A good book is the precious life-blood of a master-spirit, embalmed and treasured up on purpose to a life beyond life.

What a person knew most deeply can outlast them, held in a form that keeps working long after the mind that made it is gone. That is an extraordinary arrangement and one most people use lazily, reading for distraction what was written at the cost of a life. The value is not in the pages but in the concentrated attention preserved there. A serious book is someone’s best thinking, available for a few hours of yours.

Pick something demanding that you have been meaning to read and start it this week. Read it slowly enough to argue with, since that is the only way the transfer actually happens.