A new year often signals a fresh TBR (To Be Read) pile. It brims with good intentions, guilt divided evenly between Christmas gifts begging to be addressed and the books from 2023 you thought you had time to read but didn’t. But — of course — reading shouldn’t be a chore, an endless game of catch-up or a slog powered by a sense that you’re missing out on the best of the year’s crop.
In the wonderful phrase of a friend, perhaps it’s time to set an anti-resolution instead — to settle into a slow classic, and give yourself the gift of unrushed reading. Spending time in the pages of just one book for months, sometimes years, is a rarity in our hurried age.
I’ve been reading the swedish translation of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance together with my girlfriend. We sit next to each other in the couch with the book between us and read out the sentences to each other. First I read, then she repeats the same sentence. She’s learning swedish pronounciation and melody. In the more philosophy heavy pages we often comment on how it relates to Plato or anything that comes to mind. It’s a great conversation, and a great way to read this book.