I have always been wary of reading and the idea of 
being "well-read." While it is true that one should 
read the books that one has, that it would be 
tasteless to have bought books and not mastered them 
quickly, and that it would appear almost like paying 
for the intention merely of being well-read, I very 
much prioritize writing, more so than just making all 
of those books "cost-effective" in a "well-read" 
sense. This doesn't mean that I don't read at all, but 
I think there is greater importance in what one can 
concretely put together out of something they read and 
the fleeting forgetful experience of having read 
something. This doesn't mean writing a book review, 
but it does mean making sense beyond the wordplay on 
the page and the experience of having read through 
one's own considerations, thoughts, reviews, 
arguments, and words, regardless of its relation to 
the actual book itself, only that you're continuing 
the work of putting together a world of your own, such 
that your experiences, like having read certain books, 
don't become just things you assume everything of. A 
book is never a finished result. A book can be the 
first few words, the first few pages, that 
twenty-fourth reading of that second chapter, but as 
long as you keep this habit of making the most of what 
you are given every day a la tabula-rasa, I assure you 
you won't feel that you have just paid for the 
intention, but for the actual experience that is 
words, not out of sheer numerical volume and how many 
words read, but out of sheer potency and effect on 
you. I have a saying, "Sit with the words." But let me 
modify it: "Sit with the words like you would beside a 
tree with a nice view at the end of your life."