In an opinion piece in the New York Times last week author Lily Tuck asks, “How should one read?” Her conclusion is that one should read with imagination. But, it seems to me, her piece and the question itself, is really trying to get at what the responsibility of the reader is. Because as we all know, an author writes a book but it doesn’t come alive until it is read. And that requires readers. Us.
We may not write the story but by bringing it to life we are engaging in a mutually creative act. Do we have an obligation? A duty? A responsibility as a reader? When we ask how should one read, and given the number of books out there on the subject it seems a question we are interested in exploring, we are really wanting to know what is required of us in order to fully engage in the creative act of reading. And of course there are lots of answers and lots of qualifications of those answers and plenty of people are willing to say there is a right way and a wrong way and our heads begin to spin and we begin to feel inadequate because we don’t look up every unfamiliar word in the dictionary and we fail to properly notate and annotate and who has time to read every book more than once even though supposedly you can never truly understand a good piece of literature until you have read it twice at least but three times is better and OMG why isn’t reading fun anymore?
Instead of piling it on, let’s get back to basics. Let’s talk about minimum requirements, basic responsibilities. Like imagination. Because I do agree with Tuck that we do need imagination. It also helps to have an open mind. Inevitably we will read something we don’t agree with or a point of view that is completely foreign or a way of being in the world that we had never considered. These things challenge our personal worldview and when we come upon them to be closed-minded shuts down everything. I don’t think you can truly have a good imagination unless you are also open-minded. It doesn’t mean you have to agree with what you read, only that you can entertain the possibility of difference.
What else? I think trust is important. I know some people go at books believing the author has to earn their trust. I prefer to trust from the start and am willing to risk feeling betrayed if the author screws it up. Which they do sometimes.
How about curiosity? Along with that I’d like to propose that it is beneficial to be comfortable with uncertainty not only in terms of not knowing what is going to happen next in the plot of a book, but being okay with being lost and confused and disoriented when it comes to understanding. I know people’s tolerance for this is highly variable, but I think the more we can bear, the more exciting and interesting a reading experience can be. Here is another place that trust comes in. Such a state requires a reader really trust the author, and herself for that matter, to find a way through the confusion to a place of understanding. So it also helps to have a sense of adventure but I don’t think that goes on the list of responsibilities.
Is there anything else? I don’t think the list of responsibilities should be that long. There is a difference between basic reader responsibilities and skills to enhance the reading experience. It’s the skills all those books focus on and neglect inquiry into entry level requirements. And I hope you all understand that when I say requirements I don’t actually mean that if you aren’t curious you have no right to call yourself a reader. The only real requirement to be a reader is being literate. It’s more like a basic approach or attitude toward reading to make the best of the experience. Does that make sense?
Please, share your own thoughts on the matter because I know you have them!
I like what you’ve said about trusting the author here. I nearly always start out with trust, and am rarely betrayed. But I think this is because I am very good at choosing books I will like. Put me in a room full of the wrong sort of books for me, and don’t let me have any others, and this little virtue would vanish in no time!
So I would add something about not passing judgement on a book or an author without taking responsibility for choosing wisely in the first place.
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Lisa, thanks! Yes, it does help to be good at choosing books. I think that is something that comes with lots of practice. Not passing judgment is a good one. Being able to recognize when it is us that is the problem and when it is the book is an important skill to develop.
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I like what you say about trusting the author. Giving the author my assumption of their good faith is really important to me. When I read something in the assumption that the author is [some bad thing], I become this super ungenerous reader, and I don’t like reading that way. It’s why I probably won’t ever read James Joyce, because I assume he’ll be being pretentious.
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Jenny, thanks! It is definitely easier to be generous when you trust the author. I don;t like reading with bad assumptions either, it leaves me feeling like I am fighting with the book and that is not good. James Joyce is really wonderful. He isn’t pretentious at all. His characters can be, but the author himself writes so beautifully. I had some bad experiences with Joyce in high school and freshman year of college and it took me a very long time to get over them but I managed to and I am really glad for that. So don’t write him off just yet! 🙂
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What an excellent post Stefanie – thank you! Jenny, something that really helped me with Joyce is to listen instead of reading his work (with an Irish reader!) – just the sheer music was eye-opening for me. Perhaps he was the ultimate open mind; trying to get inside of language not just using it.
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Thank you Jule! I agree with you on listening to Joyce. Just the sound of it is beauitful.
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I used to tell my students that their responsibility as college student readers was to be curious. You need to want to know stuff, and want to find out more stuff. You need to want to know why it starts this way, and how it ends.
I don’t understand why even rapacious readers like Jenny (above) get turned off by a writer’s reputation. Reading Joyce is some of the most fun a person can have in this life, and she’s missing it because…what? She had friends who weren’t open-minded enough to be able to enjoy word play and they lashed out at Joyce because a teacher assigned something by him?
Everyone should read the story Araby. I once tried to capture my experience of reading it, combined with thinking about the end of a friendship with someone who was to me like the object of the boy’s adoration in that story.
I really agree that some tolerance for being lost and confused and disoriented when it comes to understanding can be beneficial for a reader. Just the ability to suspend judgment for a while.
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Jeanne, what great advice to give your students! Yes, the ability to suspend judgment for a while. It’s not always an easy thing to do! But it I agree it is important. Not knowing Jenny’s experience with Joyce I can;t speak for her, but for myself I had some very bad experiences in high school and college with Joyce because of the way it was taught. It took me over 20 years to get past my dislike and fears and to a place where I could try Joyce again. Now I like quite a lot but it was hard work getting there.
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Did you ever see the movie Educating Rita? At one point, her tutor (played by the wonderful Michael Caine) tells “Rita” (played by Julie Walters) that just because she devours pulp fiction (in this case Where Love Has Gone by Harold Robbins and Ruby Fruit Jungle by Rita Mae Brown) it did not make her “well read.” Although, to be honest, a little pulp fiction might do a soul some good…like birthday cake. Anyway, he teaches her to open her horizons – with some bumpy results – but in the end being introduced to good literature makes her a better, more discerning reader and a more intellectual person. In essence, she gains the skills to fully appreciate fine writing. She fulfills her responsibilities to the works. (Although I think she should have gotten on the darn plane with Prof. Bryant. But that’s another comment for another day,
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Grad, I don’t remember if I ever saw that movie or not. I suspect I did not though I know a little about it. Maybe I should see if Netflix has it?
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I love this idea of mutual responsibility of reader and writer. I know it’s not popular to look past the text to the writer as a person, but I think that’s important. I suppose I would add reverence. I know that sounds crazy, and I don’t mean author worship or anything like that, but just reverence for that mystical moment where what was written by the author is read by the reader, Hirsch’s “emerging sacramental event.”
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Christopher, are we still supposed to be pretending the writer is dead? I thought we’d moved beyond that by now. Sigh. Reverence, I see what you are saying. Kind of the alchemy of creation, yes? The moment when the printed words on the page describing the Great Plains turns into a something you can experience in your mind. Magical. 🙂
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Yeah. I’ve seen students directed to Barthes when expressing a natural affinity with meeting the author through a story. I think we’re part of it is that the text itself is still our focus of study. There’s a sea change coming though. Sam Rocha’s work with Jean-luc Marion and Ming-Jer Chen’s work in management studies are opening us up to a relational perspective in academia.
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I’m glad to hear there is a change coming. Sometimes theory just seems so silly and antithetical to what actual readers do and how we experience a book. It’s a disconnect of a sort. I’ll be interested to see where the change goes.
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Oddly, some of these made me think of the “responsibilities” (used loosely) that we assume when we enter a romantic relationship: trust, adventure, curiosity, an open mind, a willingness to be disappointed. Seeing every new book as a relationship waiting to happen–I can’t decide if that’s weird or really cool, but it’s what I’m thinking of now!
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Elle, lol, yes, you are right! That could be my bias because I do often approach reading like a relationship. I generally think friendship but sometimes it turns into something more. Maybe it’s weird. Is it weird? 🙂
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Certainly not! *looks shifty*
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lol 😀
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I agree with you that there are certain basic qualifications of being a reader – literacy to begin with, then imagination, curiosity. But wouldn’t other skills develop as we grow as readers. Like Grad’s example, while the character of Rita to begin with had the basics in place like literacy and imagination (You need a whole lot of believing to read through a Harold Robbins!) but as she reads more, she perhaps develops sensitivity, which may make her see the same books in a different light. May be even toleration or empathy of all the mundane whims, fancy and inconsistencies of human nature!
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I think you are right in what can reasonably be expected of a reader. I think you have to be prepared to be receptive. Without that the range of books and writers you expose yourself to might be more limited than it need be. Years ago an influential critic like FR Leavis will have overloaded students about the moral and intellectual weight of what and how they read while a few years ago the judges of the Booker prize seemed to require no more of a novel than that it offered a “good read”. Perhaps this is a topic worth following up, what do we want and what can we bring to the books we read?
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Ian, yes, receptive, that’s good! If we can’t be receptive then what’s the point, really. The story will never become much more than words on a page. It’s sort of a swinging pendulum isn’t it? From Leavis to recent Booker prize judging. I think it is something public literary critics and even writers have failed, articulating what literature is, can be or should be. And maybe we readers have failed to hold up our end too? Hmm, that is something to think about.
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cirtnecce, oh most certainly. The more we read, the more skills we develop as readers, it is something that cannot be helped I think. But there has to be foundation for those skills, yes? And I think imagination and curiosity are part of that foundation.
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That’s an interesting way of looking at reading. I never really thought about it.
Probably the biggest mistake I make is to start on a book with high expectations, especially if there’s a lot of publicity about that book. An open mind is the best way when reading (and not only then).
What I want from a book (to follow Ian’s thought above) is a good story, something that will keep me fully immersed in another world. I want to forget about everything and anything, to laugh or cry, a book that makes me question things or brings something meaningful to the surface. That’s what I expect from a book most of the time.
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Delia, thanks! I think we are all guilty of starting a book with high expectations from time to time. It can definitely get in the way and even ruin a perfectly good book. I like your list of what you want from a book. Do you find that most of the time your expectations are met? And if so, is that part of being good at selecting books you know you will like?
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Like with everything, sometimes I come across some really great things and sometimes it’s a miss. I know what kind of books I enjoy and I tend to gravitate towards them – fantasy, horror, some classics… although I’ve been trying to branch out a little and I’m now reading a book of essays by Orwell.
And sometimes I open a book and it just grabs me and doesn’t let go. I will never forget the first sentence in Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451: “It was a pleasure to burn.” I think this line will forever be etched into my brain. Such a slim book but so powerful.
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I love Fahrenheit 451! And the opening line is amazing. It gets quoted at my house more often than one might think possible 🙂 And Orwell is marvelous. I’ve read some of his essays but would like to read more one of these days. I think the more we read and the more years we’ve been reading, the better we get at knowing what books we will like. There are always surprises though, which I am very glad about!
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Very thoughtful post, Stefanie. Lots to think about. I’m with Delia and Ian: for pleasure reading, I want an engrossing story, one to make me forget where I am and whatever’s going on in my life. For history and non-fiction, I want clear prose, just enough detail, and clarity.
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Joan, thanks! Your desire for what you want books to be shouldn’t be hard to fill, but the odd thing is that it is harder than one would think.
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The single most engaging author, whose writing not only encourages but DEMANDS the contribution of the reader is Annie Dillard–particularly her “The Maytrees”. This is writing which either becomes conversation, or nothing. As soon as I finish this this oratorio to all that is woman (she has the modesty to call it a novel), I can’t help myself but start to read it all over again, knowing she’ll take me on yet another journey of seeing,of smelling,of feeling,of touching, of exploring what it is to be human through her sharpened inner eye and nimble translation of that into language. mmmmm. This … THIS …. is writing.
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weisserwatercolours, I have a couple of Dillard’s books but have not yet read them. What sorts of contributions does Dillard demand, do you think? You call her writing a conversation, what must one do to hold up their end of the conversation with Dillard?
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I hereby will try to bring my literate imagination, trust and curiosity to the next book I read. This is a wonderful post.
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Care, thank you! Your declaration made me smile. May you, and all of us, be well served by our endeavors to be responsible readers 🙂
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What a great thought-provoking piece you have written here. I think of all the points you raise the one about trust resonates deepest with me. I think it is a crucial element in the enjoyment of books. I see it as not bringing a lot of personal expectations to a book, before allowing it a chance to do what it is intended to do. All authors are different from each other, and even their own books differ from each other. This may sound insane, but I always read the start of a book quicker than I read the ending. Like I’ll pick up a book and read the first 100 pages usually much faster than I will read the last 100. I am probably the opposite from every normal person out there, in this respect. But it’s because when I begin a book I get so immersed and intrigued in trying to get into the unique groove that is the book’s style and subject matter. I find is to so exciting — each book is such a unique fingerprint of imagination and creativity. I truly believe that the more mature a reader is, the more slack they will cut an author in the initial stages of a book. To give literature a chance with us, we need to let go of expectations and just set the author free to work his/her magic.
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Thanks Cipriano! I don’t think it is insane at all that you read the first part of a book faster than the last. I am sure depending on the kind of book it is that I read at different paces too beginning and ending. I like what you say about each book being a “unique fingerprint of imagination and creativity.” That letting go of expectations is very hard sometimes but it is important to do because those expectations can get in the way of enjoying a pretty good book!
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I think you’re right to think of any ‘responsibilities’ in the plural. I’m looking for and reading some non-fiction ebooks that are free, and on the way, it’s noticeable just how many erotic fiction titles get published online. Whether this is a liberatory outpouring or E L James wannabes, I leave open to question. But the thought had occurred to me that at least there’s a desire to use the imagination as regards to both sex and the lives of those indulging themselves in it – perhaps a Roger Scruton moment here, but it seems to me to be a development in an age of porn. Maybe imagination is a good thing in many ways?
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Jeff, lol, well that’s one way of looking at imagination! 🙂 I’m not sure what the boom in erotic fiction ebooks means but hey, why not?
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Yes, this makes lots of sense! Maybe this falls under the ‘keep an open mind’ heading–but I think a reader needs to try and be fair to an author, too. Sometimes I see readers giving bad reviews for stories that don’t happen the way they want them to–if that makes sense? It seems unfair to criticize an author for telling a story that is not what the reader expects. I know I have lots of preconceived notions on what I expect a story to be and do and sometimes it isn’t at all what I expected–so, yes, definitely I try and keep an open mind. Hmmm–now that I read the comments up above I see others are saying the same thing–Lots of good things to think about with reading and how we approach stories!
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Danielle, I totally know what you mean! I think that issue is more than having an open mind. It does have to do with being fair but there is something else going on there too and I am not sure what to call it. Definitely lots of good things to think about with reading 🙂
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It won’t surprise you to know I agree with you! Probably if I had to boil it down, I’d say: try everything, but don’t blame the author if a book isn’t your cup of tea.
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Litlove, I should just replace my post with your comment 🙂
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Hmm by the time I’ve read to the end of the comments I’ve pretty much forgotten what you wrote but I do recollect the last one which ‘d describe as being willing to go with the the flow, to accept you might be confused but trust the author. Like Lisa I see myself as being good at choosing books I will like … So having done that I must trust that I’m right.
The other point which I’m not sure has been said is to have confidence in your own reading every book has multiple readings because each reader is different.realise that and trust YOUR reading, as long as you can back it up with evidence from the book. Chances are others will agree with while others might get your point but think the main focus is something else.trust yourself in other words, as well as the author.
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Oh good point WG! Trusting ourselves is also very important and harder to do than we might think. I am a fairly confident reader but there are times when I read something that everyone seems to love and I can’t help but wonder if I am defective in some way. You are also right about trusting your own reading of the book, I have lost count of how many blog posts I have read in which people have worried they have failed to understand things about the book or are certain they read it “wrong.”
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Sorry for the typos … Am writing in the dark with two sleepers in the same room. Second para in particular … There should be a full stop after reading. And then second last line there should be “you” after “agree with”. I’d love you to fix it, plus the missing spaces and capitalisations of new sentences!
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yeah, yeah, excuses, excuses 😉
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