I Love Things By Examining Them
From Molly Templeton’s most recent Mark as Read column for Tor.com:
This is how I love things: by examining them. Some things, I want to look more closely at than others. Some I just want to bask in. Some I want to pick up and carry over to every friend I think will understand, to hold them out and say: Here. Try this. I know it’s a whole book and it takes longer than trying a bite of something. Trust me. Please? Or: Can I tell you the seventy-six reasons why this is the best thing I have ever experienced, or at least I think it is at this particular moment in time?
Molly Templeton’s writing for Tor.com is generally great, but this week’s column really resonated with me. A thing that often frustrates folks I know is that I want to pick at the things I read, consider them under a harsh light, poke and prod them until I understand them and how they work. I love things by examining them. That is exactly it. Exactly the thing. To be critical — not to criticize but to think critically — is the way that I engage with the writing I most enjoy. I find joy in coming to grips with a text, with the ways it says what it says, with the ways it succeeds and fails to convey what it means to convey. That’s fun!
Templeton is writing about reading generously, about giving the books we read the breathing space and the grace to be what they are. I appreciate that she makes a distinction between reading critically and being a jerk. These aren’t the same thing! It’s possible to see flaws in a book and still have a great time, to root around and find the inner workings without the whole falling to pieces, to weigh up and toss around and find real pleasure in the weighing and the tossing. And it’s possible to do all of these things without being unkind to an author or disliking a book.
What I Read in July 2023
As I write this, we’re just a few hours past the United States bowing out of the 2023 Women’s World Cup. I’m sad about the loss, but I’m hopeful that the team will come back stronger next time. It wouldn’t be a terrible thing if someone else won, I don’t think. Japan have done it before, in 2011, but they’re playing so well at this tournament that I might just have to root for them. Sweden are perennial contenders, Spain play beautifully, Colombia would are tremendous fun. I would love to see any of them make a deep run. It’s been a fantastic tournament so far. I hope you’ve been watching! Or at least reading while the games are on?
21 Pen Questions
In May, Ana over at The Well-Appointed Desk asked #21PenQuestions and provided her answers to all of them. I haven’t written about my pens here, but I thought that these questions might be a good way to start! I had a lot of fun thinking through my answers. It’s not often I think critically about my (too many?) fountain pens and how or why I use what I use. We choose the things we use intentionally. Why not think about them just a little bit?
Let’s roll.
What I Read in June 2023
We’re halfway through the year, which is somehow a surprising thing. Time moves slow-quick these days, I find. The StoryGraph tells me I’ve read 65 books so far this year, which puts me just a little ways behind the pace I need to set in order to reach 135 books, which is my goal for the year. That’s okay! 135 was always aspirational. At the moment, the point is just to keep reading. I still feel like I’m being spurred on by all the books I wasn’t able to read in grad school. I’ve said this before, but it is a strange thing to feel stuck a little in program that asks you to read. I’m kind of gulping books now, whether I should or not? But I love how it feels to be able to read again and I’ll enjoy it while I have the time. Opening a new book feels wonderful, like opening a little world, and I want to absolutely revel in that feeling while I’ve got it.
Reach out if you’d like — the links are in the sidebar — or follow me on The StoryGraph. As always, I’m happy to hear from you.
A Brief Interview With Your Host
It’s great to get to talk to you, Ian.
Likewise! I’m glad to be here.
You’re an academic librarian, right?
Yes. It’s a job that gives me the opportunity to learn a ton! I’ve always been an enthusiastic consumer of any kind of information and one of the best things about my work is that students and faculty arrive with questions about things I haven’t had the chance to learn about or think about before. This past semester I had a number of questions from students working on theater history projects, which was a lot of fun!
So, you blog now. Tell me about that.
I like writing and I needed something that would drive me to write a little more frequently. It’s easy, as I’m sure you know, to get distracted by tasks other than writing. The blog makes it easier to set a schedule for myself. Feeding it regularly and giving it posts is a motivator in a way that, say, filling a notebook is not.