How to Read More

I recently read a New York Times article called "I'm What's Wrong With the Humanities", in which the author highlighted his struggle to reconcile both his idea of himself as a cultured intellectual and a humanist with the fact that the vast majority of his engagement with the arts came via watching movies and TV or skimming articles on the internet, not reading actual books. This brings up a really important point that I think is critical for all writers or people who want to call themselves writers or humanists, including myself, need to face. There is little doubt in my mind that in recent years the amount of time it has taken me to finish books has gone up exponentially, as I now find it harder and harder to get myself to sit down, shut off my phone, and focus. Of course, the internet is not totally to blame for this, so is the huge increase in my workload over time, but certainly the murder of my attention span by consuming online content has been very destructive in this regard. However, as I will summarize what Stephen King said in his craft book "On Writing" (which I recently read and would HIGHLY recommend), you can't call yourself a serious writer if you aren't reading as much as you possibly can. Reading is not an optional part of the getting-better-at-writing process, it is probably the most important part of it. If you as a writer are not constantly feeding your creative mind with good written creative works, how can you expect your pieces to be any good? This can sometimes be easier said than done. I wish I read more, but often simply find myself swamped with work and too exhausted to further work my mind by digging into a complex novel. So maybe some leeway can be given, but as Stephen King also wrote, "not having enough time" is mostly just an excuse, and there will always be workarounds. This summer especially, I have been very busy during the day with college application writing, but will typically spend around 30+ minutes reading in bed right before going to sleep, a strategy that has been working exceptionally well for me. There will always be pockets of time to read and consume other peoples' creative work, the task of a growing writer is just finding when that time is for them.