How Writers Read (Vol. 1)

Photograph by Teju Cole

I’ve never really worried about writer’s block. I think of breaks from writing more as “installing important updates,” focusing on input rather than output. But lately I’ve been going through a period of reader’s block, a new and frustrating experience. I haven’t been in the mood to read books or even articles. This got me thinking about the reading habits of writers; I wondered how they differed from my own. So I asked thirteen questions to ten writers I admire, working in different genres, in an attempt to discover how writers read.

—Elisa Gabbert

1) We’ve all had “writer’s block,” but do you ever get reader’s block? If so, do you “downgrade” and read something “easy” or just not read at all?

ALICE BOLIN: This definitely happens to me. I feel like it’s more common than the times when I’m just whipping through books. I can blame it on being a poet/having anxiety/living in LA but I’m not ultimately sure why.

I reread all the time; that’s usually my solution. Just pick up Alice in Wonderland or James Schuyler or something.

TEJU COLE: For me, the peak reading experience is definitely about deep focus, to be lost in a book of poems or in the thicket of a solidly executed novel. I don’t think I get there so often. It’s always a joy when it happens. So, I think I know what you mean by reader’s block. But when that happens, I don’t then downgrade to easier material, I just read the same stuff I’d normally read in a slightly less intense way. I’ve never really understood the concept of “beach reads.” I want good stuff all the time: it can be hilarious or somber, but I want it to be very good, always.

DARCIE DENNIGAN: Not really. I will read the back of the granola bar box over and over again rather than sit with my own thoughts.

GRAHAM FOUST: No, I don’t think this has ever happened to me for any prolonged period of time.  I mean, obviously I get tired of reading and have to go outside or something, but I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t reading something that could be called “literature.”

RUTH GRAHAM: I’ve never thought of it that way, but I do go through brief periods of wanting to read easier things, like mystery novels and magazines.

J. ROBERT LENNON: I generally “downgrade,” and just read stuff online or read comics. I should add that I don’t think comics are a “downgrade” as an art form, only that they’re easier for my brain to apprehend than text-based literature. When I’m really bored with reading...