I am perpetually guilty of romanticizing the quote-unquote Reading Experience. Fetishizing the written narrative, wide-eyedly granting a seductive mystique to the reading and writing processes, fixating on the books themselves as though they’re talismans or trophies. A lot of feel-good nerd theatre. But often it just seems like I read books because, of all the brain-diverting activities available to me, it’s the quietest, the stillest, the most private, the most portable, and the only one that lets me set my own pace and my own hours. Nuts-and-bolts reasons. Don’t tell anyone!
