TITLE: The Art of Not Reading
AUTHOR: Eugene Wallingford
DATE: August 25, 2015  1:57 PM
DESC: 
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BODY:
The beginning of a new semester brings with it a crush of new
things to read, write, and do, which means it's a good time
to remember this advice from Arthur Schopenhauer:

<BLOCKQUOTE><EM>
 Hence, in regard to our subject, the art of not reading is
 highly important.  This consists in not taking a book into
 one's hand merely because it is interesting the great
 public at the time -- such as political or religious
 pamphlets, novels, poetry, and the like, which make a
 noise and reach perhaps several editions in their first
 and last years of existence.  Remember rather that the man
 who writes for fools always finds a large public: and only
 read for a limited and definite time exclusively the works
 of great minds, those who surpass other men of all times
 and countries, and whom the voice of fame points to as
 such.  These alone really educate and instruct.
</EM></BLOCKQUOTE>

"The man who writes for fools always finds a large public."
You do not have to be part of it.  Time is limited.  Read
something that matters.

The good news for me is that there is a lot of writing about
compilers by great minds.  This is, of course, also the bad
news.  Part of my job is to help my students navigate the
preponderance of worthwhile readings.

Reading in my role as department head is an altogether
different matter...

~~~~

The passage above is from
<A HREF="http://www.gutenberg.org/files/10833/10833-h/10833-h.htm#RULE4_4">
   On Books and Reading</A>,
which is available via Project Gutenberg, a wonderful source
of many great works.
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