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Books Promiscuously Read: Reading as a Way of Life
The critic and scholar Heather Cass White offers an exploration of the nature of reading
Heather Cass White’s Books Promiscuously Read is about the pleasures of reading and its power in shaping our internal lives. It advocates for a life of constant, disorderly, time-consuming reading, and encourages readers to trust in the value of the exhilaration and fascination such reading entails. Rather than arguing for the moral value of reading or the preeminence of literature as an aesthetic form, Books Promiscuously Read illustrates the irreplaceable experience of the self that reading provides for those inclined to do it.
Through three sections―Play, Transgression, and Insight―which focus on three ways of thinking about reading, Books Promiscuously Read moves among and considers many poems, novels, stories, and works of nonfiction. The prose is shot through with quotations reflecting the way readers think through the words of others.
Books Promiscuously Read is a tribute to the whole lives readers live in their books, and aims to recommit people to those lives. As White writes, “What matters is staying attuned to an ordinary, unflashy, mutely persistent miracle; that all the books to be read, and all the selves to be because we have read them, are still there, still waiting, still undiminished in their power. It is an astonishing joy.”
Heather Cass White’s Books Promiscuously Read is about the pleasures of reading and its power in shaping our internal lives. It advocates for a life of constant, disorderly, time-consuming reading, and encourages readers to trust in the value of the exhilaration and fascination such reading entails. Rather than arguing for the moral value of reading or the preeminence of literature as an aesthetic form, Books Promiscuously Read illustrates the irreplaceable experience of the self that reading provides for those inclined to do it.
Through three sections―Play, Transgression, and Insight―which focus on three ways of thinking about reading, Books Promiscuously Read moves among and considers many poems, novels, stories, and works of nonfiction. The prose is shot through with quotations reflecting the way readers think through the words of others.
Books Promiscuously Read is a tribute to the whole lives readers live in their books, and aims to recommit people to those lives. As White writes, “What matters is staying attuned to an ordinary, unflashy, mutely persistent miracle; that all the books to be read, and all the selves to be because we have read them, are still there, still waiting, still undiminished in their power. It is an astonishing joy.”
176 pages, Hardcover
First published July 6, 2021
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August 24, 2021
A academic and literary take on why we read. What reading provides the reader, how we read and the changing reputation of reading and
readers throughout the years. Short essays, some easier to follow than others. Maintains it is best to read wildly, whatever takes the readers fancy. Reading and thoughts about Walt Whitman and Jane Austen, Keats and others. Interesting but not exactly what I thought it would be. Put it down to my reading promiscuously, lol.
readers throughout the years. Short essays, some easier to follow than others. Maintains it is best to read wildly, whatever takes the readers fancy. Reading and thoughts about Walt Whitman and Jane Austen, Keats and others. Interesting but not exactly what I thought it would be. Put it down to my reading promiscuously, lol.
July 11, 2021
All reading has to offer is a particular, irreplaceable internal experience. Readers should keep faith that that experience is enough. We should fight for it, especially if that fight is against our own sense of obligation to the world.
I'm having a bit of trouble figuring out how to review Books Promiscuously Read, a book divided into five distinct parts. The first, shortest part, "Propositions," broken into short, varied sections, deals with the desire to read, how it often conflicts with grown-up life, and how we should nevertheless view it as honorable and necessary.
the opposite of play in a child isn't work. // The opposite of play in a child is reality.
The second part, "Play," pivots to more conventional literary criticism, discussing the effect of constant reading on Don Quixote's sense of reality, before moving on to the relationship between reader and writer in Elizabeth Bishop's poetry, the use of language in Don DeLillo's Underworld, Christopher Bollas's writings on psychoanalysis, Emily Dickinson, Marianne Moore, Marilynne Robinson's Housekeeping, and more. It's dense, heady stuff, but its main point, about the way a reading requires the reader to enter a liminal space of interplay with the mind of the writer, was one that rang true and really appealed to me.
The greater the claims a social system makes on an individual, the graver the transgression of reading will be. Where a threat to the system exists, volunteers will appear spontaneously to monitor and minimize it.
As White points out, Don Quixote was able to engage in all kinds of reading-inspired shenanigans without real consequences because he was a man. In Part III of this book, "Transgressions," White explores, among other things, the effect of reading on those less privileged: How knowledge brings unspeakable pain for Frankenstein's monster, for example, and how literacy brings similar pain but also liberation for writers like Frederick Douglass and William Wells Brown. Dorothea in Middlemarch, White points out, "is as book-crazed, in her way, as Don Quixote," but because of her sex this is seen as transgressive in a way it isn't for him, and her steps out of bounds will thus be viewed more harshly. Less abstract than Part II, this chapter was probably my favorite, fully absorbing and fascinating even though (I admit it) I haven't yet read Middlemarch.
There are times when our reading is so good it causes us to look up from the page—when our reading is so good it makes us stop reading.
I've been there! In Part IV, "Insight," White further explores what the reader can get from reading: the insights that can accrue, but only as we allow the necessary time to take in the words, to remove the barriers to insight we tend to place in our own way, to return again and again to the place of receptivity reading provides. More poetry—Elizabeth Bishop, Wallace Stevens, among others—illustrates her point, and this was the moment when the book fully came together for me, when I felt that sense of interplay between White's mind and my own, and when her writing became the most loose and enjoyable.
What matters is staying attuned to an ordinary, unflashy, mutely persistent miracle: that all the books to be read, and all the selves to be because we have read them, are still there, still waiting, still undiminished in their power.
In Part V, "Conclusions," White returns to the style of Part I, making a variety of points in a series of short sections. What most hit home for me: The portrait of the girl twelve-year-old girl reading and rereading everything in sight, fully absorbed, not yet aware that this passion will not be welcomed in many quarters, that because she is female, her interests will be seen as in need of "revamping." In the face of this, White advises that "if we are lucky, and resilient, and vigilant about respecting our instincts for what feeds us best, grown men and women can practice reading like girls. It goes like this: pick up a book and forget who you are."
So that's it! I think you can tell from the quotes above whether you might enjoy this book. As for me, I rarely read literary criticism of this sort, but the close readings White provides here were exhilarating and inspiring. In exploring the transcendence of reading, White actually tries to provide that experience for her reader, and in my estimation she succeeded.
I received this ARC via NetGalley. Thank you to the publisher.
I'm having a bit of trouble figuring out how to review Books Promiscuously Read, a book divided into five distinct parts. The first, shortest part, "Propositions," broken into short, varied sections, deals with the desire to read, how it often conflicts with grown-up life, and how we should nevertheless view it as honorable and necessary.
the opposite of play in a child isn't work. // The opposite of play in a child is reality.
The second part, "Play," pivots to more conventional literary criticism, discussing the effect of constant reading on Don Quixote's sense of reality, before moving on to the relationship between reader and writer in Elizabeth Bishop's poetry, the use of language in Don DeLillo's Underworld, Christopher Bollas's writings on psychoanalysis, Emily Dickinson, Marianne Moore, Marilynne Robinson's Housekeeping, and more. It's dense, heady stuff, but its main point, about the way a reading requires the reader to enter a liminal space of interplay with the mind of the writer, was one that rang true and really appealed to me.
The greater the claims a social system makes on an individual, the graver the transgression of reading will be. Where a threat to the system exists, volunteers will appear spontaneously to monitor and minimize it.
As White points out, Don Quixote was able to engage in all kinds of reading-inspired shenanigans without real consequences because he was a man. In Part III of this book, "Transgressions," White explores, among other things, the effect of reading on those less privileged: How knowledge brings unspeakable pain for Frankenstein's monster, for example, and how literacy brings similar pain but also liberation for writers like Frederick Douglass and William Wells Brown. Dorothea in Middlemarch, White points out, "is as book-crazed, in her way, as Don Quixote," but because of her sex this is seen as transgressive in a way it isn't for him, and her steps out of bounds will thus be viewed more harshly. Less abstract than Part II, this chapter was probably my favorite, fully absorbing and fascinating even though (I admit it) I haven't yet read Middlemarch.
There are times when our reading is so good it causes us to look up from the page—when our reading is so good it makes us stop reading.
I've been there! In Part IV, "Insight," White further explores what the reader can get from reading: the insights that can accrue, but only as we allow the necessary time to take in the words, to remove the barriers to insight we tend to place in our own way, to return again and again to the place of receptivity reading provides. More poetry—Elizabeth Bishop, Wallace Stevens, among others—illustrates her point, and this was the moment when the book fully came together for me, when I felt that sense of interplay between White's mind and my own, and when her writing became the most loose and enjoyable.
What matters is staying attuned to an ordinary, unflashy, mutely persistent miracle: that all the books to be read, and all the selves to be because we have read them, are still there, still waiting, still undiminished in their power.
In Part V, "Conclusions," White returns to the style of Part I, making a variety of points in a series of short sections. What most hit home for me: The portrait of the girl twelve-year-old girl reading and rereading everything in sight, fully absorbed, not yet aware that this passion will not be welcomed in many quarters, that because she is female, her interests will be seen as in need of "revamping." In the face of this, White advises that "if we are lucky, and resilient, and vigilant about respecting our instincts for what feeds us best, grown men and women can practice reading like girls. It goes like this: pick up a book and forget who you are."
So that's it! I think you can tell from the quotes above whether you might enjoy this book. As for me, I rarely read literary criticism of this sort, but the close readings White provides here were exhilarating and inspiring. In exploring the transcendence of reading, White actually tries to provide that experience for her reader, and in my estimation she succeeded.
I received this ARC via NetGalley. Thank you to the publisher.
February 7, 2021
Why read? Here is a book that endeavors to answer the question in a delightful, engaging, erudite, and interestingly-shaped way. Reading it gave me many different perspectives, some of which felt playfully contradictory, all of which set my brain to rethinking and reimagining why I spend so much time doing it. Why read? What gain is there? What can I expect to learn or experience when I sit down with a book and what can I reasonably demand?
Voluminous use of quotations and sources make this book both interesting in itself and a great springboard for further exploration. I'm not sure that I read it the best way--from beginning to end, as I'd read most books--because it almost feels like something to be savored like a deliciously laden literary salad bar, to be sampled and enjoyed as I wish rather than in a linear way. I didn't feel the swell of a persuasive argument from page to page so much as I felt many "aha" moments that delighted me, as I read along.
Each brief section in part one begins with a declarative sentence, and #21: "The first demand any work of art makes upon us is surrender"...was one of my favorite "aha" moments in the book. The suggestion here that I'm meant to come to a book with open mind and open heart; to yield to what's on the page, at least at first; to enter into a dialog with the words on the pages without judgment or expectation. That's a wonderful thought and a wonderful reminder.
The playfulness, the invitation to a ruminative sort of dance, continues in part 2, aptly named "Play." There are such leaps here in this section between eras and authors and genres...and yet somehow in its particulars, its examination of specifics, it has given me a different way to enter the dialogue with any work I happen to be reading. It's really a delicious mix of things very familiar to me, and things less familiar. My own delight was heightened most by the mixing thoughts the author has about poems by Elizabeth Bishop I know well, with ruminations of the narrator in Marilynne Robinson's HOUSEKEEPING. It's a remarkable and completely new-to-me kind of literary analysis to read even though of course, OF COURSE it's what happens in my mind, as I read--whenever I read something I am the sum of all I've ever read before that present-moment act of reading, and so frequently things combine in just this way in my head. I may like these pages best in White's book because I'm so familiar with the works she's citing together....but she also gives me a method to celebrate and welcome these same synergies that rise up in my brain when I read. Permission to remember the last time I read the same book and how it affected me then; permission to remember a poem or a play or a piece of music, why not, that enters my mind as I'm reading this next thing in my lap. It was very freeing, this idea that these thoughts aren't obstructions to my concentration on the current reading experience...that this is the way I should be reading.
The next section is called TRANSGRESSION. Well, I've done a lot of thinking about transgression in fiction, and it has led me to read a great deal of -contemporary- fiction. So to me this section was interesting and alive and thoughtful, but also something of a disappointment, because the works examined are classic well-known and well-trodden works and while rethinking and recontextualizing them can be interesting that work is not as interesting to me as a look at the newly transgressive fictional and poetic boundaries of 2021 literature would have been.
Then come INSIGHT and CONCLUSIONS...and I feel I've been in such good company, and i'm so grateful to have read this book. I'm still wishing for something more contemporary in its pages but then I remember the early admonition that I loved to be reminded of: "The first demand any work of art makes upon us is surrender." While it wasn't the book I thought I wanted to read, it turned out to be a book I loved to read, once I surrendered to it not being my idea of what it should be about.
Deeply, heartfully recommended for anyone who loves good literature. Thanks to NetGalley and to the publisher for an early look.
Voluminous use of quotations and sources make this book both interesting in itself and a great springboard for further exploration. I'm not sure that I read it the best way--from beginning to end, as I'd read most books--because it almost feels like something to be savored like a deliciously laden literary salad bar, to be sampled and enjoyed as I wish rather than in a linear way. I didn't feel the swell of a persuasive argument from page to page so much as I felt many "aha" moments that delighted me, as I read along.
Each brief section in part one begins with a declarative sentence, and #21: "The first demand any work of art makes upon us is surrender"...was one of my favorite "aha" moments in the book. The suggestion here that I'm meant to come to a book with open mind and open heart; to yield to what's on the page, at least at first; to enter into a dialog with the words on the pages without judgment or expectation. That's a wonderful thought and a wonderful reminder.
The playfulness, the invitation to a ruminative sort of dance, continues in part 2, aptly named "Play." There are such leaps here in this section between eras and authors and genres...and yet somehow in its particulars, its examination of specifics, it has given me a different way to enter the dialogue with any work I happen to be reading. It's really a delicious mix of things very familiar to me, and things less familiar. My own delight was heightened most by the mixing thoughts the author has about poems by Elizabeth Bishop I know well, with ruminations of the narrator in Marilynne Robinson's HOUSEKEEPING. It's a remarkable and completely new-to-me kind of literary analysis to read even though of course, OF COURSE it's what happens in my mind, as I read--whenever I read something I am the sum of all I've ever read before that present-moment act of reading, and so frequently things combine in just this way in my head. I may like these pages best in White's book because I'm so familiar with the works she's citing together....but she also gives me a method to celebrate and welcome these same synergies that rise up in my brain when I read. Permission to remember the last time I read the same book and how it affected me then; permission to remember a poem or a play or a piece of music, why not, that enters my mind as I'm reading this next thing in my lap. It was very freeing, this idea that these thoughts aren't obstructions to my concentration on the current reading experience...that this is the way I should be reading.
The next section is called TRANSGRESSION. Well, I've done a lot of thinking about transgression in fiction, and it has led me to read a great deal of -contemporary- fiction. So to me this section was interesting and alive and thoughtful, but also something of a disappointment, because the works examined are classic well-known and well-trodden works and while rethinking and recontextualizing them can be interesting that work is not as interesting to me as a look at the newly transgressive fictional and poetic boundaries of 2021 literature would have been.
Then come INSIGHT and CONCLUSIONS...and I feel I've been in such good company, and i'm so grateful to have read this book. I'm still wishing for something more contemporary in its pages but then I remember the early admonition that I loved to be reminded of: "The first demand any work of art makes upon us is surrender." While it wasn't the book I thought I wanted to read, it turned out to be a book I loved to read, once I surrendered to it not being my idea of what it should be about.
Deeply, heartfully recommended for anyone who loves good literature. Thanks to NetGalley and to the publisher for an early look.
February 21, 2022
There were many interesting ideas to ponder in this phenomenological exploration of the reading life. While I found the structure and prose-style somewhat fragmented, I enjoyed reflecting on many of the ideas the author presented.
July 18, 2021
This was a good book, but a little bit too intellectual for me. Some good points to ponder, though.
July 6, 2021
Heather Cass White is a poetry editor, an English professor at the University of Alabama and an advocate for reading books with complete abandon. She sees engaging with a book as an experience to be cherished rather than merely a story to be read and argues that reading is one of the purest forms of magic we have, but at some point, to many individuals, it lost the spark of joy true bibliophiles receive from indulging in a world outside of our own. It's divided into five distinct sections: Propositions, Play, Transgression, Insight and Conclusions. Propositions consists of 22 notions about reading taken from prominent published works and writers. I must admit I didn't expect it to read as it did; it has almost a dreamlike, lyrical quality to it that instantly intrigues and keeps you progressing page and after page.
It perfectly illustrates the experience of reading, alongside informing a perspective of it. The chapters Play, Transgression and Insight move to a more conventional prose style and cover the fundamentals of reading in a liberating, freeing fashion and therefore opening ourselves up to new reading experiences rather than just staying within our cosy, unchallenging chosen niche or genre. After all, White posits, how will we ever be surprised by a book if we continue to only read within a narrow margin? Transgression was the most fascinating part for me as it explores reading as an act of rebellion and defiance and only by stepping outside of one's previous self-constructed boundaries can we truly know the pleasure that comes from stepping into a fabulous book.
Insight discusses how we traverse different spheres through entering the fictional world held between the pages of a novel which provide us with a transitory escape from reality; this often serves to nourish our soul and replenish us before returning us to the real world. Citing authors such as Jane Austen, Walt Whitman and quotes from Emily Dickinson, Don DeLillo, and Don Quixote, White reminds us how reading expands our consciousness, helps shape perspectives and ideas, and contributes to our personal growth. Although on its way to becoming more academic than accessible to everyone, White weaves a compelling, thought-provoking and profoundly informative read, which I found interesting and thoroughly entertaining. She explores some abstract concepts throughout but, on the whole, I feel any voracious reader would gain something from picking it up. Dense, reflective and a completely original piece of literary criticism. Highly recommended.
It perfectly illustrates the experience of reading, alongside informing a perspective of it. The chapters Play, Transgression and Insight move to a more conventional prose style and cover the fundamentals of reading in a liberating, freeing fashion and therefore opening ourselves up to new reading experiences rather than just staying within our cosy, unchallenging chosen niche or genre. After all, White posits, how will we ever be surprised by a book if we continue to only read within a narrow margin? Transgression was the most fascinating part for me as it explores reading as an act of rebellion and defiance and only by stepping outside of one's previous self-constructed boundaries can we truly know the pleasure that comes from stepping into a fabulous book.
Insight discusses how we traverse different spheres through entering the fictional world held between the pages of a novel which provide us with a transitory escape from reality; this often serves to nourish our soul and replenish us before returning us to the real world. Citing authors such as Jane Austen, Walt Whitman and quotes from Emily Dickinson, Don DeLillo, and Don Quixote, White reminds us how reading expands our consciousness, helps shape perspectives and ideas, and contributes to our personal growth. Although on its way to becoming more academic than accessible to everyone, White weaves a compelling, thought-provoking and profoundly informative read, which I found interesting and thoroughly entertaining. She explores some abstract concepts throughout but, on the whole, I feel any voracious reader would gain something from picking it up. Dense, reflective and a completely original piece of literary criticism. Highly recommended.
June 13, 2021
This book is part meditation, part literary criticism, and part defense of the reading life as self-building. The writing is deft, and the structure is unconventional. Cass White starts with some assertions about the reading life in general and then goes on to a deeper analysis that uses literary works to back up her thesis. This was the strongest part of the book, looking at how reading is transgressive and an act of self-containment that rebels against the forces that would control us. She uses (among others) Dorothea Brooke and Frankenstein's monster as demonstrations of the power reading has to expand, instruct, and possibly disappoint, and has an especially rich analysis of some of Elizabeth Bishop's poetry.
Cass White also makes it clear that reading in and of itself is not morally superior to any other pursuit, yet how for some people there's a pull to depart from the immediacy of the present and enter the state of reading that can be akin to dreaming.
It's an excellent thought experiment.
Thanks to NetGalley for an advanced review copy of this book.
Cass White also makes it clear that reading in and of itself is not morally superior to any other pursuit, yet how for some people there's a pull to depart from the immediacy of the present and enter the state of reading that can be akin to dreaming.
It's an excellent thought experiment.
Thanks to NetGalley for an advanced review copy of this book.
August 2, 2023
30 Books in 30 Days / Book #2
December 31, 2022
This book is dope. The author's mind when it comes to reading is turned allll the way on. The way she links various concepts (Propositions, Play, Transgression, and Insight) to the love of reading and just gets so deep in it - you feel like you're floating in space. It's beautiful and striking and I've never read a book about books and the love of reading that is as good as this one. I have 54 highlights.
Let me share a few of my favourite passages! Off rip:
Heather Cass White discusses why some adults find it hard to read; theorizing that:
She also discusses the struggles of reading, and what it's like to realize the truth of the world through books. She engages topics of education, book banning, Frederick Douglass, and Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and it's bold enough to hold any reader's attention.
Anyway - homegirl was on one and I really enjoyed her thoughts. Highly recommended for those who like reading books about reading.
Let me share a few of my favourite passages! Off rip:
1. Reading creates minds in its image. A whole life, "right alongside the rest of [a] life," can be lived inside books. A life spent reading affirms the feeling it also creates, that books have "insides." ...
2. Readers should read. Reading is one portal among many to rich inner experience. It is one mode among many of living the life that one has, astonishingly and against all odds, been given.
Heather Cass White discusses why some adults find it hard to read; theorizing that:
"Reading without purpose is playful, and play is not easy for adults." - "Too many people actually do lack the essential conditions for reading: time and silence. These are scarce resources."Also stating that:
"All reading has to offer is a particular, irreplaceable internal experience. Readers should keep faith that the experience is enough. We should fight for it, especially if the fight is against our own sense of obligation to the world. Reading is an activity, a doing something that takes place in.. a region that is neither inside nor outside the self, but a paradoxical space that is both. It is an adult form of the dreamy, abstracted play of children..."
She also discusses the struggles of reading, and what it's like to realize the truth of the world through books. She engages topics of education, book banning, Frederick Douglass, and Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and it's bold enough to hold any reader's attention.
Anyway - homegirl was on one and I really enjoyed her thoughts. Highly recommended for those who like reading books about reading.
February 20, 2021
3.5 rounded up
An illuminating edition to the "books about books" canon, Heather Cass White's Books Promiscuously Read: Reading as a Way of Life focuses on different aspects of what makes reading an enjoyable and enriching endeavour, from a more general, holistic view to an examination of writing at a sentence level -- right down to the cadence and syllables of a specific sentences from different books and the deliberate choices successful authors make in forming memorable prose - the section on DeLillo's Underworld was particularly memorable in this respect. The author uses lots of examples and quotes to demonstrate the points she is making, including Housekeeping, Middlemarch and Frankenstein: The 1818 Text, to name but a few.
More academic than I was perhaps expecting, this is nevertheless an essential and largely accessible book for the shelves of the most passionate and voracious of readers.
Thank you Netgalley and Farar, Straus and Giroux for the advance copy, which was provided in exchange for an honest review.
An illuminating edition to the "books about books" canon, Heather Cass White's Books Promiscuously Read: Reading as a Way of Life focuses on different aspects of what makes reading an enjoyable and enriching endeavour, from a more general, holistic view to an examination of writing at a sentence level -- right down to the cadence and syllables of a specific sentences from different books and the deliberate choices successful authors make in forming memorable prose - the section on DeLillo's Underworld was particularly memorable in this respect. The author uses lots of examples and quotes to demonstrate the points she is making, including Housekeeping, Middlemarch and Frankenstein: The 1818 Text, to name but a few.
More academic than I was perhaps expecting, this is nevertheless an essential and largely accessible book for the shelves of the most passionate and voracious of readers.
Thank you Netgalley and Farar, Straus and Giroux for the advance copy, which was provided in exchange for an honest review.
June 17, 2021
Thank you to the publishers for providing me with an eArc of this book in exchange for my honest review.
Books Promiscuously Read is a critical reading that promises an exploration into the nature of reading. It is separated into five parts with the middle and conclusive part being divided into smaller sections. Unfortunately, the book wasn't what I first led myself to believe. As a reader, I was very excited to dive into another book about reading however, most of the book was not how I perceived it to be.
For me, the first section (Propositions) was very confusing and felt incomplete. By being separated into small sections, it meant that whatever they were talking about in each part didn't have much time to talk and explain the reasons for this. In many sections, I honestly didn't even know what they were trying to talk about no matter how much I had reread and tried to understand what was written. Sometimes the sections would finish abruptly and I would have no satisfaction in its end but was forced to turn the page and move on.
There were many quotes from this section that threw me off and didn't sit right for me, especially this one:
"Reading is time-consuming and requires focus. One has to sit down to do it, in a quiet place."
This is false. There are many other ways that people can and do enjoy reading such as audiobooks and ebooks which people can use at any times throughout the day, with audiobooks you can even use them while doing other things.
In the description for this book, it states that it, "is a tribute to the whole lives readers live in their books and aims to recommit people to those lives." And when reading it I couldn't see how the author was trying to do this.
It is unfortunate that I did not enjoy nor relate to this book in the way that I hoped but I am sure there are other readers out there who would love this book much more than I did! Thank you once again to the publishers for providing me with an arc in exchange for my honest review.
Books Promiscuously Read is a critical reading that promises an exploration into the nature of reading. It is separated into five parts with the middle and conclusive part being divided into smaller sections. Unfortunately, the book wasn't what I first led myself to believe. As a reader, I was very excited to dive into another book about reading however, most of the book was not how I perceived it to be.
For me, the first section (Propositions) was very confusing and felt incomplete. By being separated into small sections, it meant that whatever they were talking about in each part didn't have much time to talk and explain the reasons for this. In many sections, I honestly didn't even know what they were trying to talk about no matter how much I had reread and tried to understand what was written. Sometimes the sections would finish abruptly and I would have no satisfaction in its end but was forced to turn the page and move on.
There were many quotes from this section that threw me off and didn't sit right for me, especially this one:
"Reading is time-consuming and requires focus. One has to sit down to do it, in a quiet place."
This is false. There are many other ways that people can and do enjoy reading such as audiobooks and ebooks which people can use at any times throughout the day, with audiobooks you can even use them while doing other things.
In the description for this book, it states that it, "is a tribute to the whole lives readers live in their books and aims to recommit people to those lives." And when reading it I couldn't see how the author was trying to do this.
It is unfortunate that I did not enjoy nor relate to this book in the way that I hoped but I am sure there are other readers out there who would love this book much more than I did! Thank you once again to the publishers for providing me with an arc in exchange for my honest review.
August 6, 2021
As a reader, I am always fascinated and puzzled when people don’t find the same joy that I do between the pages of a good book. I wanted to read Books Promiscuously Read because I thought that maybe I would find some answers to this question.
It started off promising with little vignettes that were similar to the book Scribbles in the Margin by Daniel Gray. However, the writing pettered off and became very claggy. Everything seemed heavy and whilst you cannot argue that author Heather Cass White had deep opinions on the matter I felt like I was wading through hoummas to try and get to her point. Ironically, a book that is supposed to be about reading as a way of life became such a dirge for me and I became exhausted by its heaviness. I spent the time reading the words to get it finished and not because I enjoyed it.
Sadly, Books Promiscuously Read was not for me.
It started off promising with little vignettes that were similar to the book Scribbles in the Margin by Daniel Gray. However, the writing pettered off and became very claggy. Everything seemed heavy and whilst you cannot argue that author Heather Cass White had deep opinions on the matter I felt like I was wading through hoummas to try and get to her point. Ironically, a book that is supposed to be about reading as a way of life became such a dirge for me and I became exhausted by its heaviness. I spent the time reading the words to get it finished and not because I enjoyed it.
Sadly, Books Promiscuously Read was not for me.
May 14, 2021
As a librarian, I love books about books— love letters to books, so I was thrilled to hear about Books Promiscuously Read. However, I could not help but feel that the first section- Propositions- was written like Royal decrees. And while I’ve never been one to buck authority, I felt myself rebelling, thinking “who are you to say how I should read or how I should feel when reading?”
This book was deeply cerebral and perhaps had some nuggets of insight into reading and books. However, I found that the author expounded more on life, philosophy, and topics tangential to books far more than reading itself. For someone who enjoys that type of musings, it would be deeply interesting, but it is not the type of book I was seeking or expecting.
This book was deeply cerebral and perhaps had some nuggets of insight into reading and books. However, I found that the author expounded more on life, philosophy, and topics tangential to books far more than reading itself. For someone who enjoys that type of musings, it would be deeply interesting, but it is not the type of book I was seeking or expecting.
Read
April 7, 2023Review forthcoming in Rain Taxi Review of Books.
December 28, 2024
There were some sections and statements I really liked but most of this book was using analysis of classic pieces to kind of get back to the point the author is making? Made a majority of the book feel very much like an English class paper
April 24, 2021
I think I was hoping this book would be about reading multiple books at one time and this wasn't it. It's a much more introspective "why are we READERS" discussion, which was nice but wasn't holding my attention.
December 14, 2023
I loved this book! It was thoughtful and lovely.
Read
June 22, 2021For a reader, there is nothing like delving into the pages of a good book. Reading serves as a method for traveling across time and distance, and for looking into minds and hearts radically different from our own. Books provide anything from a breezy escape from the everyday on a summer afternoon to an insightful examination of the darkest parts of human nature. Books are, as many writers have said before, a special kind of magic.
But not everyone views reading as an active or demanding activity. After all, the reader is just sitting there, staring at pieces of paper (or pixels on a screen, or listening to a narrator) instead of doing something active like housework, sports, walking the dog, or chatting with other people in the room. “What use is reading?” the non-reader asks, forcing the reader to justify their beloved activity. “Reading engages different parts of the brain”, we might say. Or, “We learn empathy by reading this novel”, or “We’re learning about this vital subject by reading the latest nonfiction book”.
Of course, these answers often feel trite to serious readers who just want to be left alone with a new book. But the doubters may have a point, as Heather Cass White points out in her new book, Books Promiscuously Read. Reading is a dangerous act. A book transmits information from one person to another to another, and there’s no knowing whose hands that book could end up in, or what sorts of ideas it could inspire. Books have led to political revolutions, galvanized movements, and upended our notions about the foundations of life as we know it.
Books are dangerous.
This is why pearl-clutchers throughout the ages have decried salacious or violent elements in books, why dictators make lists of forbidden texts, and why readers around the world and throughout history have risked their lives to get their hands on books. People want their stories, no matter what it takes to get them. Reading opens the mind to world, though the reader may not always like what they encounter. In one chapter, White discusses the writings of enslaved Black Americans who learned to read in the South, despite the laws forbidding it. Frederick Douglass, for example, wrote of how his eyes were opened to lives other than his own– free lives– and that it made his own condition seem even worse in comparison. But would he have traded his nearly unbearable knowledge of the world for the ignorance of his childhood? No, he undoubtedly would not have, for his knowledge gave him the ability to rise above the level that slave-owners intended for him.
White also notes that high illiteracy rates among women in developing countries prevents those women from attaining or even advocating for gender equality, which prevents their children and successive generations from climbing out of poverty themselves. Being able to decipher marks on a page grants a reader more than just the ability to enjoy the latest bestseller. It gives them the power to understand the world around them, and from there it grants the ability to do something as simple as reading a street sign to something as complicated as learning an intricate scientific process. If knowledge is power, then the ability to read is critical.
Books Promiscuously Read is a series of thoughtful meditations about the act of reading, and how reading affects our lives. White urges us to read widely- promiscuously, even- as one can never know what new book or idea will inspire new ideas and new ways of looking at the world. If there’s a flaw in White’s approach, it’s in the books and she chooses to quote in these essays. All the passages come from classics, poetry, and literary fiction, which some- but not all- readers may recognize, but not necessarily feel drawn to. For a book that praises the act of reading and asks that readers be promiscuous in their reading tastes, acknowledging that genre fiction– mysteries, thrillers, science fiction and fantasy, and especially romance– is what keeps the publishing industry alive so highbrow literary types can have their obscure novels, would not go amiss. Still, White doesn’t bemoan the existence of genre fiction and this alone sets her apart from other members of the literati who would rather have an eye put out than read the latest from Stephen King or Nora Roberts.
As passive as it might seem, reading is a dangerous activity. When we open a book, we don’t know what we’ll pick up from it. Maybe it will be nothing. Maybe it will be an idea that changes the world. It’s hard to say, but the adventure involved in finding out is worth it. For readers in need of a defense of their passion, Books Promiscuously Read provides that and more.
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Thank you to NetGalley and Farrar, Straus, and Giroux for providing me with a free ebook in exchange for an honest review. This did not affect my opinion.
But not everyone views reading as an active or demanding activity. After all, the reader is just sitting there, staring at pieces of paper (or pixels on a screen, or listening to a narrator) instead of doing something active like housework, sports, walking the dog, or chatting with other people in the room. “What use is reading?” the non-reader asks, forcing the reader to justify their beloved activity. “Reading engages different parts of the brain”, we might say. Or, “We learn empathy by reading this novel”, or “We’re learning about this vital subject by reading the latest nonfiction book”.
Of course, these answers often feel trite to serious readers who just want to be left alone with a new book. But the doubters may have a point, as Heather Cass White points out in her new book, Books Promiscuously Read. Reading is a dangerous act. A book transmits information from one person to another to another, and there’s no knowing whose hands that book could end up in, or what sorts of ideas it could inspire. Books have led to political revolutions, galvanized movements, and upended our notions about the foundations of life as we know it.
Books are dangerous.
This is why pearl-clutchers throughout the ages have decried salacious or violent elements in books, why dictators make lists of forbidden texts, and why readers around the world and throughout history have risked their lives to get their hands on books. People want their stories, no matter what it takes to get them. Reading opens the mind to world, though the reader may not always like what they encounter. In one chapter, White discusses the writings of enslaved Black Americans who learned to read in the South, despite the laws forbidding it. Frederick Douglass, for example, wrote of how his eyes were opened to lives other than his own– free lives– and that it made his own condition seem even worse in comparison. But would he have traded his nearly unbearable knowledge of the world for the ignorance of his childhood? No, he undoubtedly would not have, for his knowledge gave him the ability to rise above the level that slave-owners intended for him.
White also notes that high illiteracy rates among women in developing countries prevents those women from attaining or even advocating for gender equality, which prevents their children and successive generations from climbing out of poverty themselves. Being able to decipher marks on a page grants a reader more than just the ability to enjoy the latest bestseller. It gives them the power to understand the world around them, and from there it grants the ability to do something as simple as reading a street sign to something as complicated as learning an intricate scientific process. If knowledge is power, then the ability to read is critical.
Books Promiscuously Read is a series of thoughtful meditations about the act of reading, and how reading affects our lives. White urges us to read widely- promiscuously, even- as one can never know what new book or idea will inspire new ideas and new ways of looking at the world. If there’s a flaw in White’s approach, it’s in the books and she chooses to quote in these essays. All the passages come from classics, poetry, and literary fiction, which some- but not all- readers may recognize, but not necessarily feel drawn to. For a book that praises the act of reading and asks that readers be promiscuous in their reading tastes, acknowledging that genre fiction– mysteries, thrillers, science fiction and fantasy, and especially romance– is what keeps the publishing industry alive so highbrow literary types can have their obscure novels, would not go amiss. Still, White doesn’t bemoan the existence of genre fiction and this alone sets her apart from other members of the literati who would rather have an eye put out than read the latest from Stephen King or Nora Roberts.
As passive as it might seem, reading is a dangerous activity. When we open a book, we don’t know what we’ll pick up from it. Maybe it will be nothing. Maybe it will be an idea that changes the world. It’s hard to say, but the adventure involved in finding out is worth it. For readers in need of a defense of their passion, Books Promiscuously Read provides that and more.
-----
Thank you to NetGalley and Farrar, Straus, and Giroux for providing me with a free ebook in exchange for an honest review. This did not affect my opinion.
July 11, 2021
Originally published at Reading Reality
I picked this one up for the title, because honestly, that title feels like a combination of the story of my life and raison d’etre. I’ve always been a reader, and I’ll stop when they pry my last book, whether it’s print or electronic or audio, out of my cold, dead hands or ears.
So I was kind of hoping for the story of a reading life. I was expecting either an exhortation, a manifesto, a kind of “preaching to the choir” – or all of the above.
I think I got everything except the part I was most hoping for, that story of a reading life. Or rather, the story of a particular reading life. There was plenty about why one should have a reading life – no matter how much the author would say that using the word “should” in reference to reading is pretty much the kiss of death when it comes to reading as promiscuously as she advocates.
Or, rather, I’ve frequently found the word “should” in reference to my own reading as almost a guaranteed death knell to my own enjoyment of a book. There have been exceptions, of course. But I generally have to play mental games with myself to make sure I read the books that I’ve obligated myself to in one way or another.
I found the most interesting part of the book to be the chapters about reading as a transgressive act. So many repressive societies, historically and in the present day, our own and elsewhere, attempt to restrict either the ability to read or the availability of reading material as a method of curbing that transgression.
Attempts that always fail, at least in the long run, because the words we read have a life of their own, and are capable of reaching audiences and interpretations that their authors never intended. That’s part of what makes a classic a classic, in that it still has meaning after the era for which it was written and intended.
It’s that thing that gives a reader that shiver up the spine, that frisson of extra-awareness, that tells a reader not just that words have power, but that this particular set of words has the power to move, if not mountains, at least to move us.
I picked this up because the title represents my own life. I read constantly and certainly promiscuously, in search of escape, adventure, identity, experience and every other thing possible to find between pages in a book.
I don’t think this book will convert a non-reader to being a reader, and I don’t think that’s the intent. I think, or perhaps I feel, that the intent is to remove the guilt from reading, and to get people to think of reading as a way of life – or many lives – and not just a secret pleasure that can only be indulged in when all the necessities of life are finished. If they ever are.
Reality Rating B: People who enjoy reading books about books and reading will get something out of the hypotheses and the concluding hopes for readers. Others are unlikely to pick it up in the first place.
I’m left in the place I began, reminding myself of the following quote from George R.R. Martin:
“A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies. The man who never reads lives only one.” Although I’d prefer a perhaps slightly less pithy but more inclusive phrasing, “A reader lives a thousand lives before they die. The person who never reads lives only one.” Because I’ve seen places and lived lives that would otherwise be impossible, and my life has certainly been the richer for it.
I picked this one up for the title, because honestly, that title feels like a combination of the story of my life and raison d’etre. I’ve always been a reader, and I’ll stop when they pry my last book, whether it’s print or electronic or audio, out of my cold, dead hands or ears.
So I was kind of hoping for the story of a reading life. I was expecting either an exhortation, a manifesto, a kind of “preaching to the choir” – or all of the above.
I think I got everything except the part I was most hoping for, that story of a reading life. Or rather, the story of a particular reading life. There was plenty about why one should have a reading life – no matter how much the author would say that using the word “should” in reference to reading is pretty much the kiss of death when it comes to reading as promiscuously as she advocates.
Or, rather, I’ve frequently found the word “should” in reference to my own reading as almost a guaranteed death knell to my own enjoyment of a book. There have been exceptions, of course. But I generally have to play mental games with myself to make sure I read the books that I’ve obligated myself to in one way or another.
I found the most interesting part of the book to be the chapters about reading as a transgressive act. So many repressive societies, historically and in the present day, our own and elsewhere, attempt to restrict either the ability to read or the availability of reading material as a method of curbing that transgression.
Attempts that always fail, at least in the long run, because the words we read have a life of their own, and are capable of reaching audiences and interpretations that their authors never intended. That’s part of what makes a classic a classic, in that it still has meaning after the era for which it was written and intended.
It’s that thing that gives a reader that shiver up the spine, that frisson of extra-awareness, that tells a reader not just that words have power, but that this particular set of words has the power to move, if not mountains, at least to move us.
I picked this up because the title represents my own life. I read constantly and certainly promiscuously, in search of escape, adventure, identity, experience and every other thing possible to find between pages in a book.
I don’t think this book will convert a non-reader to being a reader, and I don’t think that’s the intent. I think, or perhaps I feel, that the intent is to remove the guilt from reading, and to get people to think of reading as a way of life – or many lives – and not just a secret pleasure that can only be indulged in when all the necessities of life are finished. If they ever are.
Reality Rating B: People who enjoy reading books about books and reading will get something out of the hypotheses and the concluding hopes for readers. Others are unlikely to pick it up in the first place.
I’m left in the place I began, reminding myself of the following quote from George R.R. Martin:
“A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies. The man who never reads lives only one.” Although I’d prefer a perhaps slightly less pithy but more inclusive phrasing, “A reader lives a thousand lives before they die. The person who never reads lives only one.” Because I’ve seen places and lived lives that would otherwise be impossible, and my life has certainly been the richer for it.
May 3, 2022
*I received a free ARC of this book, with thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley. The decision to review and my opinions are my own.*
Far more dense and scholarly than I was expecting, this book is made up of a series of short passages constructing an argument for how and why we read, referencing sources from Don Quixote and Middlemarch to poetry and Plato.
I love books about books and reading, so thought this would be right up my street, but was somewhat taken aback by the initial prepositions which seemed to carry the assumption that everyone experiences reading in the same way and/or uses it for the same purpose. In the author’s argument for reading, therefore, only literary fiction, poetry and fiction as ‘high art’ seem to really count, ignoring the many reasons why people (promiscuously and voraciously) read genre fiction.
There are some interesting, engaging ideas about the pursuit of reading here, but they are mostly buried in the dry, cerebral prose – too impenetrable to be enjoyable for even most avid book-lovers.
Review by Steph Warren of Bookshine and Readbows blog
https://bookshineandreadbows.wordpres...
Far more dense and scholarly than I was expecting, this book is made up of a series of short passages constructing an argument for how and why we read, referencing sources from Don Quixote and Middlemarch to poetry and Plato.
I love books about books and reading, so thought this would be right up my street, but was somewhat taken aback by the initial prepositions which seemed to carry the assumption that everyone experiences reading in the same way and/or uses it for the same purpose. In the author’s argument for reading, therefore, only literary fiction, poetry and fiction as ‘high art’ seem to really count, ignoring the many reasons why people (promiscuously and voraciously) read genre fiction.
There are some interesting, engaging ideas about the pursuit of reading here, but they are mostly buried in the dry, cerebral prose – too impenetrable to be enjoyable for even most avid book-lovers.
Review by Steph Warren of Bookshine and Readbows blog
https://bookshineandreadbows.wordpres...
October 15, 2021
I love it when a bookstore has a shelf of books about books. It's the siren song within the siren song of the whole store. Picked up this slim volume when I paid a visit the other day and enjoyed it. I started off loving it, it got a bit dense in the middle, but picked back up and ended well.
Themes that I most appreciated were the orality of language and the difference between literacy and reading.
Highly recommend this for those looking for excuses to read more or needing confirmation of the rightness of your choice to read voraciously.
Themes that I most appreciated were the orality of language and the difference between literacy and reading.
Highly recommend this for those looking for excuses to read more or needing confirmation of the rightness of your choice to read voraciously.
August 19, 2021
Read, read, and read some more. This is a beautifully literary (and very intellectual) meditation on reading and why we should do more of it! (Preaching to the choir here, I know- but I felt so validated!) I also came away with a long list of authors (and poets) -classics and otherwise- to add to my list of what next. This is not exactly an easy read, but it’s short, and feels as poetic and return-worthy as the writings that Heather White urges us to come back to again and again.
October 8, 2021
I did not love this one. I had trouble connecting with. It was WAY more academic than I would have liked. When the author loves David Foster Wallace, Suzanna Clarke, and poetry I know I'm in trouble. There were some good nuggets in places, but I had to dig for it. It was short, but for me, it wasn't worth the effort.
May 30, 2022
I loved this book - an ode to reading and books. It’s a little more like a textbook than I expected - I was surprised how long it took me to read this short book, I think because there was no plot to pull me back - but I love her take (and knowledge) on books. For my book club we read several sections out loud and all loved them.
August 17, 2023
Promiscuously, I did not finish this book. The academic writing enamoured me at first, and then quickly grated. This occurred with the realisation that I love reading, but don't need an academic explanation why - I just do, I just be.
Read
August 22, 2021loved
June 25, 2022
did not enjoy this
unfortunately i've been out of books for days now and i'll take what i can get
unfortunately i've been out of books for days now and i'll take what i can get
August 2, 2022
3.5 stars. I liked this, but Heather Cass White leans into her professor aesthetics a little too much. Some of this resonated but a lot of this was inaccessible, i.e. I had to really concentrate to see what her metaphors meant because they tended to flow into each other. Overall, a nice testament to the power of reading and love for books, just wish it had more to say.
January 5, 2021
This is a fascinating idea for a book, investigating the how and why we read and is in praise of those writers and readers who know that what they embark on is completely special.
White is a good writer and I found this a quick read. My only criticism is that is veers very heavily into "published dissertation" (and this is probably its point) and thus becomes a bit dry. White is clearly a vast reader, and has a stunning ability to assess the minutiae of writing. Is there anything nicer than reading a book by someone who loves writers and, even more, readers? Probably not.
Thanks to NetGalley, Farrar, Straus and Giroux and Heather Cass White for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.
White is a good writer and I found this a quick read. My only criticism is that is veers very heavily into "published dissertation" (and this is probably its point) and thus becomes a bit dry. White is clearly a vast reader, and has a stunning ability to assess the minutiae of writing. Is there anything nicer than reading a book by someone who loves writers and, even more, readers? Probably not.
Thanks to NetGalley, Farrar, Straus and Giroux and Heather Cass White for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.
June 28, 2021
Thank you to the author, Farrar, Straus and Giroux and NetGalley, for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
I love books about books, and the title immediately attracted my interest. Investigating the how and why we read, this book is part meditation, part literary criticism, and contains many tidbits of insight. At the same time, it's heavily weighted to the more cerebral/scholarly and large parts come across as very dry. The author is clearly a reader with vast knowledge, but overall, I found it hard to connect with the central ideas and thrust of the book.
I love books about books, and the title immediately attracted my interest. Investigating the how and why we read, this book is part meditation, part literary criticism, and contains many tidbits of insight. At the same time, it's heavily weighted to the more cerebral/scholarly and large parts come across as very dry. The author is clearly a reader with vast knowledge, but overall, I found it hard to connect with the central ideas and thrust of the book.
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