Sometimes I think that people's reading patterns say more about them than the actual titles they're reading. For example, reading widely across forms and genres versus being narrowly focused on a set of themes in fiction. Perhaps the former style reflects an unbridled curiosity about the world while the latter might point to a more solipsistic view.
Good point—and related to what an adviser told me when he learned I was going into a PhD program: "now you'll have to specialize." I experienced an immediate rebellion against his assertion—but it was a good warning that should have been obvious all along, and proved to be one of the reasons I finally left academia.
Sometimes I think that people's reading patterns say more about them than the actual titles they're reading. For example, reading widely across forms and genres versus being narrowly focused on a set of themes in fiction. Perhaps the former style reflects an unbridled curiosity about the world while the latter might point to a more solipsistic view.
Good point—and related to what an adviser told me when he learned I was going into a PhD program: "now you'll have to specialize." I experienced an immediate rebellion against his assertion—but it was a good warning that should have been obvious all along, and proved to be one of the reasons I finally left academia.