The Reader Speaks II

My home is virtually a library. In every room books abound. But don't worry:

I READ ONLY SIX BOOKS AT A TIME!

Many have asked: "Is he insane?" (Answer: possibly!) "Does he have far too much time on his hands?" (Answer: most certainly!) " "Why doesn't he put down his books and find a woman?" (Answer: He's a widower. New books are less trouble than new women!)

I hasten to add that I read NON-fiction, because I prefer such books, and because reading smarmy fiction might put ideas in my head.

But! On to the multiple-book reading process.

Key Questions:

• WHY would any sane person read SIX BOOKS at a time?

• HOW would any sane person read SIX BOOKS at a time?
  

The answer to the first question is the first statement in The Reader Speaks I:

"I've been an avid reader all my life."
(Bad habits die hard!)

Regarding the second question: two simple rules govern my multiple-book-reading process:

ONE book is placed in each of six rooms in my house.
NO book can cross a threshold.

This distribution creates at least three urgencies:

First, it is urgent that I keep each book in a separate compartment of my mind. If I do not, the substance of the six books will become jumbled together.

Second, it is urgent that I study each book as I read it. If I do not I am certain to forget major threads of thought. This takes disciplined attentiveness. I must read carefully, mark passages assiduously, follow the text with appropriate markings in the margins, and scribe a carefully sequenced outline on the fly-leaves. Over the years I have developed a stream-lined version of the process. I have also become adept at translating concepts keenly.

Third: Practicing this system creates for me an urgency to move quickly through my book-sequence. I want to get back to each book rapidly and frequently.

In fact, if a book does not interest and compel me immediately I cast it aside. I trust myself. I know what I like and am ready (intellectually) to read.

Disciplined Attentiveness! That's the key element in any truly worthwhile undertaking. For instance, paying attention to my wife shaped and enhanced my marriage.

While I am suspicious of generalities: paying close attention has enriched every aspect of every important undertaking of my life. Paying attention matters. It makes the neutral good, the good better, the better, superlative. Good books abound. I seek out the better ones.

But: the best books call out to me. And I always try to respond with my best self.

The six books I'm currently reading are,

• Mat Crawford's Shop Class and SoulCraft. This is an intriguing study about how patient and competent work with the hands accesses and enhances the soul. Crawford traces the history of 20th Century work-life, demonstrating how the fragmentation of work has also damaged the spirit. This book helps me reflect upon my chosen work and my growing wholeness as a person.
  

• J. R. Moehringer's The Tender Bar. In a strange way, this book forces me to reflect on the significant happenings of my own personal life. This book helps me identify and analyze how the significant happenings in my life have shaped me as a person.
  

• Fred Kaplan's 1959: The Year Everything Changed. This riveting book transports me back to the year I began teaching. I am amazed to discover I missed so much, or if I did NOT miss so much, I failed to recognize the significance of many happenings. What can I say? I was trying to learn to teach: an engrossing process all in itself. What else can I say: Well!? When I retired from teaching in 2003, I was STILL trying to learn to teach. Hmmmmmnnnn!?

• Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers. This brilliant book cites at least three reasons how and why successful people succeed. Gladwell offers me several handy excuses for having been a failure all my life. I was born on Thanksgiving -- late in the year. I liked to do all sorts of things, and never spent the 10,000 hours required to master any one craft. Furthermore, I lie to myself about not having been helped by benefactors.
  

• Dave McCullough's Brave Companions. One of McCullough's early books, it satisfies. It brings to life little known persons worth knowing. It casts a new and bright light upon well-known persons I am getting to know better. This book enlarges my store of heroes.
  

• Howard Fineman's The Thirteen American Arguments. While the Introduction of this book is perhaps the most direct, simple, and brilliant I have ever read, the arguments are even better. He combines a storehouse of historical fact with a powerful personal perspective. His writing intrigues me. His prose is poetic. His sentences flow smoothly as water-music. This book inspires me.

Each one of these six books is the work of a brilliantly talented person. I have no favorite book among them.

However, I fear these writers have unmasked a flaw in my system. I enter a room and don't want to move all day. Each book is so beautifully written that I keep paging back, reading key passages again and again. I find myself wanting to capture the writing styles, master and borrow from these authors, and thereby enhance my own writing voice.

Yet, I may have found a solution.

I've added a book: Emily Dickinson: Collected Poems. I've been enjoying an ongoing love affair with EmilyD for years. I revisit her again and again. I recite her poetry endlessly. She fascinates and stimulates my mind. I want to travel back through time, drag her from her home, and plight my troth.

Perhaps that canNOT happen this life. (Maybe the next one?) In the meantime, EmilyD breaks my reading dead-lock, energizes me, and sends me plunging forward pellmell from book to book. You see: it is difficult for me to get bogged down in any text when I know full well, EmilyD is waiting breathlessly for me.

But that's not all I do with this particular collection of her poems.

I have placed this collection in the BATHROOM of my master suite. At my age, visitations to EmilyD are both frequent and commanding. I often read EmilyD's poetry until my legs fall asleep. Another screaming two-line header occurs to me this moment:

Reading Man's Legs Fall Asleep.
Tumbles In and Drowns!

Beware: Reading can be hazardous to your health!

(Even one book at a time may be too risky!)