reading

Robin Sampson posted on Facebook today:

This quote is from a writing class I'm taking. It reminds me of Bible reading:
The first life of a piece of writing is when you read it the first time, when you experience it as a brand-new text that you’ve never encountered before.
The second life of a piece of writing occurs when you consider and then reflect on what it is you’ve just read—you may think of words that struck you in particular; certain details...
The third—and to my mind, arguably the most interesting—life of the text is the last one. After you’ve read it once, reflected on the text, and then read it again, you read through it yet again, armed with your precritical response and perhaps a few insights that you’ve gleaned from your initial read-through. This third life of the text is when you can really start to apply the principles of insightful reading.

--Professor Dorsey Armstrong