The joy of reading difficult things

I typically read about a book a week. The majority of those are nonfiction with an occasional fiction one thrown in as well. Some of my recent favorites are The Power of Habit, Salt, and Moonwalking With Einstein. Those are all great but they’re also all pretty easy reads. They give my brain just enough to feel productive but not enough to really chew on.

Two weeks ago I picked up The Order of Things, a book I’ve had on my shelf for years. While I’ve only made it 90 pages in, I love it.

As a political theory major in college I read a lot of books like this. Books you struggled with to fully grasp. One of my favorite courses was an upper level Sociology course where the only assignment was reading. No papers, exams, or anything else. That reading made for the most challenging class I took in college.

Somewhere along the way I forgot the joy of sitting down to slowly and deliberately work my way through a book. I’m glad I found it again.

Comments

Cat Rymer says:

I recently resolved to do the same. Any interest in ever coordinating our reading so there’s someone to discuss and share insights with?

Possibly, depends what you’re reading. 🙂

One thing I plan to do is add a “Reading” section of this site to track what I’ve read and the notes that go along with it.

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