The true worth of books is in their words and ideas, not their pristine pages. One friend wisely observed that “readers are not made for books—books are made for readers.”9 (The sheer delight to be found in reading other readers’ marginalia is unforgettably rendered in Billy Collins’s poem, “Marginalia.”10) Read books you enjoy, develop your ability to enjoy challenging reading, read deeply and slowly, and increase your enjoyment of a book by writing words of your own in it.
