Notes in the margins

· 2 min read

Here is what altered, and what stayed exactly the same. Thanks for reading, and for the generous notes that keep arriving. It is easy to overthink rereading. It is harder to just start. A good library card is the cheapest luxury there is.

Notes along the way

I altered my mind about short stories twice while writing this. Short books are not lesser books; frequently they are the opposite. Translations are a conversation between two writers and a reader. Most problems with reading lists turn out to be problems with time. I read it once fast and once gradually, and they were different books.

There is no single right way to approach browsing second-hand shops, but some ways are kinder than others. If you only take one thing from this, make it the part about essays. Every reading list says as much about the reader as the books.

The best advice I got was simply to slow down. I keep a short list of things to try next; rereading is near the top. Most of what I know about second-hand books came from getting it wrong first. Looking back, the well-worn approach was the right call.

  1. Compare against last summer
  2. Give browsing second-hand shops a full spring
  3. Revisit long books after a week

Where it started

There is a version of this that is much more complicated. This is not that version. Most of what I know about essays came from getting it wrong first. In February the light changes, and so does the work.

  • Start with reading lists and nothing else
  • Give reading aloud a full winter
  • Do less reading slowly, more keeping a commonplace book
  • Revisit margins after a week
  • Compare against last spring

A note on tools

This got going as a quick note and gradually turned into something longer. It is easy to overthink reading aloud. It is harder to just start. This is less a guide and more a record of what worked for me. A pencil helps, but it is not the point.

  • Leave room for quiet mistakes
  • Note the date and the weather
  • Ask someone at the library
  • Start with diaries and nothing else
  • Revisit diaries after a week

I altered my mind about long books twice while writing this.