Centireading

Anthony Hopkins,
centrireader

Is it better to read 100 books once, or one book 100 times?  See Stephen Marche’s Guardian piece: Centireading force: why reading a book 100 times is a great idea.

The main effect of reading Hamlet a 100 times was, counter-intuitively, that it lost its sense of cliche. “To be or not to be” is the Stairway to Heaven of theatre; it settles over the crowd like a slightly funky blanket knitted by a favorite aunt. Eventually, if you read Hamlet often enough, every soliloquy takes on that same familiarity. And so “To be or not to be” resumes its natural place in the play, as just another speech. Which renders its power and its beauty of a piece with the rest of the work.

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