Love this list and will definitely return to it but I disagree with point 3, for me. I think I get the point, but the way I see it, the book and I the reader exist in the real world and my readerly experience encompasses all the fictional worlds I have read before, and I don’t think I can or want to set those things aside when I engage with a book, even temporarily.
This is the one I resist the most as a reader too because one of the things I love about reading is looking for connections between texts! Where I can get behind it a little more is in connecting it with the alternate title of this essay which is “fairness to writers.” I think I can be unfair to writers if I’m constantly comparing—it reminds me of the NYT review of BEST OF FRIENDS that made me so mad! So I definitely don’t fully heed his advice on this while I read, but I try to keep it in mind more when I review.
Sure!! This one is tricky. For Nabokov, identifying with characters is a failure of imagination because it means we are projecting our own experiences, beliefs, etc onto the character rather than attempting to understand the author’s artistic creation in its own right. For me personally, I like keeping this in mind because I think it’s troubling when we readers can only enjoy books when we relate to the characters—which is not to say I don’t ever relate to characters and enjoy that experience!
I had the same reaction, Lauren, especially in combination with “are not objective” and “remain aloof,” because it feels, at least at first glance, like those three things cannot all happen at once. If a reader resists the urge to identify with characters, for example, that signals to me a more objective approach to the text, and also an aloofness, or unwillingness to become entangled. And though aloofness and objectivity seem to be related here, one is recommended while the other is discouraged. This *is* tricky! Thank you Sara for the delicious food for thought.
I think what I love most about this piece is that there is so much complexity and nuance and an idea that we are moving through various positionalities as readers. So while he does not believe that readers can be fully objective, he does believe in taking the work of art as it stands without projecting our preconceived ideas onto it. Definitely lots to mull over no matter how many times I read it.
This is so interesting to think about! I completely agree with his point about trying to take the work as it stands. I am most definitely not an "aloof" reader though. I probably get too enmeshed into the world & characters for his taste 😏
This is such a great list. I try to be a mindful reader, but this perspective really challenges me to slow down. I'm currently reading I book I'm not loving, so I'm going to apply some of these principles to appreciate it differently. Particularly the advice to " seek to understand the world of the book..."
I love this list because it does push and challenge me! I definitely don’t read this way all the time or perfectly but it gives me a lot to think about!
I finally read Nabokov's essay and came back to read yours ... first - I'm delighted by the rich, thoughtful discussion happening here in the comments! and envy all the students who got to experience this/you as their intro to becoming Good Readers. Right now, being a rereader resonates with me - and I love how Nabokov explains why it's different and necessary. One thing that I'm working on is to let go of judging other readers ... a sort of corollary to "talking **** about books is good for books" is "reading books is good. period" (I'm working on this ... I don't always succeed.) AND Nabokov is an author I've avoided ever since I DNF'd Lolita about 25 years ago. I was completely surprised that I wanted to pick up that book again after reading his essay ... to see how good a reader I really am.
I appreciate his focus on lingering lovingly on details! I’ve been trying to capture striking or interesting lines as I read this year, even copying them over into a reading journal of sorts which can feel more as if I’m lingering in the details. I’m currently in the first hundred pages of Les Mis for the Novel Pairings Slow Down Summer and I also feel like phew- there’s no way I can process all these details that are often foreign to my 21st century brain, but can still linger occasionally on striking lines and do a bit of underlining.
As one who does love to make connections while reading, the section about rereading reminds me a bit of Reading Like a Writer by Francine Prose. This is such a tension in my reading life, of wanting to read lots of great books, but also to read them deeply or with additional read throughs.
I love the “panting and happy” imagery as well! Thanks so much for sharing this!!
This is so great Sara, and something I never would've come across myself so thank you for sharing it. Many of these speak to me but 2 that really stand out are - read with “the mind, the brain, the top of the tingling spine" and "recognize writers as magicians and inventors" The first reminds me of how I want to feel when I'm reading, that I'm so fully engaged or captivated by a story that I can feel it in the top of my tingling spine haha. The second jumped out to me for two reasons- One, I'm currently in the process of writing a longer piece about authors and I find that to be 100% true and Two, I think some book reviewers should see this in mind before they trash a book
I love this post, Sara! So many good points to think about when reading. I especially love the ones that speak to bringing all your senses into the reading experience. I'm definitely going to keep these in mind and start practicing some of them ◡̈ Thank you for sharing!
Wow I love this so much! So helpful and such a good reminder to slow down and engage intentionally— esp as I am currently reading a “long and leisurely” book from PSRG!
Oh, that Nabokov essay is so fascinating - I didn't know it, so thank you, Sara! And as others are saying, it's rather disconcerting to our 21st Century take on what reading is for and how it works. It also reminds me what a *complicated* process reading is (in the original sense of "complicated: "layered together"). Which I guess is why it's complicated for a writer to "write your second draft for your reader", as I'm always telling my students. What do we mean by "for your reader"?
"the spirit of the game" what richness. I was struck by "not be objective" because of course we bring our entire subjective selves to a story, how beautiful that we do. Thanks for sharing this essay, I've been trying to read in some of these ways since I began my own book rec newsletter and am happy to have this list to put language some of these intentions.
Hi Sara, this was a great post, thank you for sharing Nabokov's list!
I wanted to just mention a wording mistake that appears twice here. I've seen it many times from less skilled writers than you and I thought you might like to be made aware. As people we cannot "resonate with" something. The resonance is the impression something (a book, a work of art, an experience) leaves on a person. Therefore the only correct way to use this phrase is to say "Nabokov's work resonated with me" or "what books have resonated with you in this way?". Thanks for reading and I always appreciate your work!
Love this list and will definitely return to it but I disagree with point 3, for me. I think I get the point, but the way I see it, the book and I the reader exist in the real world and my readerly experience encompasses all the fictional worlds I have read before, and I don’t think I can or want to set those things aside when I engage with a book, even temporarily.
This is the one I resist the most as a reader too because one of the things I love about reading is looking for connections between texts! Where I can get behind it a little more is in connecting it with the alternate title of this essay which is “fairness to writers.” I think I can be unfair to writers if I’m constantly comparing—it reminds me of the NYT review of BEST OF FRIENDS that made me so mad! So I definitely don’t fully heed his advice on this while I read, but I try to keep it in mind more when I review.
"Don't seek to identify with characters" is surprising to me! Could you expand on that point at all? I'm definitely pondering it...
Sure!! This one is tricky. For Nabokov, identifying with characters is a failure of imagination because it means we are projecting our own experiences, beliefs, etc onto the character rather than attempting to understand the author’s artistic creation in its own right. For me personally, I like keeping this in mind because I think it’s troubling when we readers can only enjoy books when we relate to the characters—which is not to say I don’t ever relate to characters and enjoy that experience!
I had the same reaction, Lauren, especially in combination with “are not objective” and “remain aloof,” because it feels, at least at first glance, like those three things cannot all happen at once. If a reader resists the urge to identify with characters, for example, that signals to me a more objective approach to the text, and also an aloofness, or unwillingness to become entangled. And though aloofness and objectivity seem to be related here, one is recommended while the other is discouraged. This *is* tricky! Thank you Sara for the delicious food for thought.
I think what I love most about this piece is that there is so much complexity and nuance and an idea that we are moving through various positionalities as readers. So while he does not believe that readers can be fully objective, he does believe in taking the work of art as it stands without projecting our preconceived ideas onto it. Definitely lots to mull over no matter how many times I read it.
This is so interesting to think about! I completely agree with his point about trying to take the work as it stands. I am most definitely not an "aloof" reader though. I probably get too enmeshed into the world & characters for his taste 😏
This is such a great list. I try to be a mindful reader, but this perspective really challenges me to slow down. I'm currently reading I book I'm not loving, so I'm going to apply some of these principles to appreciate it differently. Particularly the advice to " seek to understand the world of the book..."
I love this list because it does push and challenge me! I definitely don’t read this way all the time or perfectly but it gives me a lot to think about!
Wow!! Ok. I gotta save this post. There is so much GOLD here!
Thank you!
Love this!!
I finally read Nabokov's essay and came back to read yours ... first - I'm delighted by the rich, thoughtful discussion happening here in the comments! and envy all the students who got to experience this/you as their intro to becoming Good Readers. Right now, being a rereader resonates with me - and I love how Nabokov explains why it's different and necessary. One thing that I'm working on is to let go of judging other readers ... a sort of corollary to "talking **** about books is good for books" is "reading books is good. period" (I'm working on this ... I don't always succeed.) AND Nabokov is an author I've avoided ever since I DNF'd Lolita about 25 years ago. I was completely surprised that I wanted to pick up that book again after reading his essay ... to see how good a reader I really am.
I appreciate his focus on lingering lovingly on details! I’ve been trying to capture striking or interesting lines as I read this year, even copying them over into a reading journal of sorts which can feel more as if I’m lingering in the details. I’m currently in the first hundred pages of Les Mis for the Novel Pairings Slow Down Summer and I also feel like phew- there’s no way I can process all these details that are often foreign to my 21st century brain, but can still linger occasionally on striking lines and do a bit of underlining.
As one who does love to make connections while reading, the section about rereading reminds me a bit of Reading Like a Writer by Francine Prose. This is such a tension in my reading life, of wanting to read lots of great books, but also to read them deeply or with additional read throughs.
I love the “panting and happy” imagery as well! Thanks so much for sharing this!!
This is so great Sara, and something I never would've come across myself so thank you for sharing it. Many of these speak to me but 2 that really stand out are - read with “the mind, the brain, the top of the tingling spine" and "recognize writers as magicians and inventors" The first reminds me of how I want to feel when I'm reading, that I'm so fully engaged or captivated by a story that I can feel it in the top of my tingling spine haha. The second jumped out to me for two reasons- One, I'm currently in the process of writing a longer piece about authors and I find that to be 100% true and Two, I think some book reviewers should see this in mind before they trash a book
I love this post, Sara! So many good points to think about when reading. I especially love the ones that speak to bringing all your senses into the reading experience. I'm definitely going to keep these in mind and start practicing some of them ◡̈ Thank you for sharing!
Wow I love this so much! So helpful and such a good reminder to slow down and engage intentionally— esp as I am currently reading a “long and leisurely” book from PSRG!
Oh, that Nabokov essay is so fascinating - I didn't know it, so thank you, Sara! And as others are saying, it's rather disconcerting to our 21st Century take on what reading is for and how it works. It also reminds me what a *complicated* process reading is (in the original sense of "complicated: "layered together"). Which I guess is why it's complicated for a writer to "write your second draft for your reader", as I'm always telling my students. What do we mean by "for your reader"?
This is why I'm such a slow reader! I need about thirty brains to get through the books I have in my house. Thank you, Sara.
"the spirit of the game" what richness. I was struck by "not be objective" because of course we bring our entire subjective selves to a story, how beautiful that we do. Thanks for sharing this essay, I've been trying to read in some of these ways since I began my own book rec newsletter and am happy to have this list to put language some of these intentions.
(herollingladder.substack.com is my newsletter!)
Hi Sara, this was a great post, thank you for sharing Nabokov's list!
I wanted to just mention a wording mistake that appears twice here. I've seen it many times from less skilled writers than you and I thought you might like to be made aware. As people we cannot "resonate with" something. The resonance is the impression something (a book, a work of art, an experience) leaves on a person. Therefore the only correct way to use this phrase is to say "Nabokov's work resonated with me" or "what books have resonated with you in this way?". Thanks for reading and I always appreciate your work!
Adjusted 😉
Yep that’s true!
I love that too!