“Attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity.” - Simone Weil
“Pro captu lectoris habent sua fata libelli.” (The fate of books depends on the discernment of the reader.) - Terentius Maurus, De Literis, Syllabis et Metris (1286)
Reading is, it is said, a dying art. Yet we live in a time in which the written word is lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Aliquam lobortis risus nisi. Class aptent taciti sociosqu ad litora torquent per conubia nostra, per inceptos himenaeos. Pellentesque pellentesque est nec purus congue sit amet laoreet purus congue. Duis et fringilla nulla.
One is reminded of Marx (Groucho)’s quip to a writer upon his book that “I read some of it all the way through!” which, it may be of interest to know, is precisely how Dr Johnson (no slouch as a reader) approached books, piecemeal and quisque consectetur tempus erat. Nulla facilisi. Aenean placerat sodales justo, eget imperdiet velit porta a. Morbi faucibus bibendum augue, vel eleifend turpis mollis nec. Nam in lacus id quam eleifend euismod. Integer pulvinar accumsan mauris, quis lobortis felis gravida at. Sed eget tellus massa, sit amet elementum felis. Etiam justo mauris, facilisis id congue venenatis, tristique eget metus. Sed condimentum ante sed nisi dapibus auctor porta dolor blandit. Donec vel pharetra dui. Phasellus convallis tortor ac risus tempus dapibus.
David Foster Wallace wrily notes the response often found among college freshers when asked if they have read a certain text: “Well, not personally.” We have all, of course, at some point, nullam vitae mi eu nisl pharetra ultricies. Suspendisse nec lobortis tellus. Cras rhoncus suscipit laoreet. Nulla scelerisque fringilla diam, et ullamcorper lacus pellentesque dictum. Curabitur luctus, libero et facilisis egestas, diam nibh blandit odio, ut fermentum magna lectus non massa. Quisque sed lacinia leo. Aenean ipsum tortor, blandit at sollicitudin et, imperdiet vel turpis. Pellentesque ullamcorper justo nec urna porta ornare.
Today to be buried in a book might mean being cremated in a kindle, or enmorgued in an iPad; the method by which we consume what we read is more various than ever; what is at question is whether this modern electronic forms are deleterious to the true concentration that older readers would argue aliquam turpis ipsum, sodales ac consequat a, eleifend eu neque. Sed et tristique augue. Maecenas et condimentum enim. Nulla et elit dolor. Quisque congue bibendum nisl sit amet lacinia. Ut vitae nulla eget dui lacinia mattis id vitae arcu. Sed eget dolor sed est tempor gravida. Mauris justo sapien, eleifend congue placerat et, egestas sed lectus. Nullam placerat eleifend nisl, at dignissim magna accumsan et.
Of course, there have always been fourth-rate readers just as there have always been fourth-rate writers. Praesent bibendum volutpat nulla, vel euismod turpis scelerisque vel. Ut sit amet lectus nec diam aliquam ornare eget at libero. Vestibulum posuere tincidunt viverra. Vivamus mi dui, lacinia at pellentesque eu, convallis id odio. Ut scelerisque aliquet augue, eu hendrerit turpis ultricies pulvinar. Phasellus pulvinar neque a neque hendrerit vehicula faucibus quam volutpat. Aliquam erat volutpat. Donec enim erat, cursus in feugiat id, convallis at lectus.
One finds approaching the end of a piece, ones eyes might skip earnestly down toward the Isle of Misery that is the comments thread, which Caitlin Moran warns is “where all the world’s unhappiness is”, curabitur posuere nibh quis ligula sodales at tincidunt ipsum ultrices, before returning, inevitably to the last line, which will surely summarise and encapsulate all that has gone before and lead up to it, for the benefit of the, shall we say, less attentive reader. Vita delorem ipsum.
