Greg Dening, "Performing on the Beaches of the Mind: An Essay," History and Theory 41 (Feb. 2002): 1–24.
"I read fast most of the time. That is because reading books...is my conversation with the world. My eyes are ahead of my mind when I read fast. I gobble sentences, paragraphs, pages whole. There is a white noise in the back of my mind as I read. It is the babble of worldwide conversations that affect my thinking. I'm in conversation with novelists, philosophers, anthropologists, historians, critics in this sort of reading. It is full of erotic, ecstatic moments when I think that what they are saying is what I myself am just about to say. But I am going to say it better!"
I like his certitude. Often when I read what others write and I have one of those moments when I realize that they are saying what I wanted to say, well I just throw my hands up in the air and despair of ever having something important to contribute...
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