Some Philosophy of Reading

Each post I write starts somewhere. Usually, I start with reading. Let's talk about reading today.

Stories, fiction or non-fiction, are part of our natural makeup. We are attracted to listening and reading stories to learn about the world around us. Via reading stories, we are exposed to the thoughts of others. Our minds mingle with another mind's perspective, which, if we find meaningful, our ideas change.

The game-changer for me was when I started reading to create notes from my reading. I found myself reading closer, thinking more about what the author is saying, and trying to fit it into my life. There are a variety of strategies for making notes. Some of which I may go into in the future.

Here are a few reading tips.

1. Read only books that are interesting to you.
2. Read only the exciting parts of those books.
3. Reflect on what you read. This is the grunt work of reading and thinking. It's how wisdom is acquired.
4. If the book is not good, just stop reading. Nobody is watching. Nobody is keeping score.
5. There are compounding returns to being obsessed with reading, so start young and never stop. It is never too late to start being obsessed.
6. Read in a cluster. Read books on the same topic by the same author or biographies of the same person by different authors.
7. Keep your eye out for key terms that represent meaningful ideas.
8. When we read, we are reading the author's mental processes.
9. Close reading can help you see where ideas are similar and if the ideas are more or less extensively developed.
10. Buying a book doesn't buy the time to read it. Don't confuse the purchasing of books with the acquisition of their content. This phenomenon is called The Collector's Fallacy.

Prior Writing on ‘Reading’

3 reading quotes — kestrelcreek.com
Hupomnemata/Zettelkasten — kestrelcreek.com

(306 words)

Please, continue the conversation anytime: will@kestrelcreek.com .

References

• Schopenhauer: On Reading and Books

The Benefits of Blogging

I've been thinking about friendships lately. Building and maintaing friendships is a keystone skill. We don't treat the work infolve in friendships as a skill but we can benifit if we do. What is the work of building and maintaining friendships? Friends make us smarter, healthier, wealthier and most importantly happier.

"We become who we are in great part because of the friends we have." — Alexander Nehamas

Cultivating friendships is important because the traits of the people who we associate with rub off on us and greatly influence who we become.

As part of my goal to develop a friendship muscle, I'm decating myself to this blog. It is a work in progress. You can help by sharing what you think in the comments.

1. A blog shares knowledge.

"Sharing is caring." Corny, but something I want to do more sharing. I know a lot in various domains and don't share what I've learned. I steal from other bloggers what they have learned without reciprocating.

2. A blog clarifies my understanding of what I share.

Not sharing and writing about my understanding leaves the knowledge floating in the nebulous mind space unmoored by reality. I can't say I know something until I write it down.

3. A blog gives a creative outlet.

I'm of the age (old) where I benefit from staying mentally active. Hopefully, I can stretch my writing muscles and say something interesting.

Oh, look, the Palouse

On my walk, I hear the overhead roar of a passenger jet. I look up, searching the sky ahead of where I triangulate the engine sound is coming from, hoping to spot the jet. All I see is the rough outline of the wings and the fuselage. I'm lucky. My eyes lead to the prize following the aerial wake of the jet's engines.

I watch the passenger jet fly by and guess their flight path. Seattle to Chicago or Spokane to Salt Lake City. I rarely see an eastbound flight. They must be part of the nocturnal sky. Can they see me from up there? As a human in the landscape, I'm invisible to the passengers.

Maybe at the very moment the pilot indicates the cruising altitude and speed with the expected arrival time, some passenger looks up from the morning paper and glances out the window thinking: Oh, look, the Palouse.

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A short creative writing exercise inspired by my reading of Paolo Cognetti's 2022 book 'The Lovers'

Blessed Are

Poet philosopher Robert Wrigley published a book of poetry titled "Box." Here I quote from the "About Author" page. "A University Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the University of Idaho, he lives in the woods near Moscow, Idaho, with his wife, the writer Kim Barnes."

The collection is moving, playful, heartfelt, bright-eyed, lush, alluring, and lavish in high relief. It is hard to choose which poem to write about "Blessed Are" caught my attention. Its focus on the life cycle, or the death cycle of "a fallen deer," places ravens at the beginning and the end with things that eat dead things in the middle, creating a circle.

Here are a couple of lines from the poem.

and the sight through my binoculars puts me eye-to-eye with you and the eye you eat and squabble over,

opening now and then your wings in excitable Corvidae vexations, like a scrum of omnivorous umbrellas. (Wrigley 5)

Ravens (Corvidae) are a mythical sign of death. Wrigley returns at the end, circling towards completion. He invisions one raven perching on the skeletal rib cage of the deer, "returning to reciting, for all the world, your ravenous beatitudes."

and one of you will perch upon a bare rib then, to recite, for all the world, your ravenous beatitudes. (Wrigley 6)

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References

• Wrigley, Robert. Box (Penguin Poets) Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. 2017

Correspondence Bias

The correspondence bias is the tendency to draw inferences about a person's unique and enduring dispositions from behaviors that can be entirely explained by the situations in which they occur.

For instance, if we see someone driving recklessly, we think they are doing it intentionally and are stupid. When we drive fast, it is because we have to get to an appointment on time, and we are being responsible.

I'm guilty of doing this, but when I remember I have this correspondence bias, I can loosen my grip on my certainties.

Five Minute Sensory Walk

At the bottom of our gravel driveway, I walked a short section of a small side tributary to the Middle Fork of the Potlatch River that borders the property. I focused closely on the meditative rhythmic sound of walking on gravel and how it synchronizes with my leg muscles contracting and relaxing. I stepped off the dusty gravel road, where the moist, cold morning air changes from a mixture of dust and smoke to the sweet, musty scent of plants decaying back into the soil. I noticed the taste of the mornings' coffee laced with cream is swirling over my tongue as I turn to ascend alongside the creek. Once teeming with spawning salmon, this small creek, is now dry as a result of the neighbor's farming practices. A Northern Flicker eerily announces her presence with a high pitched squeal that emanates like a rifle shot from somewhere high in the Cottonwood grove. As I move higher up the creek, the air smells sweeter and less dusty. I see a pair of Mourning Doves and remember that I read somewhere that Mourning Doves mate for life.

The Last Time Meditation

I don't know how many interactions I have left. Can I make each one matter?

When I'm hugging the one I love for the last time, I don't know that I'm hugging the one I love for the last time.

Stop and consider what I'm doing. I may be doing it for the last time. This adds something that I can savor to the moment. Reflection on the transitory nature of things brings a sparkle to the moment, making it poignant. If just for a moment.

The task then becomes "rinse and repeat."