What was once an act of immersion has now become an exercise in evasion. There’s no time to linger or to contemplate because the screen is perpetually pushing us forward.
I majored in philosophy because I was only able to read slowly. Now I choose to read slowly. Few things in life make me feel better than an hour of slow, calm, reading of a great text.
Enjoyed this piece Michael. I wholeheartedly concur. Slow reading has changed my life for the better. I look forward to more of your essays.
There are quite a few slow reading groups on Substack. I am leading a year-long journey through Homer's works, and Simon Haisell has been leading groups through classic books for several years now.
Thank you, Matthew. You are doing excellent work with slow reading here as well. Of course, the title of Michael's piece caught my eye. A rebellion indeed. I have gathered so many personal stories over the last three years from people who have taken the invitation to read slowly and found it can profoundly change how they engage with the world.
Not so sure I’d want to be immersed in a book on the NY subway, unless it was hardback War and Peace . . .
But seriously, reading deep for pleasure is a gift from God, because some of us have it warmly passed on to us by parents who read to us first. Others who did not develop a thirst for it on their own, and are more blessed for the effort. Either way, the blue screen kills us all.
That was an awesome introduction to how to change the pace of one’s life. Rushing through life is never helpful unless there is a real emergency. Reflection and thinking deeply takes time. Thanks Michael
Great post and AMEN to all you say here. "It’s not about speed; it’s about presence. It’s about being in the text, not just getting through it" is well-said. Many people think that smart people read more quickly than others, but that's not true. People who read every day will get through more books in a year because they are devoted to reading. Imagine trying to rush through Henry James!
These are all good ideals aimed at creating quiet, reflective reading. But as a classical educator of 15 years in a variety of schools, I wonder how you've found these things to actually work in real classroom settings. For instance, without extremely fine and regular checking of annotations, most students have any number of ways to game that system to make it look like they're engaging with the book when they really aren't. (Try keeping up with the annotations for 25 to 28 students on a regular basis, and it's quickly seen how unworkable that system is.)
Likewise, for the teacher to stand in the front trying to model deep reading tends to take the teacher's eyes off the students, who then engage in all sorts of hijinks or who else simply check out because what they're actually hearing is "the Charlie Brown teacher". And that's before the teacher starts cold calling, at which point in time the teacher quickly realizes most "students" can't say anything meaningful about the text at all, no matter how much he himself has modeled closely reading it.
Timothy, great questions -- and there are some excellent answers for you. I will be addressing some of these in future articles. For now, I recommend The Close Reading Archive, which is filled with a great many tidbits of wisdom on the subject: https://www.closereadingarchive.org/teaching
I’ve had that experience as well. After some years, I stopped thinking about the stragglers and let them fall. The for-profit college where I taught asked me to pass them, do extra assignments, etc., but I just asked my boss to do the dirty work. Instead, I enjoyed the work the talented students did, and equally the hard workers. Not caring about those who don’t care seems to me solution, whether they fail now or later..
A great piece. It got me thinking that on the writing side of this issue, we can encourage close reading by writing things that deserve close reading (as you have with this wonderful essay). The problems you described, especially with F-pattern reading, are exacerbated by the proliferation of "content" – online writing that invites skimming and doesn't reward close attention. The kind of thing interested only in offering direct answers to literal-minded questions, with no time for subtext or elegant prose. It plays such a big role in training us to be worse readers. Thanks for writing things worth giving our close attention.
Thanks for this great post. I was blessed to be a slow reader and learned early to enter fictional worlds and live in for as long as I could. Sometimes I feel like I’m engaging with the text but I’d rather swim in the story. Maybe that’s the same thing, maybe not.
I find this once again very similar to Lectio Divina with its four steps: Lectio, Meditatio, Oratio and Contemplatio. We are now maxxing on the "Lectio" part, neglecting all the others. Since I put a brake on the reading race, I find myself pondering at the last piece I read, I keep popping more ideas and interpretations, things I imagine were "usual day at the office" not so long ago. The difficult part is managing the FOMO. The long reading lists knocking franticly at the door.
Oh my…I have found you at last! I will never meet you in person nor will I need to because I am meeting you now: Slow Reading - but of course! The BEST REBELLION ever …I’m a Book Babe! I am drowning in books but my house can take it…. until I move ….then I hope Oxfam will ‘take much of it’ and a nice friendly fair dealer too… books are life itself.
Nietzsche On the Genealogy of Morals Preface: aphorism 8
To be sure, one thing is necessary above all if one is to practice reading as an art in this way, something that has been unlearned most thoroughly nowadays—and therefore it will be some time before my writings are “readable”—something for which one has almost to be a cow and in any case not a “modern man”: rumination.
Nietzsche Preface to The Dawn
to read well, that is to say, to read slowly, deeply, looking cautiously before and aft, with reservations, with doors left open, with delicate eyes and fingers … My patient friends, this book desires for itself only perfect readers and philologists: learn to read me well! –
Thoreau Walden (chapter: Reading)
Books must be read as deliberately and reservedly as they were written.
Filing this piece in my notes. These are for preparing a course based on reading tentatively titled as "Competent Learner" - for B-school freshers and professionals.
I majored in philosophy because I was only able to read slowly. Now I choose to read slowly. Few things in life make me feel better than an hour of slow, calm, reading of a great text.
Enjoyed this piece Michael. I wholeheartedly concur. Slow reading has changed my life for the better. I look forward to more of your essays.
There are quite a few slow reading groups on Substack. I am leading a year-long journey through Homer's works, and Simon Haisell has been leading groups through classic books for several years now.
Thank you, Matthew. You are doing excellent work with slow reading here as well. Of course, the title of Michael's piece caught my eye. A rebellion indeed. I have gathered so many personal stories over the last three years from people who have taken the invitation to read slowly and found it can profoundly change how they engage with the world.
Not so sure I’d want to be immersed in a book on the NY subway, unless it was hardback War and Peace . . .
But seriously, reading deep for pleasure is a gift from God, because some of us have it warmly passed on to us by parents who read to us first. Others who did not develop a thirst for it on their own, and are more blessed for the effort. Either way, the blue screen kills us all.
The blue screen is a cult that’s become a culture.
That was an awesome introduction to how to change the pace of one’s life. Rushing through life is never helpful unless there is a real emergency. Reflection and thinking deeply takes time. Thanks Michael
Great post and AMEN to all you say here. "It’s not about speed; it’s about presence. It’s about being in the text, not just getting through it" is well-said. Many people think that smart people read more quickly than others, but that's not true. People who read every day will get through more books in a year because they are devoted to reading. Imagine trying to rush through Henry James!
These are all good ideals aimed at creating quiet, reflective reading. But as a classical educator of 15 years in a variety of schools, I wonder how you've found these things to actually work in real classroom settings. For instance, without extremely fine and regular checking of annotations, most students have any number of ways to game that system to make it look like they're engaging with the book when they really aren't. (Try keeping up with the annotations for 25 to 28 students on a regular basis, and it's quickly seen how unworkable that system is.)
Likewise, for the teacher to stand in the front trying to model deep reading tends to take the teacher's eyes off the students, who then engage in all sorts of hijinks or who else simply check out because what they're actually hearing is "the Charlie Brown teacher". And that's before the teacher starts cold calling, at which point in time the teacher quickly realizes most "students" can't say anything meaningful about the text at all, no matter how much he himself has modeled closely reading it.
Timothy, great questions -- and there are some excellent answers for you. I will be addressing some of these in future articles. For now, I recommend The Close Reading Archive, which is filled with a great many tidbits of wisdom on the subject: https://www.closereadingarchive.org/teaching
I’ve had that experience as well. After some years, I stopped thinking about the stragglers and let them fall. The for-profit college where I taught asked me to pass them, do extra assignments, etc., but I just asked my boss to do the dirty work. Instead, I enjoyed the work the talented students did, and equally the hard workers. Not caring about those who don’t care seems to me solution, whether they fail now or later..
A great piece. It got me thinking that on the writing side of this issue, we can encourage close reading by writing things that deserve close reading (as you have with this wonderful essay). The problems you described, especially with F-pattern reading, are exacerbated by the proliferation of "content" – online writing that invites skimming and doesn't reward close attention. The kind of thing interested only in offering direct answers to literal-minded questions, with no time for subtext or elegant prose. It plays such a big role in training us to be worse readers. Thanks for writing things worth giving our close attention.
Thanks for this great post. I was blessed to be a slow reader and learned early to enter fictional worlds and live in for as long as I could. Sometimes I feel like I’m engaging with the text but I’d rather swim in the story. Maybe that’s the same thing, maybe not.
I find this once again very similar to Lectio Divina with its four steps: Lectio, Meditatio, Oratio and Contemplatio. We are now maxxing on the "Lectio" part, neglecting all the others. Since I put a brake on the reading race, I find myself pondering at the last piece I read, I keep popping more ideas and interpretations, things I imagine were "usual day at the office" not so long ago. The difficult part is managing the FOMO. The long reading lists knocking franticly at the door.
Michael, thank you for this post. I am a bibliophile, and retired educator. Well done.
Thank you, Richard!
Oh my…I have found you at last! I will never meet you in person nor will I need to because I am meeting you now: Slow Reading - but of course! The BEST REBELLION ever …I’m a Book Babe! I am drowning in books but my house can take it…. until I move ….then I hope Oxfam will ‘take much of it’ and a nice friendly fair dealer too… books are life itself.
Nietzsche On the Genealogy of Morals Preface: aphorism 8
To be sure, one thing is necessary above all if one is to practice reading as an art in this way, something that has been unlearned most thoroughly nowadays—and therefore it will be some time before my writings are “readable”—something for which one has almost to be a cow and in any case not a “modern man”: rumination.
Nietzsche Preface to The Dawn
to read well, that is to say, to read slowly, deeply, looking cautiously before and aft, with reservations, with doors left open, with delicate eyes and fingers … My patient friends, this book desires for itself only perfect readers and philologists: learn to read me well! –
Thoreau Walden (chapter: Reading)
Books must be read as deliberately and reservedly as they were written.
I skimmed this article.... excellent piece.
The F-pattern, right?
The F-pattern, right?
Filing this piece in my notes. These are for preparing a course based on reading tentatively titled as "Competent Learner" - for B-school freshers and professionals.
Thanks, that F-pattern was really useful for reading the remainder of the article
The continuation of slow reading is the Zettelkasten. You read a book, you get inspired, then write your thoughts down and put them into Zettelkasten.
Then they lie there for weeks or months.
Then you read another book (or experience something) and ideas related to those older notes emerge.
You again put them into Zettelkasten.
Do this long enough and you come up with new, truly creative ideas.
(Which you can only come up with by thinking slowly, over weeks and months.)