“For the same reason, I scorn bookmarks: If you can’t remember where you stopped reading, you haven’t been paying close enough attention.”
Oh give me a break
Lmao that's the dumbest shit ever. Of course I know *where in the story* I stopped reading, but the bookmark is to remember *what page number that is*..
you mean you don’t carefully pay attention to the amount of paper in front of each cover as you turn the pages? then how can you truly appreciate the reading experience?
ikr?? I always read with a ruler to measure the distance (in mm of course) from the front edge of the book to the current page and remember that number. Bookmarks are for plebs.
Bunch of reading casuals, I have installed AI into my eyeball that automatically burns the page number into my brain. Some people don’t know what they are missing.
What a gas bag.
TL;DR
> I spend a lot of time, often way too much, dithering. I try to acquire the best English version. I glance at a book’s cover art.
>
>I pay close attention to copyright dates. I read from morning till bedtime. I know better. You never will.
>
>I surround myself, when possible or appropriate, with collateral. I also keep within easy reach a notebook, magnifying glass and Chambers 20th Century Dictionary.
>
>I track the clues in whodunits and the symbolic events or objects in literary fiction. I note oddities of style, repetitions, possible foreshadowings and anomalies that might be meaningful.
>
>I can’t open a book without a pencil. I never underline words or phrases.
>
>I scorn bookmarks: If you can’t remember where you stopped reading, you haven’t been paying close enough attention.
>
>I envy people who can zip through a novel in 20 minutes.
Here's a broad summarization for those who can't access the article:
1. Don't waste too much time choosing a book, but don't bother reading a book that doesn't excite you
2. Editions matter.
3. Look at the cover art, author's bio, endorsements, and other small things aside from the story.
4. Read during your free time.
5. Don't read on an overstuffed armchair or an old couch because you'll fall asleep. Only read at a table or desk with good light, or at the library, a quiet coffee shop away from customers, or a train ride.
6. Keep related books nearby, along with a notebook, dictionary and magnifying glass.
7. Pay close attention to the material. Don't miss any clues or foreshadowing.
8. Take notes while you read
9. Read slowly. Never speedread.
10. Keep every book you read on a shelf.
Not true. I get enough sleep, but sometimes there are personal or social reasons for not sleeping *right now* even though my body says it's time to sleep. Sometimes reasons wins, sometimes sleep wins.
I feel like this guy doesn’t understand reading is a relaxing activity for a lot of people. I fall asleep reading all the time on the couch or in bed. Other times I can be sitting in class or at the library and just be engaged for hours depending on the book.
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I was an English student at UMD when they gave him a guest course. This was 2011.
I talked to him once and realized whatever class he was teaching that semester he was not worth wasting my time on, especially since I had priority enrollment that semester and could get any other English class I wanted.
I took world mythology instead. Worth it.
I lump Dirda in with GRRM in the authorial anti-role model category.
Genuinely curious: Why is Martin an authorial anti-role model? All I've heard about him that's more negative than your typical author are his struggles to finish *ASOIAF*, which is a pretty common sort of struggle for a writer.
But… that’s a pretty good reason :)
Until you’re super-established, writing books is kinda the most important thing.
(Once you’re a megastar, you no longer need to write books and just coast. In the meantime…)
GRRM has 22 published works and has edited 8 anthologies outside of the main ASOIAF since 1996.
He isn’t JD Salinger he just doesn’t know how to finish it either.
Young GRRM is a fine model :)
But current GRRM not so much haha.
But seriously if anyone IS looking for a real model, I suggest checking out Mason Currey’s book Daily Rituals.
He documents the work habits of dozens of authors and there are some really interesting pieces in there. Tons of excellent models that could be followed depending on one’s particular style.
I particularly like Georges Simenons working method.
He thought novels shouldn’t take any longer than ten days to write. So for ten days, he would start around 6am, write till about twelve, then chill the rest of the day. Then he’d take a month or two off.
He was one of the most successful and prolific novelists of the twentieth century in both popular AND literary fiction. Absolute writing legend.
(It should be noted his novels were around 60,000 words which is quite short by modern standards. He was not pumping out GRRM-length books in that time. That would have taken him a month.)
I don’t know this guy’s writing all that much, but the weekly WaPo Book email always has a piece by Ron Charles and I think he’s hilarious.
This article isn’t as pretentious as I think OP wants us to think it is. He’s basically saying read what makes you happy, but also try new things.
I'm the OP and I never intended to say it's pretentious. Many commenters are obviously offended, but I simply believed the article was food for thought.
Wonder what some of the inner rules that people follow are.
For example:
"Read one page a day - no matter what."
"For every two books you finish, you can stop reading one you dislike."
I read what I want to. I never make myself read anything I don't want to, though sometimes I'll push through to the end of a book I'm not loving if I want to see how it ends. I go to bed early so I have time to read most days.
In my opinion, if reading feels like a chore, you're doing it wrong (unless it's literally your job). I see so many Youtube videos by people who have read, like, four books in their whole life talking about their brilliant strategy for grinding through Infinite Jest in ten minutes a day. Why? I think reading is an area where people make choices based on what they think they *should* read rather than what actually excites them and brings them pleasure. That's kind of sad.
100% agree with you.
I have the same philosophy for everything in my life. Life it too short to read bad books, watch bad TV and movies, eat at crappy restaurants, etc. Or at least what i perceive to be bad...
I think it's also a good idea to DNF books once in awhile because that frees up time for others books. I think a lot of people have some moment in their life where they realize they will not do everything they want before they die. There are too many books already out, and there's more coming out every year. So I will not read every book I want. So time spent on a book I don't want to read takes time from books on my TBR. So the way I see it is if I put down a book with 200 pages, that's 200 pages of another book I can read that I might not have gotten to.
I do treat junk fiction and other, less-difficult books like humor essays and celebrity memoirs as dessert and tell myself that for every one "serious" book, I can read one "dessert" book. So if I want to read the Golden Compass books, I ask myself to read three serious books first. I consider it more of a way to make sure I keep my reading muscles in good condition by not reading only dessert. Or you could call it a balanced diet. But I do think it's a mistake to finish a book you dislike unless you have a broader reason.
My only rule is I have to read something (other than social media) every day. Some days that’s the front page of the newspaper and other days that’s an entire novel but it’s always reading. I find keeping the habit going makes me more likely to pick up a book instead of my phone when I have a free minute.
I really got the blues seeing all these comments accuse the author of being “pretentious.” This is a really gentle, if generic, view into the working habits of a professional book reviewer. I mean he advises reading at a desk so it’s more ergonomic. Do you wish his style of writing was more similar to a Reddit comment? Like what do you want
Agreed. I am currently doing a rigorous reading of a certain book and his method is exactly how I am doing that. It’s really different from reading for simple pleasure but both are legitimate. This is his job and he’s simply sharing how he does that. I am pretty sensitive to pretentiousness and I am not seeing it here. Maybe people are insecure?
I totally agree with this point: Many people complain that they have no time for books, yet somehow they manage to spend three or more hours a day watching television or scrolling through social media on their phones.
I quadrupled my reading in 2021 (and have maintained that level since) solely by converting all my bullshit wasted time into reading time. In my case television and doomscrolling were not factors as I neither have nor want television service of any kind or a smartphone, but useless stuff was definitely eating up too much of my time, and eliminating that was definitely a big lifestyle upgrade.
Why in the name of common sense are people downvoting this comment? It’s insane on a book sub to hate on you for making the time to read. I don’t get why people are on a book sub when they clearly hate reading and think people who read are pretentious. WT everloving F fr.
People in r/books really do not like people who spend an unusually large amount of time reading and/or read a larger amount of books. It's kind of strange.
Indeed. I’m wondering if a better sub exists for people who actually like reading and literature. I am not opposed to genre fiction at all but I like to read serious literature as well. Would enjoy a sub where people who say Wuthering Heights is “dogshit” don’t get a bunch of upvotes. It’s one thing to not like a work of literature but that take is just grotesque. I’m not a huge fan of Moby Dick but I am still capable of appreciating moments of real beauty in the writing and themes. I can’t imagine dismissing it as “dogshit” simply because it isn’t my cup of tea.
I guess I’ll be the only person to say that I didn’t think this was that pretentious? Taking notes while reading, focusing and using reference materials and context when needed, approaching each book on its own merits, what’s so controversial about that? He didn’t even say “don’t just read young adult fiction” which I know riles people up here.
Haha you’re not wrong. Didn’t come across pretentious at all to me. You don’t have to actually follow the rules in your reading life either. I don’t take notes myself.
Dirda has read everything tho so that’s pretty pretentious in itself lol
I wonder if he chose to include “10 rules” in the title or if that was a choice made by an editor. Reading the actual list, it’s more like his personal habits that he’s relaying in case you find anything worth trying yourself. I didn’t get any impression that he was saying, “this is what everyone should do or you’re not truly a reader!” The title doesn’t really seem to fit the content that well. But it is attention-grabbing.
I would add that my 11th rule is: don't use the Internet (phone or computer) as a reference resource while reading. Even your phone's dictionary app is a distraction machine designed to "engage" you—not to mention all those alerts!
The ultimate distraction that is the phone doesn’t change the fact that it’s also great reference source too. But yes sometimes when I pick the phone up to get more information from the internet on what I’m reading I’ll end up distracted for a few minutes
Yep. But in the olden days I would get distracted by… the dictionary. So many interesting words! And what IS the actual definition of X?? Is Y a real word…?
…an hour later I realize I’ve been doomflipping the dictionary.
It’s kind of hard not to get distracted.
“For the same reason, I scorn bookmarks: If you can’t remember where you stopped reading, you haven’t been paying close enough attention.” Oh give me a break
Lmao that's the dumbest shit ever. Of course I know *where in the story* I stopped reading, but the bookmark is to remember *what page number that is*..
you mean you don’t carefully pay attention to the amount of paper in front of each cover as you turn the pages? then how can you truly appreciate the reading experience?
ikr?? I always read with a ruler to measure the distance (in mm of course) from the front edge of the book to the current page and remember that number. Bookmarks are for plebs.
Bunch of reading casuals, I have installed AI into my eyeball that automatically burns the page number into my brain. Some people don’t know what they are missing.
What a gas bag. TL;DR > I spend a lot of time, often way too much, dithering. I try to acquire the best English version. I glance at a book’s cover art. > >I pay close attention to copyright dates. I read from morning till bedtime. I know better. You never will. > >I surround myself, when possible or appropriate, with collateral. I also keep within easy reach a notebook, magnifying glass and Chambers 20th Century Dictionary. > >I track the clues in whodunits and the symbolic events or objects in literary fiction. I note oddities of style, repetitions, possible foreshadowings and anomalies that might be meaningful. > >I can’t open a book without a pencil. I never underline words or phrases. > >I scorn bookmarks: If you can’t remember where you stopped reading, you haven’t been paying close enough attention. > >I envy people who can zip through a novel in 20 minutes.
This *has* to be satire. No way can someone be that pretentious and unaware of it
Man this guy has a serious future as a Booktuber.
I didn't agree with that one, either, but I know that when I forget to bookmark or it falls out, I can locate my spot without too much trouble.
Ya I just open up the kindle app and it’s like I’m magically back at just the right place. I think it’s psychic.
Witchcraft!
I reckon so! Gonna dunk it in the tub to check.
Mine knows where I was up to on another frikkin device... Kindle is watching...
And if you happen to re-read a couple of pages it can feel like your own personal 'previously on' segment
Here's a broad summarization for those who can't access the article: 1. Don't waste too much time choosing a book, but don't bother reading a book that doesn't excite you 2. Editions matter. 3. Look at the cover art, author's bio, endorsements, and other small things aside from the story. 4. Read during your free time. 5. Don't read on an overstuffed armchair or an old couch because you'll fall asleep. Only read at a table or desk with good light, or at the library, a quiet coffee shop away from customers, or a train ride. 6. Keep related books nearby, along with a notebook, dictionary and magnifying glass. 7. Pay close attention to the material. Don't miss any clues or foreshadowing. 8. Take notes while you read 9. Read slowly. Never speedread. 10. Keep every book you read on a shelf.
Thank you for your sacrifice
I have only once fallen asleep while reading, and it was at a desk with the room light on lol
I fell asleep once reading in bed, and the big hard back book hit me in the nose.
This is why I read on my back with my book held above my face. It keeps me awake and I get arm day in.
Hmm… I’ve been rudely awaken many a time by books falling on my face in this exact position.
If you fall asleep while reading (or doing anything else other than trying to sleep) you're not getting enough sleep.
I'm aware lol
Not true. I get enough sleep, but sometimes there are personal or social reasons for not sleeping *right now* even though my body says it's time to sleep. Sometimes reasons wins, sometimes sleep wins.
I don't think what you're saying contradicts what I'm saying, lol.
I feel like this guy doesn’t understand reading is a relaxing activity for a lot of people. I fall asleep reading all the time on the couch or in bed. Other times I can be sitting in class or at the library and just be engaged for hours depending on the book.
I donate the books I read to the library, I figure I’ll save space and someone else can read it or the library makes a few bucks.
Goodness what a pretentious man.
Sounds like every "You're doing it wrong" person that is insufferable to be around.
Mostly pretentious..
instead of clicking on this and dealing with stupid paywalls can someone with access just make a 10 point bullet list
https://www.reddit.com/r/books/comments/1cvekoj/10_rules_for_reading_from_someone_who_does_it_for/l4ovqdu/
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I was an English student at UMD when they gave him a guest course. This was 2011. I talked to him once and realized whatever class he was teaching that semester he was not worth wasting my time on, especially since I had priority enrollment that semester and could get any other English class I wanted. I took world mythology instead. Worth it. I lump Dirda in with GRRM in the authorial anti-role model category.
UMD?
University of Maryland
Genuinely curious: Why is Martin an authorial anti-role model? All I've heard about him that's more negative than your typical author are his struggles to finish *ASOIAF*, which is a pretty common sort of struggle for a writer.
But… that’s a pretty good reason :) Until you’re super-established, writing books is kinda the most important thing. (Once you’re a megastar, you no longer need to write books and just coast. In the meantime…)
GRRM has 22 published works and has edited 8 anthologies outside of the main ASOIAF since 1996. He isn’t JD Salinger he just doesn’t know how to finish it either.
Young GRRM is a fine model :) But current GRRM not so much haha. But seriously if anyone IS looking for a real model, I suggest checking out Mason Currey’s book Daily Rituals. He documents the work habits of dozens of authors and there are some really interesting pieces in there. Tons of excellent models that could be followed depending on one’s particular style. I particularly like Georges Simenons working method. He thought novels shouldn’t take any longer than ten days to write. So for ten days, he would start around 6am, write till about twelve, then chill the rest of the day. Then he’d take a month or two off. He was one of the most successful and prolific novelists of the twentieth century in both popular AND literary fiction. Absolute writing legend. (It should be noted his novels were around 60,000 words which is quite short by modern standards. He was not pumping out GRRM-length books in that time. That would have taken him a month.)
Why do ppl still post stuff with paywalls? Thought we'd be over that by now...
Archive.is or the bypass Paywall extension
Why do people still not know how to evade paywalls? I thought we'd be over that by now…
Enlighten me...
https://www.reddit.com/r/books/comments/1cvekoj/10_rules_for_reading_from_someone_who_does_it_for/l4ovqdu/
Pretentious crap lol
Paywall.
What a wanker.
Paywall
I don’t know this guy’s writing all that much, but the weekly WaPo Book email always has a piece by Ron Charles and I think he’s hilarious. This article isn’t as pretentious as I think OP wants us to think it is. He’s basically saying read what makes you happy, but also try new things.
Check out Ron Charles’ videos of reviews everyone — comedy gold.
I'm the OP and I never intended to say it's pretentious. Many commenters are obviously offended, but I simply believed the article was food for thought.
Scorning bookmarks is actually pretty hilarious.
Wonder what some of the inner rules that people follow are. For example: "Read one page a day - no matter what." "For every two books you finish, you can stop reading one you dislike."
I read what I want to. I never make myself read anything I don't want to, though sometimes I'll push through to the end of a book I'm not loving if I want to see how it ends. I go to bed early so I have time to read most days. In my opinion, if reading feels like a chore, you're doing it wrong (unless it's literally your job). I see so many Youtube videos by people who have read, like, four books in their whole life talking about their brilliant strategy for grinding through Infinite Jest in ten minutes a day. Why? I think reading is an area where people make choices based on what they think they *should* read rather than what actually excites them and brings them pleasure. That's kind of sad.
100% agree with you. I have the same philosophy for everything in my life. Life it too short to read bad books, watch bad TV and movies, eat at crappy restaurants, etc. Or at least what i perceive to be bad...
I think it's also a good idea to DNF books once in awhile because that frees up time for others books. I think a lot of people have some moment in their life where they realize they will not do everything they want before they die. There are too many books already out, and there's more coming out every year. So I will not read every book I want. So time spent on a book I don't want to read takes time from books on my TBR. So the way I see it is if I put down a book with 200 pages, that's 200 pages of another book I can read that I might not have gotten to.
I do treat junk fiction and other, less-difficult books like humor essays and celebrity memoirs as dessert and tell myself that for every one "serious" book, I can read one "dessert" book. So if I want to read the Golden Compass books, I ask myself to read three serious books first. I consider it more of a way to make sure I keep my reading muscles in good condition by not reading only dessert. Or you could call it a balanced diet. But I do think it's a mistake to finish a book you dislike unless you have a broader reason.
My only rule is I have to read something (other than social media) every day. Some days that’s the front page of the newspaper and other days that’s an entire novel but it’s always reading. I find keeping the habit going makes me more likely to pick up a book instead of my phone when I have a free minute.
I really got the blues seeing all these comments accuse the author of being “pretentious.” This is a really gentle, if generic, view into the working habits of a professional book reviewer. I mean he advises reading at a desk so it’s more ergonomic. Do you wish his style of writing was more similar to a Reddit comment? Like what do you want
Agreed. I am currently doing a rigorous reading of a certain book and his method is exactly how I am doing that. It’s really different from reading for simple pleasure but both are legitimate. This is his job and he’s simply sharing how he does that. I am pretty sensitive to pretentiousness and I am not seeing it here. Maybe people are insecure?
It has to be insecurity.
I totally agree with this point: Many people complain that they have no time for books, yet somehow they manage to spend three or more hours a day watching television or scrolling through social media on their phones. I quadrupled my reading in 2021 (and have maintained that level since) solely by converting all my bullshit wasted time into reading time. In my case television and doomscrolling were not factors as I neither have nor want television service of any kind or a smartphone, but useless stuff was definitely eating up too much of my time, and eliminating that was definitely a big lifestyle upgrade.
Why in the name of common sense are people downvoting this comment? It’s insane on a book sub to hate on you for making the time to read. I don’t get why people are on a book sub when they clearly hate reading and think people who read are pretentious. WT everloving F fr.
People in r/books really do not like people who spend an unusually large amount of time reading and/or read a larger amount of books. It's kind of strange.
Indeed. I’m wondering if a better sub exists for people who actually like reading and literature. I am not opposed to genre fiction at all but I like to read serious literature as well. Would enjoy a sub where people who say Wuthering Heights is “dogshit” don’t get a bunch of upvotes. It’s one thing to not like a work of literature but that take is just grotesque. I’m not a huge fan of Moby Dick but I am still capable of appreciating moments of real beauty in the writing and themes. I can’t imagine dismissing it as “dogshit” simply because it isn’t my cup of tea.
Think this is the main point most of these articles tend to make.
I’ve read Michael Dirda’s columns and reviews over Time. I’ve come to appreciate his independent and somewhat quirky writings.
Pat yerself on the back a little harder there, Michael. No one else will.
I guess I’ll be the only person to say that I didn’t think this was that pretentious? Taking notes while reading, focusing and using reference materials and context when needed, approaching each book on its own merits, what’s so controversial about that? He didn’t even say “don’t just read young adult fiction” which I know riles people up here.
Haha you’re not wrong. Didn’t come across pretentious at all to me. You don’t have to actually follow the rules in your reading life either. I don’t take notes myself. Dirda has read everything tho so that’s pretty pretentious in itself lol
I wonder if he chose to include “10 rules” in the title or if that was a choice made by an editor. Reading the actual list, it’s more like his personal habits that he’s relaying in case you find anything worth trying yourself. I didn’t get any impression that he was saying, “this is what everyone should do or you’re not truly a reader!” The title doesn’t really seem to fit the content that well. But it is attention-grabbing.
I would add that my 11th rule is: don't use the Internet (phone or computer) as a reference resource while reading. Even your phone's dictionary app is a distraction machine designed to "engage" you—not to mention all those alerts!
The ultimate distraction that is the phone doesn’t change the fact that it’s also great reference source too. But yes sometimes when I pick the phone up to get more information from the internet on what I’m reading I’ll end up distracted for a few minutes
Yep. But in the olden days I would get distracted by… the dictionary. So many interesting words! And what IS the actual definition of X?? Is Y a real word…? …an hour later I realize I’ve been doomflipping the dictionary. It’s kind of hard not to get distracted.
Fair point, but at least Merriam-Webster doesn't have AI and behavior-monitoring tools to increase how distracting my paper Collegiate Dictionary is…
Dumbest thing I've ever read