Department
Essays
Against fast reading, annotating in pencil, reading aloud as adults, the abandoned book.
The Tsundoku Problem: On the Books One Has Not Yet Read
An essay on the unread stack, the small guilt that attends it, and the slow shift in how to think about it.
The Personal Canon: On the Books One Keeps
A piece on the small private list of books any serious reader carries, and on the test by which a book enters it.
Reading in Translation: Trust, and the Limits of It
An essay on what is required of the reader who reads books written in languages she does not know.
The Re-Read: On Returning to a Book
On the kind of reading that only happens the second time, and the books that ask for it.
The Abandoned Book and What It Tells Us
On the books we stop reading, and the small honest information they carry about us as readers.
Reading Aloud as Adults
A piece on the half-forgotten practice of adults reading to each other, and on what the practice still has to offer two people in the same room.
Annotating in Pencil: A Household Practice
A short defence of marking books with a soft pencil — and a longer one of the kind of attention the practice demands.
Against Fast Reading: An Argument from a Slow Bench
An argument for slow reading, made from a battered chair in a Boston flat by a reader who has tried, and failed, to read 100 books in a year.