Notes on The Pleasures of Reading in an Age of Distraction by Alan Jacobs:
My distillation of Alan Jacobs’ recommendations on how to read:
- at Whim (delight),
- slowly,
- aspiringly,
- actively,
- upstream, i.e., the influences on your favorites,
- absorbedly,
- differently for different texts (reading for information, understanding, or entertainment),
- not like you’re at school,
- serendipitously—not according to a list,
- effortfully,
- the same book twice if you feel like it,
- for company,
- charitably,
- not self-congratulatorily,
- Wodehouse, and
- not lying to yourself about who you are as a reader, embracing your delights.