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“...striking imagination and creativity.”

- Anthony Tommasini, The New York Times

Reading :: 11.03.2007

There are those who read, and those who do not read.
There are those who only read road-signs, and only if necessary.
There are those who read only their email.
There are those who read the same books twice, at least.
There are those who read one book after another, and never again, often with the aid of a list to maintain order in their task.
There are those who read on planes, trains, and occasionally in waiting rooms of doctors’ offices — but never while standing.
There are those who, when reading in public, laugh out loud, and even sigh.
There are those who open books in public, but don’t read but a line, but instead look up, look down, look to the left, look ahead, read a line (generally the same one), adjust their legs, push their hair over their ears, look to the right, yawn, read another three lines, check their cell phone…
There are those who do read while standing.
There are those who do not read at all, but who look at the pictures.
There are those who move their lips while reading, and those who read in their head.
There are those who imagine accents and tones of voice for different characters.
There are those who read celebrity magazines, and who take the quizzes, although they do not record the results with a pen, while there are also those who take the quizzes and do write down the answers, calculate the scores, and ponder the results.
There are those who read while eating, or while on hold with the phone company.
There are those who read as part of a book club.
There are those who read plays, and those who do not read plays.
There are those who read biographies of scientists.
There are those who only buy used books.
There are those who own multiple editions of the same book, so as to compare editorial influence, quality of translation where applicable, type-face, etc.
There are those who read while on vacation.
There are those who reread paragraphs because they were actually thinking about their dry-cleaning, and where that blue sweater could possibly be.
There are those who make up names and places when encountering _______ in certain Nineteenth Century masterpieces by authors such as Mr. _______ and Madame de_______, and especially in the works coming from a certain B_______.
There are those who read Dostoyevsky, and those who do not read Dostoyevsky.
There are those who read the entirety (more or less) of the works of a single author before so much as glancing at another printed edition of anything.
There are those who cannot finish a book.
There are those who see films based on books and speak authoritatively about their authors.
There are those who forget the titles of the books they have read, though they can remember the most intricate details of characterization, setting, tone, and theme.
There are those who grasp not an inkling of characterization, setting, tone, and theme, but who remember the every name of every character of every author’s every book.
There are those who read self-help books.
There are those who read license plates.

And then, there are those who go to concerts…

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