I’ve realized recently that I’ve gone away from the discipline of reading. The discipline of being rapt to a singular bit of language that’s helping me learn and do good work in my craft.
I’ve begun skimming a lot or even, gasp, pulling tweets and using them as my news. I haven’t been reading, though.
Karen Swallow Prior puts it this way:
This does not mean that our appetites are not in need of some, or even great, disciplining, but the goal of all discipline is not restraint but freedom. The trained appetite is free to gain the most pleasure—and use—from the best books. –Lit Review
I think you can swap out blogs, articles, or stores for “books” and still come to the same conclusion.
For me the easiest way to train myself is to have to curate what I read. I do it here. I started doing it here. And I need to do it here more often.