Seneca #2.1: Reading Habits
English

Seneca #2.1: Reading Habits

by

reading
philosophy
daily life

In his second letter to Lucilius, Seneca advises his younger friend on his reading habits. Again, advice on what and how to read is something from which we could very well benefit today. I, for one, certainly could. Earlier this year, one of my best friends shared between tears that she hadn't read a single book the year before. How well I understand her pain. I struggled to read last year as well. Sometime mid-year, I realized I had zero entries for 2022 in my notebook where I write down my impressions of books just after I finish them (nothing elaborate, just two pages of fresh reflections per book). Then, listening to the radio, I came across a fascinating thriller whose main protagonist is a young writer, and I got hooked (side note to all the French speakers: if you don't know this book/series/feuilleton yet, give it a try: https://www.radiofrance.fr/franceculture/podcasts/serie-la-verite-sur-l-affaire-harry-quebert-de-joel-dicker). I went on to listen to all the books by the same author available on Audible, and as soon as I was finished, I did the same with an Italian crime writer, Gianrico Carofiglio (it also started with a podcast: https://www.raiplaysound.it/programmi/ladisciplinadipenelope, fa-sci-na-ting). I had never valued crime novels very highly, but hey, it was summer and if that could help reignite my joy of reading, then I wasn't going to ask myself any more questions. It certainly felt very rewarding to be able to catch up with my book diary at a fast pace.

But this obsession with reading results, measured by new entries in my book diary and that for other people could take the form of challenges on Goodreads or of photos of piles of books read that month published on Instagram (my own brother does that; he calls it Bookstagram), is not anything that Seneca would approve of. He warns against reading too much from too many authors, which is a habit of unsettled minds, and recommends returning frequently to "authors of proven worth". It is as if the unruly thoughts of weak authors could somehow infect you and stop you on your road to wisdom. You should read slowly and listen to what your chosen authors wanted to say (apparently, in ancient times people always read out loud). If they are good, they should help you live a good life. The purpose of reading daily is the following:

Obtain each day some aid against poverty, something against death, and likewise against other calamities.

Seneca exemplified that himself in his letters, as each letter contains at least one quotation he found in books by other authors. In the first letters, it is often from Epicurus, because Lucilius had Epicurean tendencies and Seneca wanted to convert him slowly to Stoicism, so I suppose he quoted from Epicurus also to show the similarities between the two schools.

Reading like the ancients would thus be very much like something a Portuguese friend recently described to me. She saw that I was reading Fernando Pessoa's The Book of Disquiet and told me that this was not a book that one reads from beginning to end, like a typical novel. She would take it from the shelf whenever she felt like it, she said, open it at random, read a short excerpt, then put it back at place and ponder for a while about what she just read. I wonder what remedy Pessoa would offer against poverty, death, and other calamities. And I think I might try just that in my next post: to read Pessoa like a Stoic.

Digressio: Watching Series and Reading Books

My boyfriend watches a lot of series. I rarely join. When I do, I tend to be the person who, at 3 am, says in the hoarse voice of someone who forgot to swallow during the previous hour, "Maybe let's watch just half of the next one...?" So I'm usually trying not to start.

He suspects my reluctance of joining him comes from the arrogance of someone who thinks that watching series is a lesser form of culture, and asks me, defiantly, "So what do you think, what's the difference between reading books and watching series?"

I answer, raising my hands in defense, "Oh, no difference, no difference at all".

I can't easily explain why I value books more. But maybe there's a differentiating factor to be seen in the fact that you rarely stop the show to say: "Have you heard what Homelander just said? 'You see, companies, they come and go, but talent… talent is forever.' Let's stop and think about that for a moment." But then again, maybe we should.

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