Notes on Reading Slowly

For a few years I tried to read fifty books a year. I made it to thirty-eight in 2022 and felt something I hadn’t expected: very little.

I could remember most of the titles. I could remember the broad arguments of the nonfiction. But when I tried to recall a specific image, a sentence that had landed, an idea that had reorganized something for me — I had almost nothing. The books had passed through me without leaving a mark.

So I tried something else. In 2023 I read seven books. I read them with a pen. I copied passages by hand into a notebook. I sometimes spent a week on a single chapter. I re-read whole sections I had loved.

I cannot prove this is a better way to read. I can only say that when I look back at 2023, I have rooms in my head that I built brick by brick. When I look back at 2022, I have a list.

The list was longer. The rooms are mine.