Steve Leveen

Steve Leveen draws on his own quest for a well-read life to offer book lovers a variety of successful and time-tested strategies for finding time to read and getting more from written materials.

The Little Guide to Your Well-read Life

Katie Cheng

A nice book! It's structured rather like an essay, and makes a clear argument prescribing four ways to read more, and read better. The suggestions: (1) choose your books concertedly, and to suit your own tastes and interests, (2) read with intention and engage critically with the text, (3) consider audiobooks because they're great for otherwise "dead" time, and (4) be aware that reading doesn't have to be a solitary venture - your reading of a book can be deeply enhanced by discussing and sharing it.

There you have it! You don't really have to read this whole book to get the broad strokes, but it's still a pleasant, fast little read.

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Revisited on 2018-11-24

I liked this book better on the second read! I probably read it a bit more carefully this time. One thing I really appreciate about this book is the warm tone - Leveen is welcoming the reader to join him in his love of books, of cultivating self-knowledge, worldly knowledge, as well as curiosity, empathy, and understanding of the authors of the books we read. It's as if he's ushering us into a welcoming and inclusive community of book lovers.

One thing that my broad-strokes review didn't capture last time was the little narratives of fellow readers sprinkled throughout. These voices of readers (from famed philosophers to everyday people) offer peeks into the idiosyncratic beliefs and behaviors people have evolved over the course of their book-loving lives. These serve as model how-to's of the pragmatic nuts and bolts of living a well-read life. For example:

- keeping a list of candidate books with who recommended the book, when
- putting down a book after 50 pages if it hasn't captured you
- creating a shelving system to encourage regular review of previously read books
- using blank endpages to inscribe one's name, the time/place of reading, a personal index
- using the books to hold related memorabilia, so the book becomes a scrapbook
- using the left margins for questions and right margins for answers
- top margins for own ideas, bottom margins for confusions
- reviewing marginalia immediately after finishing a book
- taking long solitary walks to digest a book, and sharing ideas with others
- keeping oneself accountable to reading a few pages every day to meet book club deadlines
- creating a culture of reading aloud to loved ones, and/or reading quietly together

These little nuggets give flesh to the bones of the book, and give it its personality! So, all this to say - the book is still worth a read - and can be consumed in an afternoon!

The Little Guide to Your Well-read Life

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