Thank you for articulating the shared feeling we readers experience regarding our inability to read as many books as we would like in one lifetime, Hiba.
But then, the question becomes: "How do we decide what books to read?"
I really loved the concept of knowing the book's location in the broader corpus of its period. To elaborate, perhaps knowing the book's degree of influence on other books—akin to the number of citations a scholarly article receives—would allows us to choose it when exploring a new topic and to rank-order our reading list accordingly.
Likewise, audiobooks can allow us to "read"—or at least perfomatively read with substantial depth—more books, as we can do so while engaging in other activities.
I've seen several debates on Substack regarding the status of audiobooks and whether they can provide a true reading experience. To be honest, the people I know who use audiobooks only use them to "read faster" and reach their Goodreads yearly goal. That, without a doubt, is performative. But when audiobooks are taken up slowly and genuinely by someone only wishing to diversify their reading habits, it can be legitimate. It's a layered discussion and there doesn't seem to be a fixed opinion anywhere. But if it comes to me personally, I'd say any form of reading is valid when the intent is valid.
I'm glad you enjoyed this article! The concept of performativity in hobbies is something I think everyone should be aware of, so that we stop living for others and start living for ourselves in the truest way possible.
I personally listen to them during stretching sessions and during workouts. During the former,I find them to be more similar to a deep-reading activity because light physical activity allows for deep reading from my experience. On the other hand, during the latter, I found it to he more similar to a performative reading.
Thank you for articulating the shared feeling we readers experience regarding our inability to read as many books as we would like in one lifetime, Hiba.
But then, the question becomes: "How do we decide what books to read?"
I really loved the concept of knowing the book's location in the broader corpus of its period. To elaborate, perhaps knowing the book's degree of influence on other books—akin to the number of citations a scholarly article receives—would allows us to choose it when exploring a new topic and to rank-order our reading list accordingly.
Likewise, audiobooks can allow us to "read"—or at least perfomatively read with substantial depth—more books, as we can do so while engaging in other activities.
I've seen several debates on Substack regarding the status of audiobooks and whether they can provide a true reading experience. To be honest, the people I know who use audiobooks only use them to "read faster" and reach their Goodreads yearly goal. That, without a doubt, is performative. But when audiobooks are taken up slowly and genuinely by someone only wishing to diversify their reading habits, it can be legitimate. It's a layered discussion and there doesn't seem to be a fixed opinion anywhere. But if it comes to me personally, I'd say any form of reading is valid when the intent is valid.
I'm glad you enjoyed this article! The concept of performativity in hobbies is something I think everyone should be aware of, so that we stop living for others and start living for ourselves in the truest way possible.
I personally listen to them during stretching sessions and during workouts. During the former,I find them to be more similar to a deep-reading activity because light physical activity allows for deep reading from my experience. On the other hand, during the latter, I found it to he more similar to a performative reading.
I don't even know what I just read (this piece)