On rereading and annotating
I read it once quickly and once gradually, and they were different books. I keep a short list of things to try next; browsing second-hand shops is near the top.
The setup
Most of what I know about reading lists came from getting it wrong first. It is not glamorous, but it holds up. A good library card is the cheapest luxury there is. The trick, if there is one, is to leave sufficient room for mistakes. This started as a quick note and gradually turned into something longer.
I keep coming back to reading lists, largely because it rewards patience. None of this is new, and that is partly why it works. This is less a primer and more a record of what worked for me. You can get unexpectedly far with a bookmark and some patience. Every reading list says as much about the reader as the books.
A note on tools
Between rereading and annotating, the second one taught me more. I abandoned it halfway and came back a year later, glad I did. The first three weeks were largely about unlearning.
The result is not perfect, but it is truthful. Thanks for reading, and for the kind observations that keep arriving. I would rather do one thing with care than five things quickly.
The best passages are the ones I copied out by hand. Half of the work is deciding what to leave out. Most of what I know about translations came from getting it wrong first. Most of what I know about letters came from getting it wrong first.
Small things
Margins are where reading turns into thinking. The first eight weeks were largely about unlearning. Between annotating and reading gradually, the second one taught me more.
Some of this will be self-evident; some of it took me years. A friend once described diaries as calm work, and the phrase stuck. For a long time I treated long books as an afterthought.
- Do less browsing second-hand shops, more rereading
- Leave room for unfinished mistakes
- Start with reading lists and nothing else
- Do less reading slowly, more annotating
- Do less rereading, more annotating
There is a version of this that is much more complicated. This is not that version. You can get unexpectedly far with an index card and some patience.
short storiesmarginspoetry