop… headaches, ADHD, sleeplessness, and a host of negative health after-effects. We’re not wired for such nonsense. Ah well, be sane all who heed these admonitions!
Good idea to balance the hormones that are disregulated by scrolling with some intense physical challenge!
Amazing how much comes to mind on a walk. Interesting about the Greeks with libraries lining the walls of their gymnasiums. Maybe to combine books with workout areas a trend to start?
The mind is allowed to daydream when the body is set free in motion!
hey Daystar. I have been doing both (Running and Reading) and have even done a podcast each on both the topics.. but had never thought of the inter-relatedness as you described it. would love to read more on this.
Wow. It's October 1st, and this might be the best article I will read all month.
So much in there deeply inspires me, both on reading techniques and on the intellectual rigor required to craft environments for deep thinking. The quality of our thinking is not determined by the volume we read, but by the rigor of our engagement and the questions we dare to chase.
I read Mortimer Adler's book when I was 26 (I am now 32) and have since become an avid reader, starting around 100 books a year and finishing 40. I am extremely picky as well, but your piece pointed to sources I have not yet tried.
I am most struck by your embrace of "real confusion" as a signpost of progress.
Your internet-less "default life" is something I want to adopt. I have just returned from a week with 200 humans in a French castle without phones or computers, and I still marvel at the quality of thoughts and interactions that environment made possible.
I would be curious to learn more about your routine. How, for example, do you remain in exchange with other thinkers and this community while protecting your focus? I also wonder if you have a retention system for organizing what you read (beyond writing about it)—any particular tools for thought you use?
This is brilliant. I admire your spaced repetition and active processing. The farthest I tend to get is what Peter Elbow suggests in Writing With Power:
> If you want to digest and remember what you are reading, try writing about it instead of taking notes. Stop periodically — at the end of each chapter or when something important strikes you — and simply write about what you have read and your reactions to it. This procedure may make you nervous at first because you can’t ‘cover’ as many points or make something as neatly organized as when you take notes. But you will remember more. Perfectly organized notes that cover everything are beautiful, but they live on paper, not in your mind.
I really like the way you describe reading as an endurance sport that you have to train for. My sister and I are both reading a fantasy book right now, but she feels embarrassed by it because she fears it makes her look dumb. I asked her if she thought I was dumb for reading it, but she said no because I read other, "less dumb" things as well.
I don't agree with her, but your essay made me think about why she may feel this way. Sometimes I read to be entertained, the way I watch reality tv, and sometimes I read to learn. And I know that by reading things purely for joy, it keeps me reading when I may have less mental capacity to be really working out hard in the mental gym. If you see anyone that's in immaculate shape, even they fluctuate in their dedication to the gym based on what their personal lives allow for (Hugh Jackman will talk about how when he trains for being Wolverine in X-men he only eats chicken breast and that is not how he looks in his regular life). This is why I often read a book that's easy on my mental processing at the same time as one that's more difficult to keep me excited about reading. If I ever accidentally read only one book, and it's difficult and loses my attention (aka, I try to read a book akin to the experience your friend had reading The Trial, and then fall off the wagon for a while) I have a few entry-books that get me back in the swing of things easily (often something by David Sedaris, or a romance/fantasy). They're similar to getting myself back in the gym after not going for a while. I have found this helps with the fatigue, and act as 1) a fail-safe workout plan for when I've been skimping at the gym or 2) built-in rest days when training.
I have never had someone describe the searching/chasing dichotomy and it's beautiful. Once again, you're always pushing me to think, and it's really cool when I see you address things in your essays that I talk to about my friends, but add new perspective / citations I hadn't seen before. When you wrote "But with good writing, this is an illusion: it keeps getting more and more interesting the deeper I process it"... this is how I feel about your work. I often re-read your essays or even print them out and give them to friends after I highlight them.
PS- Do you publish your reading list? Would love to see what 50 books made the cut this year.
I love this so much. My reading system is simple, intentionally loose, yet quietly structured: I read what I want, but not necessarily when I want: https://www.whitenoise.email/p/the-rule-of-3-books-fiction-facts
I've been coming back to this article over the last few days. I've never had a problem with reading - but the part about selecting books carefully struck a chord. I have a hard time walking away from books I start.
Sometimes it's uncertainty about what I'm feeling. Sometimes it's hope for the future ("I remember enjoying something else by this writer, maybe it gets good after the 30% mark"). Sometimes it turns into a trial to prove something to myself (Patience? Endurance?) A chase-oriented method of reading would help a lot with this, for non fiction. But with fiction, I still find it hard to let go. The fleeting high of completing a book is a bit too addictive at times.
Your post reminded me of this long quote from Gene Roddenberry:
“I consider reading the greatest bargain in the world. A shelf of books is a shelf of many lives and ideas and imaginations which the reader can enjoy whenever he wishes and as often as he wishes. Instead of experiencing just one life, the book-lover can experience hundreds or even thousands of lives. He can live any kind of adventure in the world. Books are his time machine into the past and also into the future. Books are his "transporter" by which he can beam instantly to any part of the universe and explore what he finds there. Books are an instrument by which he can become any person for a while—a man, a woman, a child, a general, a farmer, a detective, a king, a doctor, anyone.
Great books are especially valuable because a great book often contains within its covers the wisdom of a man or woman's whole lifetime. But the true lover of books enjoys all kinds of books, even some nonsense now and then, because enjoying nonsense from others can teach us to also laugh at ourselves. A person who does not learn to laugh at his own problems and weaknesses and foolishness can never be a truly educated or a truly happy person. Also, probably the same thing could be said of a person who does not enjoy learning and growing all his life.”
OH!! reading about reading and how to read and why to read ALWAYS makes me extraordinarily happy. thank you for this. i am,however, a complete hold out for the LLM and chatgpt etc. this will be our downfall.
Such a fascinating exposition. You don't mention when and why you read fiction or how much you do. For example when you were immersed in chasing ancient greek superiority, did you read Homer? Reading fiction is a very different experience, obviously. What sense do you make of the distinction in your reading system?
I took so many notes from this and paused a few times to really process what you were saying. I can already tell reading will be a whole new experience with deeper engagement from onwards! Love when a piece of writing makes me feel taught.
This is ridiculously nerdy, Henrik, and I mean that in a good way🤓
I love that you clarify the kind of reading this post is about. It is the singlemost important clarification. I forced himself to listen to audiobooks at higher speeds for much longer than I found the experience enjoyable, because I heard people around me talk about 2X speeds. But I ignore that I may have been at an earlier stage of my development or they were reading (more) for pleasure.
That reading is an endurance sport is a wonderful metaphor. I read Robert Pirsig (ZMM) in my senior year and it was so painful. Years later, the second read was much easier. I do feel that when you start reading any book, you bring to bear the full weight of all the books (and your life experiences) you've ever read. So, reading makes reading easier. Although, like running, reading never gets easier. You just learn to read stuff that's denser (like you run faster).
Thank you for giving me a new use case for LLMs!
Wow thank you for writing this. You are pushing me to think and write deeply. ❤️
I would love to hear more about your spaced repetition practice if you ever have a chance to write about it!
Wish Substack had a 'save to collection' feature. This would go straight into my 'on reading' folder.