It is often said that to learn to write, one needs to read a lot. I understood the meaning of this idea in theory, but in practice I had difficulty improving my writing, despite always having read a lot.

Until I realised: one also needs to learn to read.

As I write, I remember a podcast I recently listened to by Joanna Penn (The Creative Penn), where she said that the first reading is for pleasure, the second is for analysis or learning.

I’ve had a book club for six years. We started shortly before the Covid-19 pandemic, we still met outdoors, in protective mode, and after I left for Strasbourg in 2021, we continued remotely. It was through my book club, and other literary discussions with friends, that I finally learned to read. While engrossed in reading, there are books that make you want to read them in one sitting – like those by Valérie Perrin. Other authors, like Proust, make you want to read as slowly as possible, preferably on a late summer afternoon in a park. In any case, with a first reading, it’s always difficult to analyze and learn.

I have tried many note-taking methods. I used to be completely against underlining a book, but I’ve also underlined (in pencil, let’s not exaggerate). Today, I use small post-is. Post-its allow me to mark the paragraph or phrase that struck me without interrupting my reading, and after I’ve finished the book, I take my time and come back to them. But it’s not important to always follow a methodology. With Clarice Lispector’s Água Viva / The Stream of Life, I was so inspired to write with each sentence I read that I immediately started noting down the sentences and then go on and do my own writing.

For the Book Club (and my other reading as well), I read once, reread the passages I liked best, and make a summary in the notebook I keep dedicated solely to that purpose. It’s a (accidental) women’s club; we’ve been together for six years now, and it’s one of the most beautiful spaces in my life. Even from a distance, we feel close to each other, and at the moment, we even have a project that I’ll keep secret for the moment. When I return to Portugal, we meet. There’s a literary affinity, and more, between us that warms my heart. But reading is at the center of our friendship (and sisterhood, since my sister is part of the Club). We’ve spent entire afternoons discussing a book. We’ve gone on excursions to Lisbon, with a list of bookstores to visit and José António Agualusa to listen to.

Reading and writing, for me, are almost one and the same thing. Passion, pleasure, life.