With the Spring Reading Thing fresh on my mind, I have been thinking about reading. Not just about what I will read, but about my process of reading. I don’t want to overthink this but I have come to realize, more than ever before, what I read and how I read it is different, regardless of WHEN I read it.
When I read for information, the act of reading is secondary to the information that I obtain. There seems to be more of an interpretation element to that type of reading. Just think about it…street signs, bank statements, receipts, notes from school, price tags…all things that we read everyday without thinking about the reading. In a sense, we take that reading for granted because we do it so automatically.
When I study or research something, I read with a pen and paper. There might be thoughts that I need to record or phrases that I need to capture. There might be an idea for an article or a blog post or a chapter that I have to record before I go to something else. There might be a web site or a job lead that I need to remember so that I can come back to it later. In this sense, reading is work…or it might lead me to write something, which is my work. I always have a READ FOR WORK pile (articles, newsletters, newspapers, job descriptions, etc.) and a separate READ pile. They are not labeled and anyone else would not know that they are not the same – just stuff to be read. To me, those piles are totally different animals and not always friendly ones.
As a writer, I sometimes feel I have lost my ability to read for pleasure. Because I enjoy the elements of written communication AND because I look at all written communication for ideas and examples, I struggle to turn that part of my brain off and just enjoy reading for its own sake. Honestly, I don’t know if that is a choice that I am capable of making. After all, if I am a writer because the ability and the passion for writing is actually ingrained in my physical being, is it possible for me to only be a reader sometimes? That is not to say that I want to be a disengaged or passive reader. Sometimes I would just enjoy being a writer that has escaped into reading – not evaluating or experimenting – just reading. What a difference that would make!
