Monday, December 16, 2024

Reading 100 pages a day

 I read Matthew Walther’s essay “The One Hundred Pages Strategy” with fascination.

Walther, editor of The Lamp, reads 100 pages a day. He describes that as a strategy, rather than a goal. He discusses ways he’s been able to make more time for reading.

I just can’t think that way — although his essay did make me think.

I suppose I see reading as a kind of pleasure: a vital one. But if I decided that the ice cream cone is a vital pleasure, it would not dawn on me to let no day pass without eating five.

For me, something about a real pleasure resists quantification.

• Matthew Walther, “The One Hundred Pages Strategy”; The Lamp, Christmas 2024. It’s here:

https://thelampmagazine.com/issues/issue-26/the-one-hundred-pages-strategy

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1 comment:

  1. Michael LeddyDecember 18, 2024 at 6:42 PM

    His essay reminded me of what someone said when I explained that it was difficult to do research and critical writing during the fall or spring semester — oh, it’s easy, fifteen minutes here, fifteen minutes there. And he wasn't joking.

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