Marginalia: Reading as a Conversation

For the first time in a long time I sat down to read without writing in the book. I had walked all the way to a small park in the center of Paris (Jardin Nelson Mandela, just west of Les Halles), sat down on a concrete bench and took out my poorly taken care of copy of Paradise Lost. Usually there are large groups of Algerians listening to indecipherable French rap music through their phones, but no music today! It should have been so nice…

I had forgotten my pen.

With nothing to write with, I had no choice but to carry on, I had walked all the way there after all. It was terrible, and it totally reassured me of the value of marginalia. Especially with a long, complicated book like Paradise Lost, writing in the margins as you read really helps you keep track of what’s going on, who is talking, etc. I also like to make notes of obvious references to other literature that Milton put in his poem (usually Latin and Greek works). Further, it helps with pacing, it is very hard to skim if you are busy underlining, circling words, and writing short reactions.

Reading ought to be a conversation. Writing in the margins keeps you more engaged, and now that you can’t unconsciously skim, you retain much more. Beyond retention, this process also adds a very personal touch to your book. It makes it much more entertaining to return to five or ten years later. An should you want to find a quote that you really liked 400 pages ago, you probably marked it the first time you saw it and can quickly find it by flipping through the pages.

Lastly, when you read a really long novel with an enormous cast (Russians…) it can make it way easier to follow. When a long conversation started between major characters, I’d write right up front which Nikolay this is; how he is related to Sofia, which house they are at, etc. After doing this for a few hundred pages you develop an extremely intimate understanding of the family trees and begin to glimpse complicated family politics. You might be surprised how many things were slipping beneath your notice.

Give it a try, it might seem tedious at first, but it is a habit worth developing.

Learn New Words, Dammit!

According to the Economist, the average adult native speaker has a working vocabulary of between 20,000 and 35,000 words. The vast majority of these words are learnt in school with acquisition ceasing almost entirely after the completion of University. This is further compounded by the fact that barely 60% of Americans read at least one book per year! Readership is slightly higher in countries like France but the decline in readership is something that can be noticed throughout the West.

Reading was once the domain of the very educated, wealthy elite. Having been democratized by movable type and the public education, reading became one of the greatest leisure activities of the modern age. Now, in the face of bright, loud, and flashy competition such as Television, the internet, and, especially now, video games, reading has faced a sharp decline. And a little mentioned side effect is the drop off this is the negative impact this has on the working vocabulary of the populace. People are not likely to encounter a new word traversing the vast Sahara of video game blogs and BuzzFeed articles. In fact I’d expect that, over time, their working vocabulary shrinks as many words are only used in a literary context. A simple way to illustrate this point is to look at so-called SAT words.These notoriously difficult and rare words ought to be second nature to someone in his 30s; however, oftentimes they are long forgotten.

Your vocabulary is not a static thing, you don’t get to wrote a word in the mental lexicon and expect it to be there five years later when you are trying to pull it out at a meeting to look a little better educated than Stephen. No, if you haven’t encountered it in five years, it’s likely long gone. You might recognize it in writing but you will be hard pressed to use it in conversation.

The best way to care for your vocabulary is to water it often. Read, both a lot and carefully: If you encounter a word of dubious meaning: for the love of God, look it up! There is no excuse with electronic dictionaries – it will take one minute at most. However, if you read frequently, there is a good chance that you rarely run across a new word. In order to keep improving, you should specifically target difficult and rarely used words. One of the ways I do this is by language learning (Latin is particularly wonderful for this) but the other is via a daily email called A.W.A.D. or A Word A Day. It is a tiny email that is sent out daily (and for me is the only non-annoying daily mailing list I’ve ever encountered) containing, well, one word per day. The word itself is included in the subject so if you already know it then there is no need to waste your time. Within the email all definitions are listed and the historical examples of usage are given, which really helps insofar as understanding where to use it.

At the end of the week a digest is sent out containing all the words of the week as well as poetry and reflections from other people the mailing list.

And finally, WRITE down every new word you learn. As a native English speaker new words should be uncommon so this is not much of a hassle. Review your list once in a while and you might be shocked how many new words you’re learning.

 

Good Writers and Great Readers

“If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot.” – Stephen King

Of course to be a great writer one has to write a lot (though perhaps not so much as Stephen King…) but that is self evident. The thing in which I am more interested is the place of reading insofar as becoming a great writer is concerned. this seems self-evident, writing is the other side of reading! Of course they would be closely linked, however I’d, if I may be so bold, go even further than Mr. King. I believe to to be a great writer one has to be a phenomenal reader.

But why? If the goal is to become a good writer then why wouldn’t one spend the majority of his time practicing the art itself? Well, at a simpler level, think of it this way. You learned to speak via listening to your parents, if you spent most of your time working with what you already had… well, you would not have gotten very far. When you were learning to write, if you spent the majority of your time writing and had very little input from people that had already learned to write, well your writing would probably not improve very much would it?

We learned to speak by listening to a huge amount of material and eventually trying ourselves… but even then we listened far more than we spoke. It is the same with writing, if one focuses on practicing writing in and of itself but rarely or never draws from those far more skilled, then growth will be heavily stunted.

Reading graces the reader with experience, exposure to new styles of writing, as well as new plot devices and vocabulary. Not to mention the sheer joy of reading a good novel, poem, or story. And better, the reader doesn’t have to put much effort into the exchange. Provided he has a well developed attention span and is willing to look up the odd word he doesn’t know, all that is left is to enjoy the fruit of a stranger’s labor. And, of course, passively absorb what makes their work so enjoyable (or distasteful) to you.

Good writers are not just ‘good’ readers. I’d say to be more than a middling writer one has to be a great reader. Being very, very well read is the first major step to being an excellent writer. There is no way around it.