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Prioritizing Reading and Writing
Graphomania Queries from Hesther and Oliver
© 2016 James LaFond
MAR/18/16
“One question I have is how you keep from reading all day. I think if I were in your shoes, I would end up using all my time reading and have no time left for writing.”
-Hesther
“What-the-fuck, James, how is it that you write so much and still have time to read all of these books you review? I'm trying to do a review a week and having trouble. How can you put out one a day?”
-Oliver
First of all, I often break a single book up into multiple reviews for various thematic uses, so it seems I review more than I do. Also, about a third of the books I review are books I read years ago and have simply skimmed through or reread sections pertinent to a current project.
From 98-2001 I read almost 1200 books.
In the three earlier decades I typically read a book a week, which means I read almost as much in three years as in three decades.
From 2001-3 I only read a few dozen books as I was training hard.
From 2004-06 I read about 25 books at the same time, finishing a few a week, mostly on the stationary bike and in bed.
From 2006-10 I only read a book a month as I managed a supermarket.
I now currently write as a priority, largely trying to process everything I have read. My current reading list usually consists of ten books being read a little bit at a time as “deep reads” —reflected in He, Moby Dick, The Sardonyx Stone, etc, and of a primary book, of which I finish one per week. My eyes are wearing out and hurt far less writing than reading. Most of my Robert E. Howard reading is done for me, by a comely slave girl who curls up on my lap and reads while I drink beer and take notes. I use audio books too, allowing me to write the review as I listen.
Hesther, Oliver, I love reading, but I have to write or I’ll go completely insane—so I write first, read while I can, and hope it works out. I do take reading vacations, in which case I eat a book in the morning and another in the afternoon. I read for pleasure and work, being able to read books I dislike to get what I am looking for. As for my pace, I read at 40-60 pages per hour, depending on the writer’s style, text density and whether or not I am actively notating. My friend, David, a doctor, with like double my live neurons in his brain, who writes for medical journals, has a variety of reading speeds, and can siphon 200 pages an hour, reading in layers, usually doing one or two rereads.
I currently have a 30-book pile of titles to read for the Liver-Eater Reader, a dozen ongoing “deep reads” and sixty periodicals and books donated and loaned by readers heaped next to my desk.
Thank you both for your support and encouragement—Increase Mather awaits.
‘The Special Project’
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Hdob     Mar 18, 2016

...that one most perilous and long voyage ended, only begins a second; and a second ended, only begins a third, and so on, for ever and for aye.

Favorite from Moby Dick but I have only read it once.
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