On finding time to read, reading many things at once, reading things you don't identify with or understand, and reading and thinking in discontinuity/over time/under duress
Insights that calmly reflect much of my thoughts on reading . Good to know I am not alone . I am often overwhelmed by the sheer volume of books and authors I still have to discover. Now I have more . I can't wait .
Appreciate the reading list, and hearing a writer actually sincerely cop to the state of publishing is always refreshing.
Have to recommend Reed’s Mumbo Jumbo - like some fresh incantation hovering between Gravity’s Rainbow and Invisible Man. Haven’t read Juice but it’s making its way to me now.
I’m trying to find my way back into reading after a tough few years where everything dropped off, and knowing you, a voracious reader, also struggles but manages to cut a path through is genuinely helpful to finding my way back to books. Thanks
Aug 10, 2023·edited Aug 10, 2023Liked by Blake Butler
Thanks for sharing, Blake.
I'm also reading The Notes, I think since you tweeted a quote from it a while back. I like to read in pieces, too, spending a day to sit with a passage. Here's a line that sticks with me:
"The artist. He never found the right shade of the color he had chosen (even though he had covered half the world in his search), and it was all extremely complicated:—there was no life in it. He only found the right color when he wrote in his own blood; then it all became very simple." (p.106)
The Ascent is worthwhile too, though his writing can feel a little over-serious. Combining the two produces a similar effect to reading the Bible (moral tales mixed with commandments). But I find most of it very inspiring; passages from The Notes can feel like revelatory assurances of my brain's hesitancies. I'm very interested now to combine it with the Hilst.
Insights that calmly reflect much of my thoughts on reading . Good to know I am not alone . I am often overwhelmed by the sheer volume of books and authors I still have to discover. Now I have more . I can't wait .
Appreciate the reading list, and hearing a writer actually sincerely cop to the state of publishing is always refreshing.
Have to recommend Reed’s Mumbo Jumbo - like some fresh incantation hovering between Gravity’s Rainbow and Invisible Man. Haven’t read Juice but it’s making its way to me now.
I’m trying to find my way back into reading after a tough few years where everything dropped off, and knowing you, a voracious reader, also struggles but manages to cut a path through is genuinely helpful to finding my way back to books. Thanks
Thanks for sharing, Blake.
I'm also reading The Notes, I think since you tweeted a quote from it a while back. I like to read in pieces, too, spending a day to sit with a passage. Here's a line that sticks with me:
"The artist. He never found the right shade of the color he had chosen (even though he had covered half the world in his search), and it was all extremely complicated:—there was no life in it. He only found the right color when he wrote in his own blood; then it all became very simple." (p.106)
The Ascent is worthwhile too, though his writing can feel a little over-serious. Combining the two produces a similar effect to reading the Bible (moral tales mixed with commandments). But I find most of it very inspiring; passages from The Notes can feel like revelatory assurances of my brain's hesitancies. I'm very interested now to combine it with the Hilst.
Makes for great toilet reading!