Starting a reading streak isn’t just an act of intellectual ambition. It’s a form of behavioral engineering. The goal is to trick yourself into thinking that cracking open a book means “being a reader” instead of “fulfilling an obligation.” And that’s why you frequently begin another novel with great determination and then see it gathering […]

Have you ever read something where it felt like someone was literal screaming on the roof? That’s probably been done in a draft before. Emphasis is such a strong impulse that we type in all caps to scream at readers when characters gets mad or to try to sound urgent in our marketing pitches. But […]

A paragraph reads like this: the words are all long and cumbersome. The rhythm plods along, and you’re stumbling over every third sentence. Now another paragraph reads like this: the words fly by quickly, the beat hits you right in your ear. That distinction is often a matter of syllable balance. This has nothing to […]

There’s something curious about the curse of reading resolutions: they’re like savings plans and gym memberships. In the abstract, they seem completely plausible. They’re an ideal in the cold winter air. You picture yourself annotating memoirs on Sunday afternoon or gorging on classics during your commute. And then reality hits: January is as messy as […]