Reading More Carefully

I don’t know about you, but sometimes I find that there’s way too much to read—on the internet, on my desk, on my coffeetable, in my mailbox, and everywhere else. So I read, with interest, this post about a new system for reading:

All the information we have available only increases our stress levels and diminishes available time. We consume much more than we create, we read much more than we think, and it should be the other way around. We have to make sure we consume the things that truly matter to us, but only so that we have time to create something that matters to someone else.

I love reading so much as an activity that I get worried about “systems” for reading (I have been strongly informed in this by Alan Jacobs’  great little book The Pleasures of Reading in an Age of Distraction, which I once reviewed and commend to you), but this quotation reminded me that part of the reason to curb and carefully curate my reading is so that I have time to create and think, rather than just consume. That’s a useful reminder to all of us.