John what a fabulous article. But Ahem Ahem, you have basically revealed all the secrets of a great author to your readers. It is such a pleasure to read what you think about writing a book. Yes, all the challenges and all the feel-good thoughts about your own book to really wanting to write more and more. lovely.
I'm about to enter (tomorrow!) my 33rd and final year as a high school English teacher, and I feel like I need your book now (or even better, last week). You've been a crucial voice in this particular discussion about the role of AI and in the larger conversation about teaching writing. The work that sustains you sustains others, and it has energized me in vital ways. Thank you for doing what you do and for being here week after week for all of us.
I have been trying to figure out how to engage more men in reading, too. My partner is in a book club that rotates meeting at members' homes. When they met at mine, I thoroughly enjoyed discussing the book with them.
I also listen to the podcast What Should I Read Next? by Anne Bogel. I enjoy it every week and am a member of her Patreon, but it is almost exclusively women as guests and listeners (based on the ads). Where are the men?
I also have an online book club I started at work. We have a core of two women and two men. We read a book a month, each month from a different genre. It works great! I'll be leaving that company in September and the members were very concerned that we keep meeting. We will. I just need to figure out how to meet virtually when we aren't all on the same Teams instance.
In the meantime, if you need any assistance with your project to help get more men reading, let me know how I can help.
Congrats on the book, John! And to help adjust your median male reader, I am a baby at 38 years old.
RE: abandoning books, George Sanders had a good line that made me more willing to give on something that isn't clicking. It is something to the effect of "this isn't the right book for who I am right now." That leaves the door open that while you may not be connecting with a book now, it doesn't mean you won't find yourself in the right place for it later. This happened to me with Blood Meridian.
Lots of times I'll be reading a book and thinking that it's probably a good book, but it's not hitting me at the moment. It's exactly what that Saunders quote describes. And I've definitely come back to books I put down and seen them in a whole new light later.
Wonderful news on the proofs! I have been thinking a lot about the decline of reading. Marshall McLuhan as a riff somewhere about books and horses suggesting that much like horses have declined in the age of the internal combustion engine, new cultural technologies will lead to the decline of reading. I'm hopeful that culture doesn't that way. Sure video games are a new cultural form that seems to be replacing reading and TV as cultural activities. But cultural forms persist and history tends to stranger outcomes than anyone could anticipate.
The book has been so persistent it seems impossible to me that it would disappear, particularly given the way writing is also inextricably intertwined with our humanity. Some people will want to write, the same way some people are compelled to make music (I think). But I do wonder about what happens without a culture of reading. I don't think these things will be sorted in my lifetime (if ever), but I wonder.
I wonder too. I am reading and re-reading Plato's Phaedrus right now, trying to think about Socrates objection's to writing as way of thinking outside my own commitments to the form. I also talk to my son, who reads occasionally but is committed to video games and video. Although it is alien to my own understanding and experience, writing is a specific cultural form that is historically specific in a way that language and music are not.
Congrats! I'll always support a thoughtful critique of AI.
I still have trouble stopping a book. In the past 15 years I can think of maybe 2 books that I stopped reading because they were so bad and a handful of others that I put down thinking "I'll come back to this" with varying degrees of success.
I often find myself hate reading some sections of a book and I realize by the end that even though I was annoyed or constantly critiquing something, I often learn more from the books I hate read, normally either about how my mind works or the minds of others.
I do have to be cognizant of why I'm stopping a book, to make sure it's rooted in something beyond distraction or annoyance. The book I wrote about in my column this week, Banal Nightmare, was almost repulsive at times (not graphic, but in the way it portrays certain emotional states), but I recognized that repulsion as a reaction that meant the book was doing something deliberate to me. I thin the biggest tell for me is if I'm just bored. If that's happening, it's a bad sign.
Congratulations on your page proofs! I’m very excited to read this latest book.
My goal for this year is to model reading and discussing literature every single day, providing my students with a consistent practice of reading and talking about reading. I hope this helps my students, especially my boys, to form a connection to reading.
As a male reader (40 years old), my reading habits benefited a lot from reading about reading from Austin Kleon, especially his "Read like an artist" zine.
What also helped me a lot was setting up a reading challenge in the goodreads app and tracking which books I read. For some reason it often only becomes really clear in hindsight how much impact a book had on me.
I would definitely agree that I start a lot more books than I finish. As a writer and a 37-year-old man, I find that my reading habits definitely differ from those of everyone else I know because I am typically trying to find books that will help me in whatever writing (fiction or poetry) projects I am working on. If something feels like it could inspire me in my own writing, I keep reading--if it feels like too much of a far cry from anything I would write, I usually set it aside. It's a weird way to approach reading, perhaps, but for me it's all about finding the inspiration to help me keep writing.
John, Boomer here, true confession, who learned to read at home, on Dr. Seuss books, 📚 which I still have. I don't actually remember the process. It just seemed that one day I could read. I also had adults who could be persuaded to read to me, and who generously gave me books. For better or worse, reading shaped and continues to shape my life. I am in a book club that does involve wine, but we do actually talk about the book. I spent 10 years of my one wild and precious life teaching in public schools, for my sins, and I can tell you that amid all the handwringing over declining reading scores, etc., practically everything we were directed to do seemed designed to make students hate reading. What can I say? I do see parents reading and modeling the enjoyment of reading with their kids, and that gives me hope.
Oh fantastic, thanks so much for the book recommendation. I have enjoyed Margaret Atwood’s work very much but have somehow never read Oryx and Crake. How?! I’m really looking forward to remedying that.
John what a fabulous article. But Ahem Ahem, you have basically revealed all the secrets of a great author to your readers. It is such a pleasure to read what you think about writing a book. Yes, all the challenges and all the feel-good thoughts about your own book to really wanting to write more and more. lovely.
Cheers! This is such exciting news, John.
I'm about to enter (tomorrow!) my 33rd and final year as a high school English teacher, and I feel like I need your book now (or even better, last week). You've been a crucial voice in this particular discussion about the role of AI and in the larger conversation about teaching writing. The work that sustains you sustains others, and it has energized me in vital ways. Thank you for doing what you do and for being here week after week for all of us.
Congratulations on year 33. An amazing run. Your students have been fortunate to have you as their guide.
I have been trying to figure out how to engage more men in reading, too. My partner is in a book club that rotates meeting at members' homes. When they met at mine, I thoroughly enjoyed discussing the book with them.
I also listen to the podcast What Should I Read Next? by Anne Bogel. I enjoy it every week and am a member of her Patreon, but it is almost exclusively women as guests and listeners (based on the ads). Where are the men?
I also have an online book club I started at work. We have a core of two women and two men. We read a book a month, each month from a different genre. It works great! I'll be leaving that company in September and the members were very concerned that we keep meeting. We will. I just need to figure out how to meet virtually when we aren't all on the same Teams instance.
In the meantime, if you need any assistance with your project to help get more men reading, let me know how I can help.
Congrats on the book, John! And to help adjust your median male reader, I am a baby at 38 years old.
RE: abandoning books, George Sanders had a good line that made me more willing to give on something that isn't clicking. It is something to the effect of "this isn't the right book for who I am right now." That leaves the door open that while you may not be connecting with a book now, it doesn't mean you won't find yourself in the right place for it later. This happened to me with Blood Meridian.
Congrats again!
Lots of times I'll be reading a book and thinking that it's probably a good book, but it's not hitting me at the moment. It's exactly what that Saunders quote describes. And I've definitely come back to books I put down and seen them in a whole new light later.
Wonderful news on the proofs! I have been thinking a lot about the decline of reading. Marshall McLuhan as a riff somewhere about books and horses suggesting that much like horses have declined in the age of the internal combustion engine, new cultural technologies will lead to the decline of reading. I'm hopeful that culture doesn't that way. Sure video games are a new cultural form that seems to be replacing reading and TV as cultural activities. But cultural forms persist and history tends to stranger outcomes than anyone could anticipate.
The book has been so persistent it seems impossible to me that it would disappear, particularly given the way writing is also inextricably intertwined with our humanity. Some people will want to write, the same way some people are compelled to make music (I think). But I do wonder about what happens without a culture of reading. I don't think these things will be sorted in my lifetime (if ever), but I wonder.
I wonder too. I am reading and re-reading Plato's Phaedrus right now, trying to think about Socrates objection's to writing as way of thinking outside my own commitments to the form. I also talk to my son, who reads occasionally but is committed to video games and video. Although it is alien to my own understanding and experience, writing is a specific cultural form that is historically specific in a way that language and music are not.
Congrats! I'll always support a thoughtful critique of AI.
I still have trouble stopping a book. In the past 15 years I can think of maybe 2 books that I stopped reading because they were so bad and a handful of others that I put down thinking "I'll come back to this" with varying degrees of success.
I often find myself hate reading some sections of a book and I realize by the end that even though I was annoyed or constantly critiquing something, I often learn more from the books I hate read, normally either about how my mind works or the minds of others.
I do have to be cognizant of why I'm stopping a book, to make sure it's rooted in something beyond distraction or annoyance. The book I wrote about in my column this week, Banal Nightmare, was almost repulsive at times (not graphic, but in the way it portrays certain emotional states), but I recognized that repulsion as a reaction that meant the book was doing something deliberate to me. I thin the biggest tell for me is if I'm just bored. If that's happening, it's a bad sign.
Congratulations on your page proofs! I’m very excited to read this latest book.
My goal for this year is to model reading and discussing literature every single day, providing my students with a consistent practice of reading and talking about reading. I hope this helps my students, especially my boys, to form a connection to reading.
As a male reader (40 years old), my reading habits benefited a lot from reading about reading from Austin Kleon, especially his "Read like an artist" zine.
What also helped me a lot was setting up a reading challenge in the goodreads app and tracking which books I read. For some reason it often only becomes really clear in hindsight how much impact a book had on me.
Congratulations on the page proofs! Exciting times :)
I would definitely agree that I start a lot more books than I finish. As a writer and a 37-year-old man, I find that my reading habits definitely differ from those of everyone else I know because I am typically trying to find books that will help me in whatever writing (fiction or poetry) projects I am working on. If something feels like it could inspire me in my own writing, I keep reading--if it feels like too much of a far cry from anything I would write, I usually set it aside. It's a weird way to approach reading, perhaps, but for me it's all about finding the inspiration to help me keep writing.
John, Boomer here, true confession, who learned to read at home, on Dr. Seuss books, 📚 which I still have. I don't actually remember the process. It just seemed that one day I could read. I also had adults who could be persuaded to read to me, and who generously gave me books. For better or worse, reading shaped and continues to shape my life. I am in a book club that does involve wine, but we do actually talk about the book. I spent 10 years of my one wild and precious life teaching in public schools, for my sins, and I can tell you that amid all the handwringing over declining reading scores, etc., practically everything we were directed to do seemed designed to make students hate reading. What can I say? I do see parents reading and modeling the enjoyment of reading with their kids, and that gives me hope.
Oh fantastic, thanks so much for the book recommendation. I have enjoyed Margaret Atwood’s work very much but have somehow never read Oryx and Crake. How?! I’m really looking forward to remedying that.