As an optometrist for the past 35+ years, there are also visual processing challenges that slow our reading as we age that can be quite frustrating. Some easy tips: good lighting, dedicated reading glasses ( not a progressive or bifocal), and a reading distance of 14-18” with your reading material always down and centered well. And, remember the 20/20/20 rule. Every 20 minutes look 20 feet away and forcefully blink 20 times. This helps with your tear layer which is the 1st refracting lens of the eye.
This post inspires me! Thanks for pointing me to 100 Days of Dante. I have read The Divine Comedy every few years for decades. I get so much from it every time. Different translations make it fresh. We have a four-couple book club we have been part of for years. Each couple hosts once a year, chooses the book, and leads the discussion. The eight of us have become very close. It means I read books I would never have chosen, but (nearly) always profit from!
1. In the past few years, I've kept reading lists, not because I need to read 100 books in a year - I don't number the list - but because I enjoy looking back at the titles and remembering the books.
2. I carry my ereader to appointments, to read in the waiting room. I wouldn't be able to read nearly so many new-to-me books if I did not have access to public domain books and library books to download and read on that ereader.
3. My reading community is on here, and with my mother. My mother never took much time out of housework to read for herself, so I started to read to her in my teens, and while my travels would interrupt it, I always came back to start reading again. Now her eyesight has deteriorated to the point where she can barely read - and it is irreversible (macular degeneration). She cannot see faces well enough to watch films as we used to, so her only way to enjoy stories is through audible reading. We are doing something new this year - I am reading her a book I haven't pre-read: My father got her the latest Jan Karon book for Christmas, because she loves those books (they are among the few books she has read for herself), and I am reading it to her.
4. My writing is making me read more - so far this year I have read four books just for my writing. But I would be reading in any case: the only years I barely read were because I was so worn and stressed, first from school, then from working as a nurse through a pandemic, that I couldn't concentrate on reading. These days, if I try a streaming service, I get bored of the available films and miniseries after a couple of weeks (and I cannot concentrate on multiseries TV shows - the only exception to that was Doctor Who during the pandemic when I couldn't read much), but books are inexhaustible - if I get tired of one book, I can just switch to another.
I am always wanting to read more, as I know it's good for me. But it's hard to make the time for it when I have so many other things I'm also wanting to do. I have more time for audiobooks, and those are good, but I find it better to limit how much listening I do as too much isn't great for my brain.
We have a fiction reading group at church. It started when some of the nerdy youth in our church found out our pastor had never read Narnia or The Lord of the Rings. So we get together a couple of times a month to discuss these books. We did the Narnia books and The Hobbit and are now slogging through LOTR. I wish we'd branch out from fantasy––I've suggested Mansfield Park, Middlemarch, and Far From the Madding Crowd. But not sure that will happen. But it's been good to revisit some of these books again, not having read them since as a kid when my dad read them aloud to us. I liked Narnia better than LOTR back then and still do. Plus I just have a vendetta against Lewis and Tolkien since they get all of the Christian writer air time haha. But the chance to read in community is great, and these books, though not my favorite, and sometimes a bit over-rated in my opinion, are certainly well liked for good reason.
Totally agree with your last assessment… I do think we can’t compare our reading to the reading of those a century or two earlier who didn’t have so much competing for their leisure time. It is a different world, but we should do what we can do to continue to be readers. I love what you’re doing with your book group. We need more of that!
Silence! 😊 This piece really motivates me. I am making some progress to be more of a deep reader (less of a numbers person). Reading this has given me more ideas on how to take it another step. The rewards are so worth the efforts. Thanks for the nudge!
I recently took a job that allowed me to slow down in life. That allowed more time for reading texts that aren't related to my day job. But I found myself not actually reading. Instead, I was listening to books or podcasts while also "reading" the new on my phone or playing silly games. I deleted all "distraction apps" from my phone after a very serious talk with my 8 year old (when I told him he couldn't play brain rot games all day, he pointed out that I sometimes do it). I've read 12 books in the month and a half since that talk with my son because the book has replaced the phone as my "always carry" item, even around the home. But I'm going to challenge myself to also pick up more challenging books. Many of the books I've read of late have been part of "community" reading because they're tied to book clubs, but they aren't always the most challenging reads.
Man. The way kids humble you … I am so far from deleting all those apps. But I’m trying to pay far less attention to them … especially the one that really sucked me in for a while ….
I recently identified all the places in my home where I was most likely to turn to scrolling and I placed a book there. Also, I developed the habit of sending long-form articles to my Kindle for reading instead of scrolling when a device was my only choice. Everything I read now is filtered through the lens of goodness, truth, and beauty. It's been transformative.
This is a big focus for me this year! I may be teetering on the edge of overcommitment to online reading spaces (currently this one, The Literary Life podcast, Moby Dick, Piers Plowman, and another just for Lent). But it's all so goooooood. I'm off all social media except Substack + almost zero TV so my numbers are really climbing.
Goodness. Now I feel chastened and motivated by you! It’s so hard because I feel like I “must” be up to date all the time and rely on social media for that. But I am drastically reducing my engagement. Slowly.
I felt like that too. I will definitely miss some good things with the bad, and in a month or so I'll figure out what my longer term plan is for boundaries/time online. And I do have a couple of good news digest emails because while I want to miss the right-now-ness I do want to stay largely informed. But it's been awfully calming.
May I start a thread in these comments? (I'm kinda gonna regardless.) Two questions: 1) What's the last book you've read deeply? and 2) What is your goal book for deeply reading this year?
My answers: 1) Jane Austen, Mansfield Park. I enjoyed this much more than I thought I would. 1a) I am currently reading my way through the complete plays of Aristophanes. Quite naughty. Reading a play takes a different kind of attention from reading a novel; I suggest setting dedicated time to reading a play within a day or two.
2) Dostoyevsky, The Idiot, the last of his biggest novels I haven't read yet.
My Tuesday morning breakfast comrade reminded me today that I agreed to read Dickens, Bleak House, this summer with him. I had thought about reading Bleak House to participate in an upcoming online course, only to find out that the course is not online (and I can't get to Stanford University for the in-class version). Anyway, Bleak House is coming up too. The copy I'm using is over 1000 pages.
I always get excited when someone talks about reading Dickens. I loved Bleak House as a young adult, and reread it about once a year, including once our loud to my mother - it was a great summer read, on days when I could read chapter after chapter for most of the day. I haven't read it in years, but I don't need to - I read it so many times that I remember all the characters and incidents.
Jack, I guess you know by now I'm reading "The House of the Seven Gables." I've been challenged to read "War and Peace" this year, so I'll get started, but I likely won't finish until next year. I'm actually looking forward to it after my deep read of "Resurrection" last year.
Christian teenage idiot nerd me had a "read Russian novels" time. So real truth, I once prayed that God would delay the rapture until I finished War and Peace.
He has so far, and I didn't. I'm definitely no longer asking.
1) I read all my books deeply enough to recall most of what I read, but with rereads, I can give concentrated attention to each chapter and stop when my mind is saturated with an idea. H.G. Wells 'The War of the Worlds' was my last book to slowly reread. I hadn't read it since I was a teen, and it hit different. This time, I was paying more attention to the human behaviour than to the sci-fi elements.
2) I have a stack of books waiting to be read for the first time, but I don't really make plans for rereads, as I have to want to reread it. I'll think of the book in the back of my mind for a few weeks, until I finally pick it up. I haven't had a book on my mind recently.
So the challenging book I most recently read deeply is for a project I hope to write about and am not ready to share about yet. So I have an answer but can’t offer it yet.
Another one I just read that sort of fits this question was Hamnet, which I did not like as much as I hoped I would but I’m glad I read it. I will now, at some point, watch the film.
I seldom plan my reading because so much of what I read depends on writing projects and what I read for fun is serendipitous as mood and time dictate.
I have not read Bleak House since grad school. I really need to read that again. It’s so good.
Glad you enjoyed MP! That for a re-read by me as well!
I don't think I can read Hamnet. I am very picky about Shakespearean stuff.
I have been pondering the various ways people love Austen. P&P seems unquestionably most popular and loved. Is it Austen's best? People into literary features seem to prefer Emma. Persuasion has a small but committed group of partisans. This might be a case of most recent, most liked, but I find MP moral and nuanced in very interesting ways. S&S has a steady popularity.
I remember reading an essay by G.K. Chesterton where he said Lady Susan should have been consigned to the dust heap of history. I don't agree. It is not Austen's best work, but it shows her gathering her powers - the epistolary style is reminiscent of Samuel Richardson, and the gossipy, scandalous sort of carryings-on could be Fielding, with a little Goldsmith thrown in for good measure, but she contributes her own sharp wit to everything. I like to reread it now and again.
If I was going to rate Austen's work, Persuasion would have a narrow lead, then NA, P&P, S&S, Emma, Lady Susan, and MP, in that order - but I often feel ratings of an excellent author are not useful. I reread a good author for what their books contribute to the season of my life, not according to my favourite ranking.
Thanks for the visualization that reading is prayer. I realized while reading your essay, Karen, that my prayer life and reading life are highly connected. When I am distracted from either, I notice it in both. Grateful for this morning reminder!
An aside: Part 3 might be my personal favorite of the four parts of GT, and I always regretted that the Norton Anthology only excerpted part 3. It's so goofy.
I love this community of readers you’ve created on here. I would have never read the books I have, or the poems (which have been impactful to me on a personal level) without this community.
I am still reading The House of the Seven Gables. It’s a slog really. I am learning a lot of words I’ve never heard before though.
In childhood, one of my siblings had a graphic novel edition of The House of the Seven Gables, and I was both fascinated and creeped out by it. In my teens, I read the original story and thought it was like watching paint dry - I knew what was going to happen from the graphic novel, but Hawthorne spent a very long time getting there. There are a lot of graphic novel, or abridged and illustrated classics I remember from childhood that I don't see available anymore.
Oh my gosh Jack, this is so helpful. I’ve been confused! I’ve recently revisited reading the book and all day today I’ve been putting my analytical thinking cap on. I was all the way down the rabbit hole thinking that the actual “romance” was some kind of symbolism for the darkness in the novel. Now I know it’s just semantics. 😂😂😂😂
For example, Hawthorne's A BLITHEDALE ROMANCE is pretty much a satire of a utopian cult. That might be the lightest Hawthorne reading I''ve ever read. I enjoyed it.
This year I felt a yearning for more reading in my life. I used to constantly be immersed in novels, mostly the classics. Then for a number of years I read mostly from the Christian genre. Upon returning to school in the 2000s for my masters, I set aside almost all reading except nursing textbooks. What a freeing experience when, upon graduation, I had the luxury of free time! However, work was so fatiguing that sleep won out most of the time. The last 2 years, I have participated in book clubs which stretched my horizons and grew in me a fresh delight in reading.
I'm enjoying Gulliver with you and the readings at Close Reads this year.
SILENCE
As an optometrist for the past 35+ years, there are also visual processing challenges that slow our reading as we age that can be quite frustrating. Some easy tips: good lighting, dedicated reading glasses ( not a progressive or bifocal), and a reading distance of 14-18” with your reading material always down and centered well. And, remember the 20/20/20 rule. Every 20 minutes look 20 feet away and forcefully blink 20 times. This helps with your tear layer which is the 1st refracting lens of the eye.
Thank you, Denise! I have always had bad eyesight and it is always getting frustratingly worse. But somehow I keep reading! Your tips are excellent.
Thanks for the tips, Denise!
Yes I never heard of the 20/20/20 rule.
Good tips.
This post inspires me! Thanks for pointing me to 100 Days of Dante. I have read The Divine Comedy every few years for decades. I get so much from it every time. Different translations make it fresh. We have a four-couple book club we have been part of for years. Each couple hosts once a year, chooses the book, and leads the discussion. The eight of us have become very close. It means I read books I would never have chosen, but (nearly) always profit from!
I love this! And I love the slow pace of it.
1. In the past few years, I've kept reading lists, not because I need to read 100 books in a year - I don't number the list - but because I enjoy looking back at the titles and remembering the books.
2. I carry my ereader to appointments, to read in the waiting room. I wouldn't be able to read nearly so many new-to-me books if I did not have access to public domain books and library books to download and read on that ereader.
3. My reading community is on here, and with my mother. My mother never took much time out of housework to read for herself, so I started to read to her in my teens, and while my travels would interrupt it, I always came back to start reading again. Now her eyesight has deteriorated to the point where she can barely read - and it is irreversible (macular degeneration). She cannot see faces well enough to watch films as we used to, so her only way to enjoy stories is through audible reading. We are doing something new this year - I am reading her a book I haven't pre-read: My father got her the latest Jan Karon book for Christmas, because she loves those books (they are among the few books she has read for herself), and I am reading it to her.
4. My writing is making me read more - so far this year I have read four books just for my writing. But I would be reading in any case: the only years I barely read were because I was so worn and stressed, first from school, then from working as a nurse through a pandemic, that I couldn't concentrate on reading. These days, if I try a streaming service, I get bored of the available films and miniseries after a couple of weeks (and I cannot concentrate on multiseries TV shows - the only exception to that was Doctor Who during the pandemic when I couldn't read much), but books are inexhaustible - if I get tired of one book, I can just switch to another.
I love all the ways you engage with reading in your life, even turning challenges into opportunities! Very inspiring.
I am always wanting to read more, as I know it's good for me. But it's hard to make the time for it when I have so many other things I'm also wanting to do. I have more time for audiobooks, and those are good, but I find it better to limit how much listening I do as too much isn't great for my brain.
We have a fiction reading group at church. It started when some of the nerdy youth in our church found out our pastor had never read Narnia or The Lord of the Rings. So we get together a couple of times a month to discuss these books. We did the Narnia books and The Hobbit and are now slogging through LOTR. I wish we'd branch out from fantasy––I've suggested Mansfield Park, Middlemarch, and Far From the Madding Crowd. But not sure that will happen. But it's been good to revisit some of these books again, not having read them since as a kid when my dad read them aloud to us. I liked Narnia better than LOTR back then and still do. Plus I just have a vendetta against Lewis and Tolkien since they get all of the Christian writer air time haha. But the chance to read in community is great, and these books, though not my favorite, and sometimes a bit over-rated in my opinion, are certainly well liked for good reason.
Totally agree with your last assessment… I do think we can’t compare our reading to the reading of those a century or two earlier who didn’t have so much competing for their leisure time. It is a different world, but we should do what we can do to continue to be readers. I love what you’re doing with your book group. We need more of that!
Silence! 😊 This piece really motivates me. I am making some progress to be more of a deep reader (less of a numbers person). Reading this has given me more ideas on how to take it another step. The rewards are so worth the efforts. Thanks for the nudge!
I’m so glad!
I recently took a job that allowed me to slow down in life. That allowed more time for reading texts that aren't related to my day job. But I found myself not actually reading. Instead, I was listening to books or podcasts while also "reading" the new on my phone or playing silly games. I deleted all "distraction apps" from my phone after a very serious talk with my 8 year old (when I told him he couldn't play brain rot games all day, he pointed out that I sometimes do it). I've read 12 books in the month and a half since that talk with my son because the book has replaced the phone as my "always carry" item, even around the home. But I'm going to challenge myself to also pick up more challenging books. Many of the books I've read of late have been part of "community" reading because they're tied to book clubs, but they aren't always the most challenging reads.
Man. The way kids humble you … I am so far from deleting all those apps. But I’m trying to pay far less attention to them … especially the one that really sucked me in for a while ….
SILENCE
I recently identified all the places in my home where I was most likely to turn to scrolling and I placed a book there. Also, I developed the habit of sending long-form articles to my Kindle for reading instead of scrolling when a device was my only choice. Everything I read now is filtered through the lens of goodness, truth, and beauty. It's been transformative.
Oh wow. Those seem like excellent strategies. Thank you for sharing them.
This is a big focus for me this year! I may be teetering on the edge of overcommitment to online reading spaces (currently this one, The Literary Life podcast, Moby Dick, Piers Plowman, and another just for Lent). But it's all so goooooood. I'm off all social media except Substack + almost zero TV so my numbers are really climbing.
Goodness. Now I feel chastened and motivated by you! It’s so hard because I feel like I “must” be up to date all the time and rely on social media for that. But I am drastically reducing my engagement. Slowly.
I felt like that too. I will definitely miss some good things with the bad, and in a month or so I'll figure out what my longer term plan is for boundaries/time online. And I do have a couple of good news digest emails because while I want to miss the right-now-ness I do want to stay largely informed. But it's been awfully calming.
Gld to hear this. Keep us posted here on tips, progress, and insights!
May I start a thread in these comments? (I'm kinda gonna regardless.) Two questions: 1) What's the last book you've read deeply? and 2) What is your goal book for deeply reading this year?
My answers: 1) Jane Austen, Mansfield Park. I enjoyed this much more than I thought I would. 1a) I am currently reading my way through the complete plays of Aristophanes. Quite naughty. Reading a play takes a different kind of attention from reading a novel; I suggest setting dedicated time to reading a play within a day or two.
2) Dostoyevsky, The Idiot, the last of his biggest novels I haven't read yet.
My Tuesday morning breakfast comrade reminded me today that I agreed to read Dickens, Bleak House, this summer with him. I had thought about reading Bleak House to participate in an upcoming online course, only to find out that the course is not online (and I can't get to Stanford University for the in-class version). Anyway, Bleak House is coming up too. The copy I'm using is over 1000 pages.
I always get excited when someone talks about reading Dickens. I loved Bleak House as a young adult, and reread it about once a year, including once our loud to my mother - it was a great summer read, on days when I could read chapter after chapter for most of the day. I haven't read it in years, but I don't need to - I read it so many times that I remember all the characters and incidents.
Jack, I guess you know by now I'm reading "The House of the Seven Gables." I've been challenged to read "War and Peace" this year, so I'll get started, but I likely won't finish until next year. I'm actually looking forward to it after my deep read of "Resurrection" last year.
Christian teenage idiot nerd me had a "read Russian novels" time. So real truth, I once prayed that God would delay the rapture until I finished War and Peace.
He has so far, and I didn't. I'm definitely no longer asking.
1) I read all my books deeply enough to recall most of what I read, but with rereads, I can give concentrated attention to each chapter and stop when my mind is saturated with an idea. H.G. Wells 'The War of the Worlds' was my last book to slowly reread. I hadn't read it since I was a teen, and it hit different. This time, I was paying more attention to the human behaviour than to the sci-fi elements.
2) I have a stack of books waiting to be read for the first time, but I don't really make plans for rereads, as I have to want to reread it. I'll think of the book in the back of my mind for a few weeks, until I finally pick it up. I haven't had a book on my mind recently.
Will come back to this. Great questions, Jack!
So the challenging book I most recently read deeply is for a project I hope to write about and am not ready to share about yet. So I have an answer but can’t offer it yet.
Another one I just read that sort of fits this question was Hamnet, which I did not like as much as I hoped I would but I’m glad I read it. I will now, at some point, watch the film.
I seldom plan my reading because so much of what I read depends on writing projects and what I read for fun is serendipitous as mood and time dictate.
I have not read Bleak House since grad school. I really need to read that again. It’s so good.
Glad you enjoyed MP! That for a re-read by me as well!
I don't think I can read Hamnet. I am very picky about Shakespearean stuff.
I have been pondering the various ways people love Austen. P&P seems unquestionably most popular and loved. Is it Austen's best? People into literary features seem to prefer Emma. Persuasion has a small but committed group of partisans. This might be a case of most recent, most liked, but I find MP moral and nuanced in very interesting ways. S&S has a steady popularity.
Any devotees to Lady Susan?
You would not like Hamnet, LOL.
I love all of Austen for different reasons. She’s almost a different writer as she grows in writing each novel.
I remember reading an essay by G.K. Chesterton where he said Lady Susan should have been consigned to the dust heap of history. I don't agree. It is not Austen's best work, but it shows her gathering her powers - the epistolary style is reminiscent of Samuel Richardson, and the gossipy, scandalous sort of carryings-on could be Fielding, with a little Goldsmith thrown in for good measure, but she contributes her own sharp wit to everything. I like to reread it now and again.
If I was going to rate Austen's work, Persuasion would have a narrow lead, then NA, P&P, S&S, Emma, Lady Susan, and MP, in that order - but I often feel ratings of an excellent author are not useful. I reread a good author for what their books contribute to the season of my life, not according to my favourite ranking.
I love the idea of "Always Carry." :)
😀
SILENCE
Thanks for the visualization that reading is prayer. I realized while reading your essay, Karen, that my prayer life and reading life are highly connected. When I am distracted from either, I notice it in both. Grateful for this morning reminder!
I love that you made this connection. Thank you, Mariana.
Signed up for June course and excited ❤️😊
Oh, wonderful!!!!
An aside: Part 3 might be my personal favorite of the four parts of GT, and I always regretted that the Norton Anthology only excerpted part 3. It's so goofy.
Same! Always hated that it wasn’t included.
SILENCE
SILENCE
I love this community of readers you’ve created on here. I would have never read the books I have, or the poems (which have been impactful to me on a personal level) without this community.
I am still reading The House of the Seven Gables. It’s a slog really. I am learning a lot of words I’ve never heard before though.
You win the copy of Silence! Message me your address. :)
As I told you before, I’ve never read that one. God bless you!
In childhood, one of my siblings had a graphic novel edition of The House of the Seven Gables, and I was both fascinated and creeped out by it. In my teens, I read the original story and thought it was like watching paint dry - I knew what was going to happen from the graphic novel, but Hawthorne spent a very long time getting there. There are a lot of graphic novel, or abridged and illustrated classics I remember from childhood that I don't see available anymore.
It is so slow. I have a very old copy and it says it’s a romance. So far no sparks yet! 😆
The romance is very abrupt in my memory, but it really is more of a horror story - if a horror story can be a very slow burn.
At the time when Hawthorne was writing, "a romance" more often meant "a narrative" generally rather than "a love story."
Oh my gosh Jack, this is so helpful. I’ve been confused! I’ve recently revisited reading the book and all day today I’ve been putting my analytical thinking cap on. I was all the way down the rabbit hole thinking that the actual “romance” was some kind of symbolism for the darkness in the novel. Now I know it’s just semantics. 😂😂😂😂
For example, Hawthorne's A BLITHEDALE ROMANCE is pretty much a satire of a utopian cult. That might be the lightest Hawthorne reading I''ve ever read. I enjoyed it.
P.S. when I say that the poetry you’ve shared on here has been impactful, quite literally I have a line from “Easter Wings” tattooed on my arm. 😆😍
Well. I will gladly own that!
SILENCE
Thanks for the reminders, Denise.
This year I felt a yearning for more reading in my life. I used to constantly be immersed in novels, mostly the classics. Then for a number of years I read mostly from the Christian genre. Upon returning to school in the 2000s for my masters, I set aside almost all reading except nursing textbooks. What a freeing experience when, upon graduation, I had the luxury of free time! However, work was so fatiguing that sleep won out most of the time. The last 2 years, I have participated in book clubs which stretched my horizons and grew in me a fresh delight in reading.
I'm enjoying Gulliver with you and the readings at Close Reads this year.
I am here to say that SLEEP IS THE MOST IMPORTANT. 🤍