ABSTRACT
When we consume literature, we make unspoken assumptions about the nature of reading. Reading is a cultural form that encourages and discourages certain behaviors. If we change the form, we enable different behaviors. We give ourselves new capabilities. We can acquire more power over our own lives and in the world at large by adopting new reading habits. Unfortunately, we accept the form of reading that we learned at home and in school without a second thought, not realizing how it limits us.
Reading is not a rote activity. It is a complex human experience, like the relationships, work, travel, health, and other circumstances that define our lives. Like them, reading can sustain our whole weight if we need it to. As with them, the feelings we experience when we read repay minute observation. We can thereby turn reading into a deliberate pursuit. We can read more creatively and derive more value from the experience. And that value will be differentiated—uniquely mine, uniquely yours, fitted for where we are and what we need to do. Creative reading enables us to imagine the world as a whole and to conjecture solutions for the problems we encounter in it.
