Two kinds of readers 2

C.S. Lewis

 In his slender 1961 book An Experiment in Criticism, C.S. Lewis lists four ways in which serious readers can be distinguished from casual readers. These are my terms. Lewis himself calls them the few and the many. The few, as I discussed a few days ago, often reread favorite books. The many rarely do. 

This time let's consider a second distinguishing mark: their attitude toward reading.

The majority of readers, Lewis says, view reading as a last resort. It's something they do when there is nothing better to do. "They abandon it with alacrity as soon as any alternative pastime turns up," Lewis writes. "It is kept for railway journeys, illnesses, odd moments of enforced solitude, or for the process called 'reading oneself to sleep.'"

Yet many such people, it seems to me, don't even read much in these situations. They may take a book to the beach or a summer cabin but read just a chapter or two during the entire week. On a long flight they would rather watch a movie or talk to a stranger in the next seat than open a book. In a waiting room, they would rather just wait.

Contrast that attitude with that of the few, those of us who deliberately set apart a portion of each day for reading. For some this may be bedtime, though as with Lewis this makes little sense to me. I go to bed to sleep, not to read. I set aside most of the afternoon for reading. I maintain a stack of four books, two fiction and two nonfiction. I usually read a portion from each book each afternoon.

Usually some books are more interesting than others, but my ritual keeps me disciplined. I always feel fulfilled when dinnertime comes around and I have read my quota of pages. I have accomplished something, even if I haven't actually finished reading anything.

"When they are denied such attentive and undisturbed reading even for a few days they feel impoverished," Lewis writes. How right he is.