Academic Reading: Sometimes Tedious, Sometimes Wonderful!

Besides the novels, memoirs, and other books, as well as magazines, that I read for pleasure and write about in this blog, I also read many books and academic journals for professional reasons. I need and want to keep up with the research in my discipline, and in related disciplines. This reading feeds into my own research and writing, as well as into my teaching. To be honest, not all of this academic reading is fascinating; sometimes journals pile up for a while before I get to them, and sometimes I skim through them, reading only the articles that are most relevant to my interests. But when I do find the articles or books or book chapters that are relevant and interesting, even exciting, I feel a great, sometimes even exhilarating sense of discovery. I get out my pencil and underline and write notes in the margins, with liberal applications of post-its (such a great invention!) as well. I enter references onto my various bibliographies. I put journals and books into various piles related to various of my writing projects. It is a different type of reading than my reading of novels for pure enjoyment, but each provides different types of pleasure and enrichment in my life.