How Should We Read?

Yesterday the New York Times ran a two-part column discussing whether or not there is a "wrong way" to read a book. The best part was this quote from Doris Lessing:

“There is only one way to read, which is to browse in libraries and bookshops, picking up books that attract you, reading only those, dropping them when they bore you, skipping the parts that drag — and never, never reading anything because you feel you ought, or because it is part of a trend or a movement. Remember that the book which bores you when you are 20 or 30 will open doors for you when you are 40 or 50 — and vice versa. Don’t read a book out of its right time for you.”

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