8/31 Reading Response Journal

"Just think what courtly lovers miss be believing that the only thing they are permitted to do with books is read them" (Fadiman, 41)!

I think this quote completely summarizes the implication of Never Do That To A Book. It is captivating in that it defines what a courtly lover does and suggests that there is another kind of lover for books that does more than just read them. The first time I read through this, I had no idea what my impression was. So I read it again and it seemed like everything I missed the first time around became clearer to me the second. I noticed that even though this is written in first person, the writer plays with a little ambiguity. They vividly described that the narrator was from a family of carnal lovers, however made these subtle suggestions that even they wouldn't treat a book a certain way. For instance, the narrator confesses to the "grievous sin of dog-earing the page"(39) yet, "would never write in an encyclopedia" (41). I just found statements like this to be categorized as intermediate behavior toward books. In other words, even the narrator has limits to their "intimacy" with books. I also noticed that despite the story-telling, this is a comparison of courtly and carnal lovers of books. However, I didn't know that the extreme side of carnal lovers included ripping out chapters they were done reading, chewing the pages or even simply placing their book down a particular way. I also found the analogy, "Mark is like pressing the Stop button, whereas when you leave the book facedown, you've only pressed Pause" to be quite insightful. When I read, I do either mark my place or leave my book spread facedown and the implications stand true for me. Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this piece by Fadiman.
I found Woolf's essay, How Should One Read a Book?, to be somewhat hypocritical. For example, "The only advice, indeed, that one person can give another about reading is to take no advice, to follow your own instincts, to use your own reason, to come to your own conclusions"(1). She tells us not to take anyone's advice, but then proceeds to give us thirteen pages worth of hers. For a while, I thought she was just rambling and using exaggeration to persuade the reader, but then I realized there was more reasoning to reading than simply just reading the words off the page. She actually does come up with logical guidance to how a person should read. Some of the main points would be experience the book for yourself (1), accept what information is given to you by the author (3), don't dictate first (2), "reading is a more complicated process than seeing"(2), judge last and "compare to the greatest of its kind"(9), we learn through feeling (10-11), and remain readers (12). Overall, in comparison to Fadiman's piece, I didn't like this one as much, however, I did find it to be more perceptive.

Casi Flordeliza