a field note from 38 years of teaching

The Reading Pace

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I read the way I'd pour tea — slow, and in the right order.
A walkable stretch, a question to carry up the next hill.
You don't read on the trail to finish a book.
You read to make the next mile mean something.

The last page is never the point.
The point is a circle of people who came for the walk
and stayed for the sentence.

Take a book to your next rest stop.

Barbara Batey · literature on the trail · barbara-batey.4ort.net