On Reading · Part 1
Deciding on a thing, opening it, finishing it - the small sequence that separates a reader from an audience.
By Mara Ellison · 5 min read
Reading on purpose feels almost quaint now - deciding on a thing, opening it, and finishing it. But that small sequence is the entire difference between being a reader and being an audience.
An audience is shown what performs. A reader goes looking. The web still rewards the second behaviour; it has simply stopped defaulting to it, and the default is most of what any of us ever do.
So I have started treating reading as a decision rather than a reflex: a thing I choose at the start of an hour, not a thing that happens to me at the end of a thumb. It is slower. It is also the only reading that stays.
An audience is shown what performs; a reader goes looking.
None of this requires leaving anything. It only requires arriving on purpose.
In this series