Book Notes
Living Commentaries
We’ve all been told and, in turn, tell ourselves to “read more.” I’m skeptical.
When reading becomes too instrumental, books become checkboxes. Reading becomes stultifying. Authors’ names become black box elusive figures of “authority” and, most perniciously, intellectual crutches.
Books are magical. You can communicate with the past and glimpse a life and inner world that was lived. I read because it makes me more alive and connects me to the world differently.
The author’s intention does not constrain books. To some, this is the first step into crass interpretive relativism. Instead, I see this as liberating. Books, like “history,” are surfaces we can use to create life and society. They are at once mirror of the self but bridge that gap between self and others. Sharing a book with someone else is a bond.
There are a few books and authors that speak to something living in me. I’ve found myself coming back to, rethinking, and re-reading. I want to capture that process here.
Meta Notes on Reading
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Read in the morning. Preferably before you look at a screen or a phone.
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If you are comfortable reading something once, you’ve read for “information.” Reading for “understanding” is reading up. These are the books that you didn’t get on the first go. Books that made you question your ability to comprehend words on a page. These books are, in the words of Mortimer J Adler, books you read for “understanding.”
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Treat your to-read list like a river, not a bucker. Or if that analogy doesn’t make sense then as a menu instead of a list. We don’t expect to capture everything in a flowing river. We dip in and out as it flows. A bucket demands that we empty it before filling it up again. Similarly a list demands everything be crossed off, a menu only a selection based on apetite and mood in the moment. I am guilty of treating my books as todo lists and buckets.
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Buy books. You never know when you might pick it up (or decide to give it as a gift to someone who needs it more!)