“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.