Reading Ratio, Reconsidered
Dear Reader,
This is essentially part three, exploring how we structure our reads. The first two postings can be found here and here.
A few readers HAD SOME QUESTIONS. Namely, as much as those aforementioned posts tried to avoid prescriptivism about what to read, they were still somewhat prescriptive about how to read. I write “somewhat” because I didn’t prescribe a set reading ratio for any individual person. I very much noted that someone’s reading ratio is their own, and no one else’s.
But there was a hazy implication in there. That is, each individual reader has a reading ratio. A single, set reading ratio. One for a lifetime.
I don’t think this is the case, in fact. In our youth, we have all sorts of school reads interwoven with our preferred reads. And later in life, we frequently have work reads dominating our attention. Yet even those two environments aren’t the same. Add in the various assortment of things that might make up a life—marriage, children, poor health, career change, broken relationships—and we will find a variety of opportunities to re-evaluate our reading ratios.
Now, I can still take my current reading ratio into just about any setting. I can scale it up, as I am presently, or scale it down when I’m too busy for much leisurely reading. I don’t think, though, that my ratio will last me for life. It might. It might change.
Certainly which things I find stretching and which I find desirable will vary over time. And so they should. That’s at least partly what maturing as a reader implies.
Perhaps someday I’ll write a post about the process of finding one’s reading ratio. For the present, recall that we aren’t seeking to be “frozen by weariness.” If you just-can’t-even with pondering the deep mysteries of your reading ratio, it’s okay. You’ve read this today. It’s something. Go read something else, or don’t. A ratio isn’t a terminus; it’s an outline. Your ratio for this week might be whichever way the wind is blowing. As March is famous for its winds, consider yourself seasonally appropriate.
As I’ll include in Thursday’s subscriber post, some so-called “escape reading” might not even be that. Or at least that’s what I’m telling myself. You can decide for yourself on Thursday. Meantime, you need not be anxious if your “ratio” involves such reads. For everything there is a time.
Happy reading to you all,
Kreigh