It’s only the sixth day of the year, so I am certain I am being premature in sharing this, but this week I’ve started a new practice. Each time I read something — an essay, a short story, a book — I put it down at the end and write about it.

This takes effort, and I don’t always want to do it. I’d much rather just pick up the next thing and start reading again. But I wanted to try it to see what happens. I’ll often read something, and I’ll have lots of thoughts and feelings, but the most I can articulate when I talk about it is, “I loved that book!” I feel frustrated when that’s all I can seem to say, especially when the work deserves better.

What’s happened so far is that my reading life has become richer. I spend more time with moments that matter. I reflect on titles and what the author is trying to do. I buy physical books I can underline and make notes in. I go back and look at my favorite passages when I’m done. The things I read are getting deeper into me, and I into them.

I think it helped to begin the practice with Zadie Smith essays. I bought her latest collection on a work trip to Ireland, and God she’s good. My first three entries are obituaries she wrote for Joan Didion, Toni Morrison, and Philip Roth. Because they were the same type of essays (remembrances), I found myself comparing them against one another in my reflection.

One thing that stood out in my very first reflection, on “The Opposite of Magical Thinking: on Didion” was the types of words Smith used throughout the essay: astringency, bracing, skewer, hardened, acid, hardpan, authority, shards, sharp, fierce, radically liberating. I had underlined all of these in the essay because they’re so evocative, and they paint a picture of an author.

Similarly, when I read “A Writer All the Way Down: On Philip Roth,” I underlined words, but they were much different from Didion’s and give a completely different author portrait: irresponsibility, comedy, vulgarity, independence, embarrassing, admirable, perverse, ideal, absurd. Sheer energy. Laugher, history, sex, fury. Conscious.

I adore Zadie Smith’s mind and words. She’s so good.

To make my reflection practice as low-friction for me as possible, because I know if there is even the slightest barrier, I will not follow through, I wrote a list of prompts for after I read something. I created a template in my Day One app so that when I finish reading, I can start a journal entry that’s prefilled with these questions, then just answer two or three (or more) that I feel drawn to:

Book/essay/story title

• What’s it about?
• What’s the author trying to do?
• Does it ask or answer questions?
• What stands out to me?
• Do I relate to any of the characters?
• Does it feel true?
• What was going on in the world when it was written?
• What’s the significance off the title?

This gives me a good jumping off point. If there’s something I want to write about that’s not on this list, I add a new section. I usually spend 5-10 minutes reflecting, which gives me a stimulating writing practice that’s not just me brain dumping boring stuff into my journal.

I almost didn’t reflect this morning after I read a couple more essays. I had a cat on my lap and I didn’t want to disturb her to write. But one of the essays left me with some niggling thoughts, and when that happens, I want to write to clarify my thinking. So off the cat went.

I’m curious how others process what they read. If you’ve got any practices or habits, I’d love to hear them.