14 realizations from my year of reading great literature
That it is sobering to think that at a rate of about 10 books a year, I only have time to read another 500 before I return to dust.
That 99.9% of the best works of literature and philosophy have already been written in the last 2,500 years making any “best of the year” list pretty trivial.
That it is profoundly liberating never having to look at the best-selling shelf of a bookshop for inspiration about your next read.
That reading is just like exercising; it requires a scheduled routine and the discipline to get pages in.
That Homer, Dickens, Nietzsche and Wallace are both more approachable and harder to read than you think.
That wisdom is best remembered when you can put a name on it, whether the name is Odysseus, Siddhartha, or Lee.
That it is only upon the second reading of a book that the reading truly begins.
That a book can fill you up with roaring energy even though you only understand 20% of it.
That reading without a pen in hand for marginalia now feels like drinking water with a fork.
That the only “book review” worth reading says more about the reader than about the book.
That every book is a piece of a 2,000 year old civilizational genome.
That we’ve somehow convinced ourselves the Internet revolutionized access to information when we’ve always had libraries.
That a good book is one whose highlighted passages you often return to for comfort, advice or inspiration.
That great books are like lighthouses on the hills of time that help you find your way back through the fog of memory.