Reading, Reconsidered
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Words from the Wise and Otherwise, Part Ten
January 20, 2021
Dear Reader, I always find it fun to work through these, not least because they serve as a sort of commonplace book and allow me to pilfer the quasi-...
Have You Done the Reading?
January 14, 2021
Dear Reader, A not-so-fun little tick that comes up in public discourse is the accusatory “Have you done the reading?” The rhetorical implication is always...
A Different Reading Reflection
January 7, 2021
I’d planned on a different piece for yesterday, but it just didn’t feel right to send out when there were other things more worthy of attention. And I...
The Pagliacci Question
December 30, 2020
Dear Reader, If you’re a classically-trained baritone, you know to respect and fear Ruggero Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci. (Even if you aren’t into opera, you’ll...
Christmas Eve Reading
December 23, 2020
Do you ever find yourself reading on Christmas Eve? There are excellent poems, the most obvious being “A Visit from St. Nicholas.” There’s your Dickens’...
Postponed Newsletter
December 11, 2020
Dear Reader, It appears my broken finger won’t heal up in quite the normal timeline. (This might have something to do with my re-breaking it.) As typing...
Words from the Wise and Otherwise, Part Nine
December 2, 2020
Dear Reader, I’ll continue my artful dodge of writing about reading poetry, not least because perhaps more how-to books exist for that genre of reading than...
The Grinding Read
November 26, 2020
Dear Reader, As I noted in a postscript to “The Deep Read,” author Cal Newport mentions in his book's conclusion that he took his deep work too far. He found...
The Mid-Read Switch
November 19, 2020
Dear Reader, Just yesterday I was reading a piece that was casually recommended by a friend of a friend. I read it somewhat dispassionately, as I hadn’t a...
Letters to Others
November 12, 2020
Dear Reader, When I was growing up, my grandfather had this odd habit of collecting old postcards and giving them at various holidays. Christmas/New Year’s...
Reminder Reads
November 4, 2020
Dear Reader, Sometimes reads serve as useful reminders. I’ve had plenty of novels where I hit a line and was swiftly reminded of some central human need,...
The Deep Read
October 29, 2020
Dear Reader, This read is commonly known as “the close read” or “close reading.” I didn’t choose those terms, among other reasons, because close reading...
The Mark of the Bad Reader
October 25, 2020
Dear Reader, As I mentioned in “The Vicissitudes of Fate,” there are at least six possible factors that can lead to bad reading. I’m still working through...
Words from the Wise and Otherwise, Part Eight
October 20, 2020
Dear Reader, It seems worthwhile to have a fall romp through some crisply worded quotations. We’ll return to regularly scheduled programming later this week....
The Vicissitudes of Fate
October 12, 2020
Dear Reader, You might have heard that there are good readers and bad readers. This is indeed so. What you may not have heard, or even felt remotely implied,...
Autumn Reads
October 5, 2020
Dear Reader, Do you ever do seasonal reading? This can be the re-reading of particular books or selections from certain genres of writing. In many cases,...
Book Sale Reading
September 27, 2020
Dear Reader, Today’s piece has a tinge of nostalgia to it. Not only am I a regular attendee of book sales—too regular—but I’ve volunteered for one...
Words from the Wise and Otherwise, Part Seven
September 18, 2020
Dear Reader, I realized that the last two in this series had more contemporary contributions, and it was time for a return to some with a little more...
Academic Reading and Practitioner Reading
September 12, 2020
Dear Reader, Today’s piece was prompted, as I suppose many are, by an experience of mine. This experience, or reminder, was a more recent one. I’ve been...
The One-Sitting Read
September 5, 2020
Dear Reader, Have you ever enjoyed the pleasure of the one-sitting read? I imagine you must have, as growing up Dr. Seuss or Bill Peet or P.D. Eastman or...
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