Zestful Blog Post #236
If you’re a writer, you’ve got a beautiful field of
resources that will take you far beyond books on technique and motivation: the
work of literary innovators. Reading literature that you find fabulous / moving
/ amusing / iconoclastic represents your continuing education. Here’s a good
practice for a professional author:
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Assemble a soft pencil, a sharpener, and a few
index cards.
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Get hold of a book you’re interested in.
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Read it.
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Underline passages of special interest and make
notes as you go. (You’ll find that soft graphite is easier to erase if you ever
want to, doesn’t dig into the pages, and is more pleasurable to use in general.)
Write in the margins and on your cards. Make little stars and ticks next to
passages you find inspiring, impressive, instructive.
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If the book is wonderful, reread it, carefully.
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Make further notes, or expand on the ones you
have already.
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If your book is not made of paper, use whatever
digital tools you have at your disposal.
Your
notes will be different from anybody else’s notes. Your marginalia may express enthusiasm, surprise, skepticism, or humility. You
won’t remember everything about the book, or everything about your notes. But here's the thing. The very act of attending to the book this closely will feed and build your
inner well of creativity, facility with words, and understanding. This is one
of those things that are good to do for the sake of the thing itself. Sure, you
can read a book just for kicks. But it doesn’t take much more effort to really
learn from it. This is also known as scholarship. And that's all there is to it.
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