There will never be enough time to read all the things. Read what you love, learn from what you love.
It's great to be curious and go outside your comfort zone, but like, don't force yourself to read stuff you're 'supposed to' just because other people love it or its highly acclaimed or whatever. We don't all have the same taste in things, including the people who give out awards, and that's okay.
Thanks for plucking my question from the slush pile, George. I loved reading all the responses. What I’m hearing from everyone is maybe it’s a good time to lighten up, ha! Obviously, this question was asked from an anxious place. I teach and edit and have too many hobbies, so it all fuels my TBR stack — oh, right, I’m also a fiction writer like many of you, so there’s the “books to fuel the project” pile. I simply have too many piles, and it’s hard to choose, and I get overwhelmed. Then there’s Black history month. And poetry month. And Gordon Lish’s Former Students Month. The Tyranny of Should, as it were—even when the “should” is concocted by my own brain—which I’m told I need to banish.
What a great question. Thank you to the Questioner!
I choose books to read from all kinds of sources. If my friend Lisa read a book and loved it, then I have to read that one almost immediately. We've been doing this since kindergarten and everyone should have such a friend! I’ve been known to—many, many times—choose a book by its cover. (I hit up the New Releases shelf at the library and will bring home a book that “looks good.”) I used to read books that friends had blurbed, but then I realized these friends could not be trusted. Blurbs aren’t real—they are favors for friends. I don’t read book reviews, but I will take a sideways glance through the Book Review at the NYTimes and sometimes a book will look like something I might like. I read new books by writers who have written other books I liked. I somehow always know what the “hot” new books are and I mostly avoid those. Some cannot be avoided, though, and I end up reading them. Sometimes I’ll read a book because it’s a huge bestseller and I want to know why. Those books usually suck. I read the classics I used to avoid when i was younger because there's a reason they are classics. Recently, I read Middlemarch and To the Lighthouse, and I’m currently reading War and Peace (with on online book group). HOW BORING IS THIS ARE YOU STILL READING?
I also read a few billion short stories every year. Or it feels like it.
Here’s the thing. I am, at this stage of life, well aware that there are only a finite number of books left for me to read in this lifetime. I sometimes think of a dying person reading their very last book and what if it’s a shitty book? I try not to get too anxious about any of it, but it does provoke anxiety. Thankfully, I’m not really all THAT old, but I’m no spring chicken, either.
And so I read, mostly, for pleasure. If I start a book and I don’t like it, I no longer finish.
I feel for George who does not have time to read whatever he wants. Reading for other reasons can, in fact, be pleasurable, but it’s not the same as cracking open True Grit and just loving it. (Great book.)
A plug for lit mags! I rarely ever read (let alone subscribed to) literary magazines in the past, which feels silly to admit for someone who has submitted stories to well over a hundred of them in the past couple years. I suppose I was always saving that precious reading time for the classics and/or for recommendations I felt were higher priority than whatever stories wound up in the pages of "[X] Quarterly Review." This must be a pervasive attitude since, I never hear wholehearted endorsements of specific publications, even from mfa students/graduates who have worked on them. Recently though I've been making a conscious effort to subscribe to (and read) more literary magazines, starting with some bigger ones (One Story, Paris Review, The Point, Electric Lit). A couple months in, I've come to realize how mistaken I was! Even while maintaining a steady book reading habit, most of my favorite reading experiences of the past two months have come from my recent magazine issues. I only wish there were more people talking about these stories with the same passion and investment as we often do with new HBO shows or Sally Rooney novels. Where are the secondary channels on the latest issue of The Paris Review or One Story?! After all, part of the promise of literary magazines is the community generated around them, right? I'm hoping to find more of that communal reading experience in the next year. Looking to change my habits up a bit!
I’m here mostly as a reader, not a writer, so it’s a perfect question for me. I keep a note on my phone and write down every book I see/hear/read about that I want to read, and look at that if nothing from my “pile” by the bed is grabbing me. I read most of the classics when I was younger, I’m very interested in the ideas of “canon” and what is considered such and why. I’m very interested in translations, and getting to know other cultures through their literature. I sometimes am on a geography swing where I read a whole bunch of books from a certain area, like Saudi Arabia, or China, books about these cultures and places (non fiction) and books by authors from those places in translation. Funnily (for this venue) have an an aversion to short stories, and almost never choose them, though I have been more I soured by this group. After ‘big reads’ (literary, effort full, or long) I sometimes read a few “amuse bouche” books like mysteries or fantasy or YA. I too read almost exclusively before bed (usually for an hour or 90 minutes) except when on vacation, where I might read all day long (I finished the amazing Pachinko by Min Jin Lee and Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr each in a day because I could not put them down). I love love love books and I’m so grateful to writers for the escape they give us. One of the great heartbreaks is when an author you love dies, and you know they will never create another word or world for you. Toni Morrison. Ursula LeGuin. AS Byatt. 💔
As a journalist who covers books and culture (among other things), I have the terrible privilege to submerge myself in books on any given day. Here's what I do, (please don't try this):
1. For work, I oscillate between old books of journalism, whether it be Hemingway's war reporting, Didion's essays, or more recent inside-baseball sorts of books, like "She Said." This helps keep me sharp, and also reinforces my crippling anxiety/self-worth, which in turn forces me to work harder thereby helping me file articles on deadline hoping my editor realizes she's holding my soul in her hands (jk—kinda). These are kept by my desk and flipped through whenever I need a kick in the pants, or looking for an idea on how someone much more skilled than me tackled a sentence, subject, etc.
2. I have my "wakeup and smell the existential dread" audiobook that I listen to as I open up the house, guzzle my first coffee, and generally surface from sleep. These books are your proudly mid books, the ones that you don't necessarily want to clog your shelves, but are easy enough to follow, even as you low-key disassociate while emptying dishwasher. For example, I just finished "The Maid," chef's kiss.
3. Next is my "sit in the sun and watch people walk their dogs" books. Here is where I feel most heroic. These are mostly ambitious books: your prize winners, the debut darlings, the things I need to have at least one cup of coffee in my system before cracking open. For the rest of the day, I chase this sense of misguided grandeur and elation.
4. I have to keep up! I have the brutal challenge to limp through the advance copies that threaten my mailman's sciatica on any given day. Now, with two cups of coffee in my system, hopefully some sort of exercise out of the way, and a third caffeinated beverage by my side, I begin the real work: the close read. I carve out about 2-3 hours, depending how late I am on a deadline, the state of my inbox, etc. to read something that seems especially promising or is relevant to an assignment I'm either pitching or working on. I underline and highlight and make notes in the margins. When the post-its come out, you know it's really singing.
5. I'm a big fan of book podcasts to learn about new authors and new-to-me authors. I like to listen to these on runs, attacking a jigsaw puzzle, and folding laundry. Oh, and BookTok.
The last book I read was also the first book to bring me real joy in a long time, which was A Swim in a Pond in the Rain (and is what led me to this substack!) I completely resonate with this question because each year I try to curate my personal reading list to deepen my understanding of the world. I try to read a biography, a history, a translated work, etc. But reading with that purpose is hard work. The magic happens when I feel my world expanding when I’m reading AND also can’t put the book down because it’s so enjoyable and fun.
I am trying to read alphabetically the fiction section of my local library. It has been about 2 years, about 40 books, and utter joy. I am delighted to report how much amazing fiction is out there. The only down side is that no one wants to join the project and a lot of the books are obscure so I don't find many people to discuss them with. I am still happily wading in the A section, from there I can highly recommend The Arsonist's City by Hala Alayan, Jamie Attenberg's All this Could be Yours, Aktar Ayad's Homeland Elegies.
Since I retired from my job as a university professor in 2020, I read less in my academic subject (philosophy) and more fiction but also history. I try to read in French a fair bit, alternating between classics (Balzac!) and recent novels, and then the same basic pattern in English. I’ve been doing more re-reading since joining Story Club and I’m starting to appreciate how valuable this is: 3 runs though Claire Keegan’s So Late in the Day gave me so much more insight. I read before bed, but try to give myself an hour from 5-6.
My reading time and habits changes every year, and I do my best to be content when they do. I often read before bed, although I'm currently teaching my children the classics and going back to re-read (young reader) versions of the Odyssey and others is fun. It makes me want to read the originals too.
I'm doing the same with poetry, as my children have a goal of memorizing a poem a month in our homeschool. My dream would be to learn enough Persian to read Rumi in his original language, but that dream sits much like your reading year, George.
I find that when a book piques my interest, I immediately buy it. That way I don't have to keep a list, and I have an ever-expanding shelf of "read next" options. Once a year or so I go through them and books I've read, and I donate books that no longer fit with my interests or just don't call to me anymore. The local library or Goodwill or our local neighborhood library enjoy these donations. All in all, as long as I'm reading (and I always seem to be), I'm happy. Whether it's for inspiration, for pleasure, for learning, or all of the above.
I have never been a voracious reader, even though my mom taught my sister and I to read when we were each around three years old. I think school had something to do with it--those standardized reading tests in public school gave me huge anxiety. I always did well on the vocab/multiple choice parts but often failed on the comprehension sections, I was so nervous and would lose concentration easily). Another thing, I think, was growing up in a rural farming community where (apart from my parents) there wasn't a lot of appreciation for people who "wasted their time" reading; those who did were often made to feel guilty. As a young adult--at least partly as a result of the above, I assume--I ended up being a horribly slow and tentative, even reluctant, reader. Regretfully, in my undergrad university literature courses I was smugly (and stupidly) satisfied that I could still pull off As and Bs without actually doing much of the reading. That changed a lot in grad school with the mountains of non-fiction/academic texts we had to cover. I actually really enjoyed putting the effort into reading and discussing those texts and, during that time, I barely looked at a novel or short story or poem. Once I started teaching, however, I met a lot of co-workers who were really into fiction reading; some of them were fiction writers, too. I'm SO grateful to them for leading me back to literature and for getting me involved in creative writing courses as well. Just a few years ago in one of those courses, a classmate introduced me to George's A Swim in a Pond in the Rain--which totally changed my way of reading fiction and my way of thinking about reading fiction (thank you George!). Although I am still a very slow reader, I am closer to becoming the voracious type I wish I could have been from the beginning. One thing I have found that really helps if/when the old feelings of anxiety/guilt--and the subsequent lack of concentration--creep in is to listen to the audiobook version of a text while reading along with the printed version at the same time. Of course it's not always possible if there is no audio version, and sometimes I've found the voices of the readers can be off-putting. Also, sometimes (although very rarely in my experience) the two versions don't always match up perfectly in terms of vocab, sentence structure, etc., and that can be distracting. But despite these glitches, having the audio-visual channels operating at once with the same focus seems to be (for me, anyway) a great way of getting deeply into a text.
My writing work requires reading and research. Then, my paying job requires a significant amount of reading and writing (about very unpleasant things). What time I have left to read is mine, mine, mine and I have managed to maintain the same habits that I formed as a free range library child in that I read widely and whatever appeals.
Somehow I have four library cards; I also buy, order and borrow books.
My current challenge is that if I don’t read regularly the quality of my writing suffers, however if read too much, then I don’t have enough mental energy to write well. If I could quit my job, I’d have plenty of time to do both but those bills won’t pay themselves.
me choosing them. I identify as autistic so my “special interests” often dictate what I read. Some special interests are long standing and others are fleeting but I want to exhaust whatever subject/setting/author is obsessing me at the moment. As I get older I tend to read less contemporary fiction and more classic fiction. I often find myself underwhelmed by many extravagantly praised contemporary novels. Of course, I’ve often been underwhelmed by classic novels too (Dickens and Austen, for example, are just not my thing) but the success rate of recognized classics is much higher and time is fleeting. . Finally, I will read anything that a select few authors publish, e.g., Gary Shteyngart, Zadie Smith, and of course, George.
I'm team "read whatever gives you joy."
There will never be enough time to read all the things. Read what you love, learn from what you love.
It's great to be curious and go outside your comfort zone, but like, don't force yourself to read stuff you're 'supposed to' just because other people love it or its highly acclaimed or whatever. We don't all have the same taste in things, including the people who give out awards, and that's okay.
Thanks for plucking my question from the slush pile, George. I loved reading all the responses. What I’m hearing from everyone is maybe it’s a good time to lighten up, ha! Obviously, this question was asked from an anxious place. I teach and edit and have too many hobbies, so it all fuels my TBR stack — oh, right, I’m also a fiction writer like many of you, so there’s the “books to fuel the project” pile. I simply have too many piles, and it’s hard to choose, and I get overwhelmed. Then there’s Black history month. And poetry month. And Gordon Lish’s Former Students Month. The Tyranny of Should, as it were—even when the “should” is concocted by my own brain—which I’m told I need to banish.
What a great question. Thank you to the Questioner!
I choose books to read from all kinds of sources. If my friend Lisa read a book and loved it, then I have to read that one almost immediately. We've been doing this since kindergarten and everyone should have such a friend! I’ve been known to—many, many times—choose a book by its cover. (I hit up the New Releases shelf at the library and will bring home a book that “looks good.”) I used to read books that friends had blurbed, but then I realized these friends could not be trusted. Blurbs aren’t real—they are favors for friends. I don’t read book reviews, but I will take a sideways glance through the Book Review at the NYTimes and sometimes a book will look like something I might like. I read new books by writers who have written other books I liked. I somehow always know what the “hot” new books are and I mostly avoid those. Some cannot be avoided, though, and I end up reading them. Sometimes I’ll read a book because it’s a huge bestseller and I want to know why. Those books usually suck. I read the classics I used to avoid when i was younger because there's a reason they are classics. Recently, I read Middlemarch and To the Lighthouse, and I’m currently reading War and Peace (with on online book group). HOW BORING IS THIS ARE YOU STILL READING?
I also read a few billion short stories every year. Or it feels like it.
Here’s the thing. I am, at this stage of life, well aware that there are only a finite number of books left for me to read in this lifetime. I sometimes think of a dying person reading their very last book and what if it’s a shitty book? I try not to get too anxious about any of it, but it does provoke anxiety. Thankfully, I’m not really all THAT old, but I’m no spring chicken, either.
And so I read, mostly, for pleasure. If I start a book and I don’t like it, I no longer finish.
I feel for George who does not have time to read whatever he wants. Reading for other reasons can, in fact, be pleasurable, but it’s not the same as cracking open True Grit and just loving it. (Great book.)
A plug for lit mags! I rarely ever read (let alone subscribed to) literary magazines in the past, which feels silly to admit for someone who has submitted stories to well over a hundred of them in the past couple years. I suppose I was always saving that precious reading time for the classics and/or for recommendations I felt were higher priority than whatever stories wound up in the pages of "[X] Quarterly Review." This must be a pervasive attitude since, I never hear wholehearted endorsements of specific publications, even from mfa students/graduates who have worked on them. Recently though I've been making a conscious effort to subscribe to (and read) more literary magazines, starting with some bigger ones (One Story, Paris Review, The Point, Electric Lit). A couple months in, I've come to realize how mistaken I was! Even while maintaining a steady book reading habit, most of my favorite reading experiences of the past two months have come from my recent magazine issues. I only wish there were more people talking about these stories with the same passion and investment as we often do with new HBO shows or Sally Rooney novels. Where are the secondary channels on the latest issue of The Paris Review or One Story?! After all, part of the promise of literary magazines is the community generated around them, right? I'm hoping to find more of that communal reading experience in the next year. Looking to change my habits up a bit!
I’m here mostly as a reader, not a writer, so it’s a perfect question for me. I keep a note on my phone and write down every book I see/hear/read about that I want to read, and look at that if nothing from my “pile” by the bed is grabbing me. I read most of the classics when I was younger, I’m very interested in the ideas of “canon” and what is considered such and why. I’m very interested in translations, and getting to know other cultures through their literature. I sometimes am on a geography swing where I read a whole bunch of books from a certain area, like Saudi Arabia, or China, books about these cultures and places (non fiction) and books by authors from those places in translation. Funnily (for this venue) have an an aversion to short stories, and almost never choose them, though I have been more I soured by this group. After ‘big reads’ (literary, effort full, or long) I sometimes read a few “amuse bouche” books like mysteries or fantasy or YA. I too read almost exclusively before bed (usually for an hour or 90 minutes) except when on vacation, where I might read all day long (I finished the amazing Pachinko by Min Jin Lee and Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr each in a day because I could not put them down). I love love love books and I’m so grateful to writers for the escape they give us. One of the great heartbreaks is when an author you love dies, and you know they will never create another word or world for you. Toni Morrison. Ursula LeGuin. AS Byatt. 💔
I have fallen in love with the writings of Irish women.
Love their prose. Such texture.
I should move. Perhaps in the next (past?) life.
As a journalist who covers books and culture (among other things), I have the terrible privilege to submerge myself in books on any given day. Here's what I do, (please don't try this):
1. For work, I oscillate between old books of journalism, whether it be Hemingway's war reporting, Didion's essays, or more recent inside-baseball sorts of books, like "She Said." This helps keep me sharp, and also reinforces my crippling anxiety/self-worth, which in turn forces me to work harder thereby helping me file articles on deadline hoping my editor realizes she's holding my soul in her hands (jk—kinda). These are kept by my desk and flipped through whenever I need a kick in the pants, or looking for an idea on how someone much more skilled than me tackled a sentence, subject, etc.
2. I have my "wakeup and smell the existential dread" audiobook that I listen to as I open up the house, guzzle my first coffee, and generally surface from sleep. These books are your proudly mid books, the ones that you don't necessarily want to clog your shelves, but are easy enough to follow, even as you low-key disassociate while emptying dishwasher. For example, I just finished "The Maid," chef's kiss.
3. Next is my "sit in the sun and watch people walk their dogs" books. Here is where I feel most heroic. These are mostly ambitious books: your prize winners, the debut darlings, the things I need to have at least one cup of coffee in my system before cracking open. For the rest of the day, I chase this sense of misguided grandeur and elation.
4. I have to keep up! I have the brutal challenge to limp through the advance copies that threaten my mailman's sciatica on any given day. Now, with two cups of coffee in my system, hopefully some sort of exercise out of the way, and a third caffeinated beverage by my side, I begin the real work: the close read. I carve out about 2-3 hours, depending how late I am on a deadline, the state of my inbox, etc. to read something that seems especially promising or is relevant to an assignment I'm either pitching or working on. I underline and highlight and make notes in the margins. When the post-its come out, you know it's really singing.
5. I'm a big fan of book podcasts to learn about new authors and new-to-me authors. I like to listen to these on runs, attacking a jigsaw puzzle, and folding laundry. Oh, and BookTok.
The last book I read was also the first book to bring me real joy in a long time, which was A Swim in a Pond in the Rain (and is what led me to this substack!) I completely resonate with this question because each year I try to curate my personal reading list to deepen my understanding of the world. I try to read a biography, a history, a translated work, etc. But reading with that purpose is hard work. The magic happens when I feel my world expanding when I’m reading AND also can’t put the book down because it’s so enjoyable and fun.
I am trying to read alphabetically the fiction section of my local library. It has been about 2 years, about 40 books, and utter joy. I am delighted to report how much amazing fiction is out there. The only down side is that no one wants to join the project and a lot of the books are obscure so I don't find many people to discuss them with. I am still happily wading in the A section, from there I can highly recommend The Arsonist's City by Hala Alayan, Jamie Attenberg's All this Could be Yours, Aktar Ayad's Homeland Elegies.
Since I retired from my job as a university professor in 2020, I read less in my academic subject (philosophy) and more fiction but also history. I try to read in French a fair bit, alternating between classics (Balzac!) and recent novels, and then the same basic pattern in English. I’ve been doing more re-reading since joining Story Club and I’m starting to appreciate how valuable this is: 3 runs though Claire Keegan’s So Late in the Day gave me so much more insight. I read before bed, but try to give myself an hour from 5-6.
My reading time and habits changes every year, and I do my best to be content when they do. I often read before bed, although I'm currently teaching my children the classics and going back to re-read (young reader) versions of the Odyssey and others is fun. It makes me want to read the originals too.
I'm doing the same with poetry, as my children have a goal of memorizing a poem a month in our homeschool. My dream would be to learn enough Persian to read Rumi in his original language, but that dream sits much like your reading year, George.
I find that when a book piques my interest, I immediately buy it. That way I don't have to keep a list, and I have an ever-expanding shelf of "read next" options. Once a year or so I go through them and books I've read, and I donate books that no longer fit with my interests or just don't call to me anymore. The local library or Goodwill or our local neighborhood library enjoy these donations. All in all, as long as I'm reading (and I always seem to be), I'm happy. Whether it's for inspiration, for pleasure, for learning, or all of the above.
I read the books Barack Obama recommends. The Bee Sting is the best thing I have read in a long time. A big, juicy character-driven novel.
A lovely email to receive!
I have never been a voracious reader, even though my mom taught my sister and I to read when we were each around three years old. I think school had something to do with it--those standardized reading tests in public school gave me huge anxiety. I always did well on the vocab/multiple choice parts but often failed on the comprehension sections, I was so nervous and would lose concentration easily). Another thing, I think, was growing up in a rural farming community where (apart from my parents) there wasn't a lot of appreciation for people who "wasted their time" reading; those who did were often made to feel guilty. As a young adult--at least partly as a result of the above, I assume--I ended up being a horribly slow and tentative, even reluctant, reader. Regretfully, in my undergrad university literature courses I was smugly (and stupidly) satisfied that I could still pull off As and Bs without actually doing much of the reading. That changed a lot in grad school with the mountains of non-fiction/academic texts we had to cover. I actually really enjoyed putting the effort into reading and discussing those texts and, during that time, I barely looked at a novel or short story or poem. Once I started teaching, however, I met a lot of co-workers who were really into fiction reading; some of them were fiction writers, too. I'm SO grateful to them for leading me back to literature and for getting me involved in creative writing courses as well. Just a few years ago in one of those courses, a classmate introduced me to George's A Swim in a Pond in the Rain--which totally changed my way of reading fiction and my way of thinking about reading fiction (thank you George!). Although I am still a very slow reader, I am closer to becoming the voracious type I wish I could have been from the beginning. One thing I have found that really helps if/when the old feelings of anxiety/guilt--and the subsequent lack of concentration--creep in is to listen to the audiobook version of a text while reading along with the printed version at the same time. Of course it's not always possible if there is no audio version, and sometimes I've found the voices of the readers can be off-putting. Also, sometimes (although very rarely in my experience) the two versions don't always match up perfectly in terms of vocab, sentence structure, etc., and that can be distracting. But despite these glitches, having the audio-visual channels operating at once with the same focus seems to be (for me, anyway) a great way of getting deeply into a text.
My writing work requires reading and research. Then, my paying job requires a significant amount of reading and writing (about very unpleasant things). What time I have left to read is mine, mine, mine and I have managed to maintain the same habits that I formed as a free range library child in that I read widely and whatever appeals.
Somehow I have four library cards; I also buy, order and borrow books.
My current challenge is that if I don’t read regularly the quality of my writing suffers, however if read too much, then I don’t have enough mental energy to write well. If I could quit my job, I’d have plenty of time to do both but those bills won’t pay themselves.
I find that books often choose me, rather than
me choosing them. I identify as autistic so my “special interests” often dictate what I read. Some special interests are long standing and others are fleeting but I want to exhaust whatever subject/setting/author is obsessing me at the moment. As I get older I tend to read less contemporary fiction and more classic fiction. I often find myself underwhelmed by many extravagantly praised contemporary novels. Of course, I’ve often been underwhelmed by classic novels too (Dickens and Austen, for example, are just not my thing) but the success rate of recognized classics is much higher and time is fleeting. . Finally, I will read anything that a select few authors publish, e.g., Gary Shteyngart, Zadie Smith, and of course, George.