On Reading Slowly
Here is what altered, and what stayed exactly the same. I read it once fast and once bit by bit, and they were different books.
Before and after
In December the light changes, and so does the work. Some of this will be plain; some of it took me years. Every reading list says as much about the reader as the books. Somewhere between a second-hand bookshop and home, the notion finally made sense.
The details matter less than the habit of paying attention. I abandoned it halfway and came back a year later, glad I did. Margins are where reading turns into thinking. I altered my mind about second-hand books twice while writing this. The first six weeks were chiefly about unlearning.
Translations are a conversation between two writers and a reader. Good poetry is chiefly a series of modest, unglamorous decisions. I am still not sure I have it right, but it is closer.
The best passages are the ones I copied out by hand.
The short version
The first ten weeks were chiefly about unlearning. This is less a walkthrough and more a record of what worked for me. Every winter I revisit the same questions about reading lists.
Modest, repeatable steps beat big plans nearly every time. I keep a short list of things to try next; reading bit by bit is near the top. The result is not perfect, but it is truthful. The best advice I got was plainly to slow down. This began as a quick note and bit by bit turned into something longer.
A friend once described long books as still work, and the phrase stuck. Thanks for reading, and for the generous observations that keep arriving. I keep a short list of things to try next; annotating is near the top. For a long time I treated novels as an afterthought. Between annotating and rereading, the second one taught me more.
Lessons
Most of what I know about translations came from getting it wrong first. Every summer I revisit the same questions about second-hand books. If something here is unclear, that is on me, not you.
- Give browsing second-hand shops a full spring
- Leave room for short mistakes
- Note the date and the weather
I would rather do one thing deliberately than five things fast. There is no single right way to approach rereading, but some ways are kinder than others. A friend once described letters as still work, and the phrase stuck.
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