The Best Books Will Disappear Into Your Life

On trusting your taste

A Mug of Insights is 100% a reader-supported newsletter. While you’re here, consider signing up for a paid subscription for $5/month, which will give you access to the 1-2-Read Newsletter with 2 weekly journaling prompts to strengthen your reading/writing skills. Subscribers will also get access to the full archive (posts are automatically archived after six months). Thank you for your contribution!

---

I think there are two kinds of readers: those who live to read a book, and those who read a book to live.

The first kind is easy to spot because reading isn’t just a practice or a weekend hobby, but a way of life. I was, and to some extent, still am this person who finds the best edition of some impressive-looking title, sets up shop at a cafe over a latte and needs the whole world to know that I’m reading, man! And this whole thing often comes down to wanting to be the kind of person to read something instead of reading the damn thing.

Then, there’s a second kind of reader who’s a little harder to spot. They look like your average Joe who gets a little sloshed over the weekend, loves a McDonald’s drive-through once in a while and dips in and out of books they love. But once you sit them down for a banter, you’d realise that they’re anything but normal.

Granted, they rarely brand themselves as someone who loves Samuel Beckett or a disciple of Oscar Wilde, but what they’ve read melts into their lives. A line of Yeats escapes their mouth when they’re talking about a break-up, and they’ll go on a rant about how a game of pool came from cock-fighting when they share a pint with you.

This is another aspect of reading that’s usually ignored. We’re often caught up in wanting to read something we don’t enjoy or enjoying something guiltily in private, so we don’t often see the paradox of enjoyment: if a book truly impacts you, it’ll soon disappear into your life and become your common sense.

This is just like that idea about identity (read about it here): if you’re adamant about being a certain kind of person, then you’re not that person to begin with. And with books, if you’re too adamant about being that person who enjoys certain books, that might mean that you secretly crave something else.

But bring to mind a memory of disappearing into a book and truly enjoying it. There’s no time to worry about whether or not the book is high-brow enough or how you look when you read the book in public. It simply is what it is: a book you enjoy. And after you’ve finished it, the book works its way through you and slowly alters your perception of life instead of being a trophy to be shelved away.

For instance, I really enjoyed The Elements of Eloquence by Mark Forsyth, and that book completely reconfigured how I see language in political campaigns, in online advertisements and in on-liners from sitcoms. But the book itself disappeared like that old friend who’s always there for me, silently encouraging me in the background. And at times, it only takes one reminder, one text, or one notification for everything to come rushing back like no time has passed. What you’ve read and loved will always show up for you when life calls for it.

So in the meantime, find that courage to truly embrace what you love to read instead of succumbing to what is impressive and obscure. You don’t need to slog through Crime and Punishment if you don’t like it, nor should you challenge Ulysses to a duel out of necessity. Trust your intuition and befriend books you like because if they’re meant for you, they’ll soon become a part of you.

Until Next Week

Robin