I read a heck of a lot for my job. Briefs, political documents, books, newspapers and magazines - you name it, I am in there and on it. But it is reading to understand and synthesise information for the radio and TV shows I work on. To glean the purpose of what’s being written; how to best use it. And fast.
Rarely do I read to escape. Properly take a trip into someone else’s mind and stay there. And see the world from their point of view.
This week on Woman’s Hour I interviewed Lara Feigel, author and professor of modern literature and culture at King’s College London. She, wanting to help recapture the intensity of our early reading selves for the university students she teaches, has come up with a phrase I want to share with you: reading out of need.
Prof Feigel actively prescribes herself an author she thinks will speak to her in the state she is in and dives in. She focuses exclusively at times on the work of one writer and essentially shacks up with them. They console but also crucially challenge her view of the world and the relationships she is conducting.
After she had miscarriage and found herself growing to uneasy in her marriage, it was Doris Lessing. She says it helped her accept the “place of failure and disappointment”.
More recently, during lockdown, it was DH Lawrence, who among many things, made her look anew at her relationship with anger. A problematic man for many feminists because of his views on women, her choice of who to spend her pandemic with, is all the more the counter-intuitive and interesting.
This intensive approach may not work for all but I love the idea of “reading out of need” as an adult; being as choosy as you might be about what you eat or where you spend your down time. It’s also being highly strategic about an activity people often flop into without much thought.
I did have my nose in a book for a large bit of my childhood. The local Salford library played a key role. Funnily enough the weekly deadline to return books did give me a more urgent sense to rattle through my choices (early love of deadlines showing) - but I was also subsumed for a good few hours at a time. And without knowing it - that was a good, healthy habit that I have lost.
Yes I can blame my work, phone, Netflix or my least favourite excuse of the modern era, being “too busy” (there should be a special place in hell for people who trot that one out ad nauseam or bang on about how tired they are - but that’s a whole other newsletter) - but if you can insert IVF or training for a marathon into your “very busy life”, you can definitely find the time to read.
And we all have the need.
Self-medicating the right literary material might take a while to perfect. I too have that large pile of books on my bedside table that stares at me each evening, rarely getting smaller, unless we have been away and finally the habit briefly returns.
Some, I know, do it via audio books and that is a neat way to fit books into mobile lives. But for me it is about stopping - which is why we wrongly associate reading with holidays - not our day-to-day lives. But reading is about stopping your mind, turning you in a different direction and taking you somewhere else shouldn’t just be an activity reserved for holidays. Ironically we need such stimulation and escape when we are working.
So-called self help books have a place and wisdom to impart - but I challenge you and me - to do as Prof Feigel has - and really hang out with an author who pushes your buttons and shock, horror, has lived this thing called life before. And has something to say that no one else in your world is saying - through their characters, plots and carefully crafted story lines. Ideally you might not even like them at times but from such conflict and challenge comes an energy you might be lacking and relish.
Reading out of need. Do it. I am going to try.
I have a super stressful job and often get pushed to read ‘self help’ books. I prefer escapism and the best fiction books do the job. Reading is my salvation.