This week, we have two readings that specifically address reading, Mike Bunn’s “How to read like a Writer” and Toni Morrison’s “The Reader as Artist.” These readings help us learn about ourselves as readers and writers.
In a comment below, include a piece of advice or a technique Bunn recommends. Copy his words into your comment (that is, quote him), and note the page number from the article. Then paraphrase what he’s saying. Here’s the tricky part: be sure not to duplicate what anyone else wrote. That means you have to read everyone else’s comments, and if the one you want to write about has already appeared, you have to find a new one.
Then, in the same comment, add another paragraph in which you consider one point that Morrison would add about reading as a skill vs. as an art (I’m not making the rule here about not duplicating what anyone else chose to write about!). Which kind of reading do you think you do? Which do you think Bunn wants us to do?
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While reading Mike Bunn’s “How to read like a Writer”, one tip that he recommended in the article that I found helpful was that, “When you read like a writer, you are trying
to figure out how the text you are reading was constructed so that you
learn how to “build” one for yourself.” (pg 74) To further explain, reading like a writer takes it to another level of understanding the text. You are trying to figure out how the reading was assembled, how it was put together and by considering every aspect of the reading such as the all the little details and phrases. For example, If you were reading an instruction manual, you would read every little detail and see what the order is so you wouldn’t miss a step.
Throughout reading Toni Morrison’s “The Reader as Artist”, one point I would definitely consider is the fact that reading as an art is much more in depth compared to just normally reading. For example, Morrison states how reading as art is called “critical reading” and how it develops overtime in any number of ways, takes all sorts of routes and has many origins. I definitely read more like a writer because I always try to find all the details and to find all phrases I wouldn’t understand. While reading like an artist, you would have to keep in mind all of the details you read previously while still reading at the same time and I would rarely do that, I would just go back and find the detail. Bunn wants us to read like a writer because throughout his reading, he gives multiple examples on how reading like a writer is helpful and the advantages of it.
A tip I found in “How to read like a writer” by Mike Bunn. The advice is this “When we read like writers we understand and participate in writing” (Page 75). In this case, he tried to say that it is necessary to be able to “understand” and “participate” in a writer’s writing in order to read like a writer. It’s interesting because you basically have to think like we are writing a book while reading it.
After reading “The reader as an artist” by Toni Morrison. One point of reading skill vs. reading as art that I notice is that reading skill can be improved and reading as an art develops over time and with passion. I think the kind of reading I should be doing is reading as a skill because I need to improve my reading ability a lot. What I think Bunn wants us to do is learn to read as writers to understand even better what we read and the person who wrote it.
One piece of advice or technique Bunn recommends is, “The idea is to carefully examine the things you read, looking at the writerly techniques in the text in order to decide if you might want to adopt similar (or the same) techniques in your writing”. This is found on page 72. What Bunn is trying to convey when sharing this advice is that we should read and analyze what we are reading and determine the writing techniques incorporated into these written works. Following this, we should determine if we ourselves as readers and writers should use these exact techniques or incorporate it into our own techniques when writing.
In, The Reader as Artist, Toni Morrison explains that Reading as a skill is more controlled as opposed to reading as an art which is more like taking different routes. When you read as a skill you only focus on the words and what’s on the page. When you read as an art you branch out and think and make connections to other works or just life in general. Reading as an art allows you to brainstorm more. The reading I think I do is reading as art. I believe I do this as I always use imagery to bring the pages to life and also to make different connections. I believe Bunn would want us reading as a skill as he wants us to only focus on the words and techniques that are being used. Techniques can be considered skills.
Thanks, Alvin, Jose, and Kevin, for sharing your take-aways from these two important readings about reading. I hope we can continue to add to this list as we all develop as readers, and use reading to help us develop as writers, and as artists. All of the great points you highlighted come back to the importance of observing. Here, it’s about observing what the writers we read are doing in their efforts to communicate with us as readers. Let’s keep that in mind as we write–what do we want our writing to do to or for the readers reading our writing?
Has anyone ever read anything by Toni Morrison? If you have, do you think her writing demands a certain kind of reading?
These are two texts that we’ll keep with us all semester long, so please come back and add to this conversation, read and re-read the texts and the comments here, and learn more about reading and writing from these two experts and from all of our expertise as well.