Reading on Purpose
Deciding on a thing, opening it, finishing it — the small sequence that separates a reader from an audience.
On Reading · Part 2
Choosing whom to read isn't gatekeeping — it's deciding where your borrowed attention actually goes.
By Mara Ellison · 4 min read
I keep two lists. A short list of writers I will read whatever they publish, and a long list of nobody. The long list is the important one.
Curation has a bad name now — it sounds like gatekeeping. But choosing whom to read is not keeping anyone out; it is deciding where your scarce, borrowed attention will actually go.
The short list earns its place slowly and loses it fast. A writer stays on it by being worth the time again and again, not by being loud once.
Pay attention to the few, and ignore the many on purpose.
It is a quieter way to read. It is also the only one that has ever left me with anything I kept.
In this series