The novelist Ben Dolnick had a great piece in the NYT this weekend. It's about binge-reading. It's in favor of long gulps of reading. Don't read in short spurts, says Dolnick. Read for an hour at a time.
Why? You get absorbed in the book. You notice details within subplots that you wouldn't otherwise notice. The author's voice seems to meld with your voice. There's a sense of momentum--and the reading becomes more and more entertaining--and then you can't stop.
What I very much like is that Dolnick isn't wagging a finger. He isn't saying, "Read because it will make you smarter, or because you'll grow a better vocabulary." He's saying: "Reading should be fun, and the way to make it fun is to really commit to it--with zeal--for hours on end."
I had this same epiphany a few months ago when reading an interview with the thriller writer Michael Connelly. He said, "Reading is about momentum [that word again]. When I choose a book, I lock myself in a silent room with that book, and I get sucked in."
I wonder if Dolnick and Connelly have ever spoken.
Another plus of the Dolnick piece is that it has Dolnick's own charming prose, e.g. "One night a few months ago, the power went out and, unable to engage in my customary internet fugue, I lit a candle and picked up a thriller by Ruth Rendell." That voice: "engage in my customary internet fugue"--! I've read three of four Dolnick novels--I heard the fourth was a slight drop-off--and I can assure you that same quiet humor pops up frequently in his fiction (or at least his early fiction).
Lastly, the link, because Dolnick makes his own argument better than I can. Enjoy! https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/04/opinion/sunday/why-you-should-start-binge-reading-right-now.html?login=email&auth=login-email
P.S. A Dolnick novel tends to be a Bildungsroman: A middle-class American guy making big mistakes in the company of compelling, plausible characters. Straight-forward, insightful, meat-and-potatoes storytelling. My kind of book.
Why? You get absorbed in the book. You notice details within subplots that you wouldn't otherwise notice. The author's voice seems to meld with your voice. There's a sense of momentum--and the reading becomes more and more entertaining--and then you can't stop.
What I very much like is that Dolnick isn't wagging a finger. He isn't saying, "Read because it will make you smarter, or because you'll grow a better vocabulary." He's saying: "Reading should be fun, and the way to make it fun is to really commit to it--with zeal--for hours on end."
I had this same epiphany a few months ago when reading an interview with the thriller writer Michael Connelly. He said, "Reading is about momentum [that word again]. When I choose a book, I lock myself in a silent room with that book, and I get sucked in."
I wonder if Dolnick and Connelly have ever spoken.
Another plus of the Dolnick piece is that it has Dolnick's own charming prose, e.g. "One night a few months ago, the power went out and, unable to engage in my customary internet fugue, I lit a candle and picked up a thriller by Ruth Rendell." That voice: "engage in my customary internet fugue"--! I've read three of four Dolnick novels--I heard the fourth was a slight drop-off--and I can assure you that same quiet humor pops up frequently in his fiction (or at least his early fiction).
Lastly, the link, because Dolnick makes his own argument better than I can. Enjoy! https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/04/opinion/sunday/why-you-should-start-binge-reading-right-now.html?login=email&auth=login-email
P.S. A Dolnick novel tends to be a Bildungsroman: A middle-class American guy making big mistakes in the company of compelling, plausible characters. Straight-forward, insightful, meat-and-potatoes storytelling. My kind of book.
Comments
Post a Comment