Earlier days I was into literature by great Indian writers. Then once I seriously took creativity as my profession, I started reading a lot of books on creativity and life stories of famous artists from all over the world. However, I continue to read local literature to understand the life and times of people.
I love that so many of us have an anchor-genre or theme in our reading that we can always return to when we need to feel like ourselves or re-calibrate. And I love that reading is also part of your creative practice!
This was a lovely interview!!! I’m adding A Timeless Way of Building to my tbr. Coincidentally, this year I’m starting to take note-taking more seriously and I’m still trying to find a rhythm that suits me without overwhelming my reading time; gonna add How To Take Smart Notes to my tbr as well to pick up some ideas.
As for tips, the reading date sounds ideal! Especially now when it’s dark and rainy in Budapest and it feels like leaving the apartment is only worth it if there’s an important appointment that day or someone to meet.
I am so glad you found this interview useful and relatable on many levels. I work from home and feel the same... I have to MAKE an effort to leave the house sometimes. Book dates are amazing.
I am in the process of testing out a new note-taking system -- a commonplace book to collect all my favorite quotes from the books I am reading -- and I am still trying to find my rhythm but it is so fun, so I will keep trying.
How to Take Smart Notes is so useful—really, really hope you find it valuable! and yes…I think reading dates are even more essential in winter (it's cold/dark/hard to work up the energy to do more active things…but sitting in a beautiful location and reading a book is a bit easier)
This was such a lovely interview, thank you! Long Live the Post Horn! is now on my TBR. And I so agree with Celine about The Artist's Way, it made me finally take my creativity seriously.
Curious - when you say you did The Artist Way, did you do her full "program" or you mean writing your Morning Pages? I wrote Morning Pages religiously for about 4 years and I even have posts in the archives about my devotion to that practice but last year I just reached a limit and it stopped working for me - I just felt so whiney and pathetic to myself while doing it; I used to think I was "clearing space" for creative brain time but I got to feel like I was amplifying my catastrophising and my negative thoughts (Eastern European genes, thank you).
I did the full program last spring, so it’s all still fresh and new for me. Four years is impressive! I think you absolutely have to do what works for you, for me it’s a time to remind myself that my creativity is worth my time and evaluate how I’m aligning with my values. I definitely feel that sometimes I’m just a broken record, but I go back at the end of the month and try to find themes and think through, “well what am I going to do about this?” I like seeing what I’m maybe spending too much time spiraling around and how I can take action or try to not let it take up any more space. (Side note - I def. co-sign the idea of a Notebook Porn series!)
When I first started Morning Pages, I took her advise and did not look through my writing for 6 months. And then I flipped through the pages and was like... WOW... this lady is constantly going on and on and on about YOGA. lol
I ended up doing a yoga teacher training program that was truly transformational for me.
Thank you for reading, and I hope you enjoy the Hjorth book! I also really, really love her other novels (Will and Testament is on childhood trauma and coping with it later in life, probably the most difficult but powerful read; Is Mother Dead is about art making and breaking free from parental expectations; If Only is about a tormented romantic relationship…I'm realizing these all sound quite depressing! Long Live is certainly her most cheerful one)
What a brilliant and insightful interview! Celine is clearly someone who cares about her reading life, and I love (and totally agree with) the idea of reading what you enjoy. I have made a big effort on this in the past couple of months, as well as regular book dates, and it has made so much difference to my reading life. I have also realised that making connections with other readers is a great social activity for an introvert! I'm now actively seeking out both opportunities to take myself off for a cafe reading date & bringing up bookchat with people wherever I can.
Oh gosh... reading what you enjoy is one of those things that sound simpler than it actually is in application.
Kate, I remember when you said that your daughter told you to start books on a book date so you have a solid chunk of time to get into the world of the book. I always think about that when I am about to start a new book! It's such solid advice!
Celine had me on a tear - I watched the whole archive of the Yoseka Stationary YouTube channel. The notebooks that Celine uses have the same (or similar) paper as the Hobonichi planners.
Kate, thank you for reading! And regarding book dates and book socializing—it's a nice way to make reading feel genuinely pleasurable and central to one's life. Hopefully both of us can have very rewarding book chats and friendships in 2025!
I hope you enjoy it! this is going to sound hyperbolic, but it's also very true: Julia Cameron changed my life, and morning pages have helped me so much personally and creatively
That’s truly inspiring to read. I’m on week 4 and it’s been a rollercoaster so far, but for the better. I am starting to notice that random creative ideas will float in to my head throughout the day
Great interview! Thank you. Makes me hope more and more people will spend more time reading books and less time on mind-numbing anti-social social media. Books can save us from evil tech billionaires! Also nspiring to read of her vaca reading—about to go on vacation with Anna Karenina and Persausion, with Chester Hines’ noir A Rage in Harlem tagging along for a change in pace.
The TBR is the antidote to the endless scroll!!! Reading feels like resistance these days.
Excited for your vacation reading list! I am discovering that I am not especially good at reading on vacation (maybe because I typically travel with a kid) but I get A TON of reading done on flights!
Are you bringing paper copies with you? You've got some BIG books on your list!
Yes, I am a paper guy! I make notes right in the book and fold over pages of what I find to be the best writing/novelistic techniques and keep the books that I like. I can look back at them and find the best parts, which helps me as a writer.
thank you so much for reading this!! I'm so happy Petya asked those questions and let me indulge in writing about notetaking…and sharing what my notes actually look like!
I am much older than Celine but I also started with lots of self help books. I just retired after 40 years of teaching and now I get to read read read. And I am loving it. I am in a some book clubs, studying the classics, Shakespeare, The Iliad, or reading on Substacks serial stories. I have just started taking notes also. It keeps me grounded from the outside world of politics. 'Berta
My two favorite substack writers together! Really loved this interview, thank you Petya. Loved reading about Celine’s book dates, vacation reading, notetaking, reading history, everything. It’s just so great to read about other people with a similar reading obsession, it makes me feel happy and connected. I am currently in the middle of a big chronological Virginia Woolf project, but looking forward to reading Proust (have read a bit and LOVED it), Middlemarch and more literary criticism. Now that I think about it, I loved Proust so much that I am avoiding reading it, because it can’t face the thought of not looking forward to it anymore. Let’s see if I can get around that!
This is so kind, thank you Margje! I really love Petya's newsletter as well—and it's really exciting to have such an invigorating community of readers and writers on Substack.
Your chronological Woolf project sounds amazing—such a great way to see how her voice and themes develop over time. And I do hope you get to read Proust eventually! There's so much post-Proust literature that can keep you company afterwards…Anne Carson has a lovely poetry pamphlet, The Albertine Workout, which focuses on one particular character and is such a treasure to read. My favorite quote from it:
"Adjectives are the handles of Being. Nouns name the world, adjectives let you get hold of the name and keep it from flying all over your mind like a pre-Socratic explanation of the cosmos. Air, for example, in Proust can be (adjectivally) gummy, flaked, squeezed, frayed, pressed or percolated in Book 1; powdery, crumbling, embalmed, distilled, scattered, liquid or volatilized in Book 2; woven or brittle in Book 3; congealed in Book 4; melted, glazed, unctuous, elastic, fermenting, contracted, distended in Book 5; solidified in Book 6; and there seems to be no air at all in Book 7. I can see very little value in this kind of information, but making such lists is some of the best fun you'll have once you enter the desert of After Proust."
Does Carson share more information like this in the pamphlet? I am, admittedly, a fan of patterns and bits that have no overt value and exist solely to be observed and taken pleasure in ✨
Ah, I love this Anne Carson quote! Fantastic. The use of language in Proust is so unbelievable, it makes me so excited to read it, and also to compare it with Woolf! I know Woolf loved and read Proust, so I think the comparison of both modernist writers will be so interesting. And I love your suggestion of Anne Carson and other post-Proust literature, that feels like a good motivation to get over my ‘desert of After Proust (such an accurate description!)’ fear.
I love the Anne Carson quote - when I read R.O Kwon's book EXHIBIT, I kept a list of words too and actually had to read with a dictionary. I had a long list of adjectives describing light. It was such a singular reading experience.
Agree. I know that the day and age we live in make us all want to create these perfect edits of ourselves - where our books and our home decor and our politics all perfectly align... But I find that the place where our humanity shows the most is in those spots where we break our own patterns.
absolutely loved this, and love Celine's process and how she thinks about making space for reading whether it's in transit, or on a special 'reading date'. I have for SO LONG been trying to make the Zettelkasten method work for me when it comes to notetaking, but I often end up losing steam after a while -- I'd be interested to hear how she's kept up with it and kept it 'fun' and not so intense (as it gets with me)
The note-taking, stationary loving, research obsessed nerd in me loves the idea ... and I go strong for 2 weeks, but then lose steam. I think to fully see the benefit of this system, you have to give it TIME... which I have never been able to do! So curious to hear from people who have made it work.
I will tell you this: I started a commonplace book and was sort of struggling how to make it work and then I went on a nerd binge and figured out how to make an index for my notes... and I am now legitimately obsessed! My notes are speaking back to me. It's insane.
If you are about to go buy a fresh new notebook for it, get an Leuchtturm because it has numbered pages and that has been helpful for me in managing the index. I am putting together a post on this which will go out on February 6 and will be sure to tag you in it, so you can see it.
WOW! Celine gave us the goods! 😍 This was such a beautiful glimpse into her reading life. Communing with others who lead whole inner lives always feels like a much-needed exhale, especially in our current speed-scrolling/consumption world. Thank you to both of you and Bravo!!! I am also highly particular about my writing materials and do not stray from my regulars. I loved the quote she shared from Walter Benjamin and could not agree more. (I have a stash of notebooks that I use as my journals, which contain the original Tomoe River paper- my favorite paper for fountain pens- and I'm not looking forward to finding a replacement when I've used them all.) I LOVE Proust. In Search Of Lost Time has been on my TBR forever, and reading this has made me bump it up the line. Massive fan of book dates, especially when accompanied by a yummy drink/treat. This was such a delight. Thank you, thank you.
Really enjoyed this. Celine is such an impressive reader. I wonder how much more rich my brain would be if I hit 100 books in a year, such an incredible brain workout. It’s really like lifting.
I read about 10 books a year, and I think I could increase it but my current pace feels sustainable and it allows me to digest what I read. I take notes on my notes app in my phone, then I paste them into a document in my One Drive and I arrange by year. Every now and then I’ll read my notes to remind myself what my takeaways were from books - definitely need to revisit information otherwise they get lost somewhere in my mind.
Thank you Petya and Celine for such insightful/inspiring info!
i love the idea of a reading date! a good date involves attention, care, focus, and discussion. all qualities that would help me add intentionality to reading.
Earlier days I was into literature by great Indian writers. Then once I seriously took creativity as my profession, I started reading a lot of books on creativity and life stories of famous artists from all over the world. However, I continue to read local literature to understand the life and times of people.
I love that so many of us have an anchor-genre or theme in our reading that we can always return to when we need to feel like ourselves or re-calibrate. And I love that reading is also part of your creative practice!
This is something I'd really like to do more of—find the literature that feels local and part of my world. Thank you for sharing!
I sometimes feel that way about Bulgarian literature and then inevitably face the fact that I intentionally LEFT that. LOL
This was a lovely interview!!! I’m adding A Timeless Way of Building to my tbr. Coincidentally, this year I’m starting to take note-taking more seriously and I’m still trying to find a rhythm that suits me without overwhelming my reading time; gonna add How To Take Smart Notes to my tbr as well to pick up some ideas.
As for tips, the reading date sounds ideal! Especially now when it’s dark and rainy in Budapest and it feels like leaving the apartment is only worth it if there’s an important appointment that day or someone to meet.
I am so glad you found this interview useful and relatable on many levels. I work from home and feel the same... I have to MAKE an effort to leave the house sometimes. Book dates are amazing.
I am in the process of testing out a new note-taking system -- a commonplace book to collect all my favorite quotes from the books I am reading -- and I am still trying to find my rhythm but it is so fun, so I will keep trying.
How to Take Smart Notes is so useful—really, really hope you find it valuable! and yes…I think reading dates are even more essential in winter (it's cold/dark/hard to work up the energy to do more active things…but sitting in a beautiful location and reading a book is a bit easier)
This was such a lovely interview, thank you! Long Live the Post Horn! is now on my TBR. And I so agree with Celine about The Artist's Way, it made me finally take my creativity seriously.
Curious - when you say you did The Artist Way, did you do her full "program" or you mean writing your Morning Pages? I wrote Morning Pages religiously for about 4 years and I even have posts in the archives about my devotion to that practice but last year I just reached a limit and it stopped working for me - I just felt so whiney and pathetic to myself while doing it; I used to think I was "clearing space" for creative brain time but I got to feel like I was amplifying my catastrophising and my negative thoughts (Eastern European genes, thank you).
I did the full program last spring, so it’s all still fresh and new for me. Four years is impressive! I think you absolutely have to do what works for you, for me it’s a time to remind myself that my creativity is worth my time and evaluate how I’m aligning with my values. I definitely feel that sometimes I’m just a broken record, but I go back at the end of the month and try to find themes and think through, “well what am I going to do about this?” I like seeing what I’m maybe spending too much time spiraling around and how I can take action or try to not let it take up any more space. (Side note - I def. co-sign the idea of a Notebook Porn series!)
When I first started Morning Pages, I took her advise and did not look through my writing for 6 months. And then I flipped through the pages and was like... WOW... this lady is constantly going on and on and on about YOGA. lol
I ended up doing a yoga teacher training program that was truly transformational for me.
Thank you for reading, and I hope you enjoy the Hjorth book! I also really, really love her other novels (Will and Testament is on childhood trauma and coping with it later in life, probably the most difficult but powerful read; Is Mother Dead is about art making and breaking free from parental expectations; If Only is about a tormented romantic relationship…I'm realizing these all sound quite depressing! Long Live is certainly her most cheerful one)
What a brilliant and insightful interview! Celine is clearly someone who cares about her reading life, and I love (and totally agree with) the idea of reading what you enjoy. I have made a big effort on this in the past couple of months, as well as regular book dates, and it has made so much difference to my reading life. I have also realised that making connections with other readers is a great social activity for an introvert! I'm now actively seeking out both opportunities to take myself off for a cafe reading date & bringing up bookchat with people wherever I can.
And YES to Notebook Porn, Petya!!
Oh gosh... reading what you enjoy is one of those things that sound simpler than it actually is in application.
Kate, I remember when you said that your daughter told you to start books on a book date so you have a solid chunk of time to get into the world of the book. I always think about that when I am about to start a new book! It's such solid advice!
Celine had me on a tear - I watched the whole archive of the Yoseka Stationary YouTube channel. The notebooks that Celine uses have the same (or similar) paper as the Hobonichi planners.
💕
Kate, thank you for reading! And regarding book dates and book socializing—it's a nice way to make reading feel genuinely pleasurable and central to one's life. Hopefully both of us can have very rewarding book chats and friendships in 2025!
Im currently working my way through The Artist’s Way with a friend and it was great to see it mentioned as one of Celine’s recommendations
There is a reason why the program has such a cult following!
I hope you enjoy it! this is going to sound hyperbolic, but it's also very true: Julia Cameron changed my life, and morning pages have helped me so much personally and creatively
That’s truly inspiring to read. I’m on week 4 and it’s been a rollercoaster so far, but for the better. I am starting to notice that random creative ideas will float in to my head throughout the day
Great interview! Thank you. Makes me hope more and more people will spend more time reading books and less time on mind-numbing anti-social social media. Books can save us from evil tech billionaires! Also nspiring to read of her vaca reading—about to go on vacation with Anna Karenina and Persausion, with Chester Hines’ noir A Rage in Harlem tagging along for a change in pace.
The TBR is the antidote to the endless scroll!!! Reading feels like resistance these days.
Excited for your vacation reading list! I am discovering that I am not especially good at reading on vacation (maybe because I typically travel with a kid) but I get A TON of reading done on flights!
Are you bringing paper copies with you? You've got some BIG books on your list!
Yes, I am a paper guy! I make notes right in the book and fold over pages of what I find to be the best writing/novelistic techniques and keep the books that I like. I can look back at them and find the best parts, which helps me as a writer.
i am the same way. you can tell that i like a book if it's trashed 😂
I am also a fan of Celine’s writing and loved this deeper insight into her reading & notetaking habits & practice!
Every time she publishes a new essay, I go..... 🧐 🧐 🧐 .... I love both her content AND her process. I want to know all the details.
thank you so much for reading this!! I'm so happy Petya asked those questions and let me indulge in writing about notetaking…and sharing what my notes actually look like!
Wonderful interview. Thank you Petya and Celine. I really enjoyed this.
Thanks Matt! I can never get enough of these and it's such a perfect excuse for me to reach out to some of my favorites!
thank you so much Matthew! really appreciate your newsletter as well, so this is gratifying praise
I am much older than Celine but I also started with lots of self help books. I just retired after 40 years of teaching and now I get to read read read. And I am loving it. I am in a some book clubs, studying the classics, Shakespeare, The Iliad, or reading on Substacks serial stories. I have just started taking notes also. It keeps me grounded from the outside world of politics. 'Berta
I am so excited for you!!! Did you get Matthew's notebooks and pens? How are you liking those?
Yes and very much.
My two favorite substack writers together! Really loved this interview, thank you Petya. Loved reading about Celine’s book dates, vacation reading, notetaking, reading history, everything. It’s just so great to read about other people with a similar reading obsession, it makes me feel happy and connected. I am currently in the middle of a big chronological Virginia Woolf project, but looking forward to reading Proust (have read a bit and LOVED it), Middlemarch and more literary criticism. Now that I think about it, I loved Proust so much that I am avoiding reading it, because it can’t face the thought of not looking forward to it anymore. Let’s see if I can get around that!
This is so kind, thank you Margje! I really love Petya's newsletter as well—and it's really exciting to have such an invigorating community of readers and writers on Substack.
Your chronological Woolf project sounds amazing—such a great way to see how her voice and themes develop over time. And I do hope you get to read Proust eventually! There's so much post-Proust literature that can keep you company afterwards…Anne Carson has a lovely poetry pamphlet, The Albertine Workout, which focuses on one particular character and is such a treasure to read. My favorite quote from it:
"Adjectives are the handles of Being. Nouns name the world, adjectives let you get hold of the name and keep it from flying all over your mind like a pre-Socratic explanation of the cosmos. Air, for example, in Proust can be (adjectivally) gummy, flaked, squeezed, frayed, pressed or percolated in Book 1; powdery, crumbling, embalmed, distilled, scattered, liquid or volatilized in Book 2; woven or brittle in Book 3; congealed in Book 4; melted, glazed, unctuous, elastic, fermenting, contracted, distended in Book 5; solidified in Book 6; and there seems to be no air at all in Book 7. I can see very little value in this kind of information, but making such lists is some of the best fun you'll have once you enter the desert of After Proust."
Does Carson share more information like this in the pamphlet? I am, admittedly, a fan of patterns and bits that have no overt value and exist solely to be observed and taken pleasure in ✨
Ah, I love this Anne Carson quote! Fantastic. The use of language in Proust is so unbelievable, it makes me so excited to read it, and also to compare it with Woolf! I know Woolf loved and read Proust, so I think the comparison of both modernist writers will be so interesting. And I love your suggestion of Anne Carson and other post-Proust literature, that feels like a good motivation to get over my ‘desert of After Proust (such an accurate description!)’ fear.
The Post-Proustian Desert sounds like such an amazing reading project.
I love the Anne Carson quote - when I read R.O Kwon's book EXHIBIT, I kept a list of words too and actually had to read with a dictionary. I had a long list of adjectives describing light. It was such a singular reading experience.
Thanks for sharing! I am glad to hear someone praising Erich Auerbach’s Mimesis. I bought it last year and am very much looking forward to reading it.
I just ordered it too!!!
I love when people admit to reading self help books! Some of them are truly excellent, with The Artist's Way being a prime example. Great interview!
Agree. I know that the day and age we live in make us all want to create these perfect edits of ourselves - where our books and our home decor and our politics all perfectly align... But I find that the place where our humanity shows the most is in those spots where we break our own patterns.
absolutely loved this, and love Celine's process and how she thinks about making space for reading whether it's in transit, or on a special 'reading date'. I have for SO LONG been trying to make the Zettelkasten method work for me when it comes to notetaking, but I often end up losing steam after a while -- I'd be interested to hear how she's kept up with it and kept it 'fun' and not so intense (as it gets with me)
The note-taking, stationary loving, research obsessed nerd in me loves the idea ... and I go strong for 2 weeks, but then lose steam. I think to fully see the benefit of this system, you have to give it TIME... which I have never been able to do! So curious to hear from people who have made it work.
I will tell you this: I started a commonplace book and was sort of struggling how to make it work and then I went on a nerd binge and figured out how to make an index for my notes... and I am now legitimately obsessed! My notes are speaking back to me. It's insane.
i need to start a commonplace book!! Petya you've inspired me to finally do this, thank you!!! my journey begins
If you are about to go buy a fresh new notebook for it, get an Leuchtturm because it has numbered pages and that has been helpful for me in managing the index. I am putting together a post on this which will go out on February 6 and will be sure to tag you in it, so you can see it.
fortunately all i use at this point at Leuchtturm's, and I happened to get gifted one yesterday :)) i'm excited to read that letter!!
If that's not a sign from the universe, I don't know what is!
WOW! Celine gave us the goods! 😍 This was such a beautiful glimpse into her reading life. Communing with others who lead whole inner lives always feels like a much-needed exhale, especially in our current speed-scrolling/consumption world. Thank you to both of you and Bravo!!! I am also highly particular about my writing materials and do not stray from my regulars. I loved the quote she shared from Walter Benjamin and could not agree more. (I have a stash of notebooks that I use as my journals, which contain the original Tomoe River paper- my favorite paper for fountain pens- and I'm not looking forward to finding a replacement when I've used them all.) I LOVE Proust. In Search Of Lost Time has been on my TBR forever, and reading this has made me bump it up the line. Massive fan of book dates, especially when accompanied by a yummy drink/treat. This was such a delight. Thank you, thank you.
Really enjoyed this. Celine is such an impressive reader. I wonder how much more rich my brain would be if I hit 100 books in a year, such an incredible brain workout. It’s really like lifting.
I read about 10 books a year, and I think I could increase it but my current pace feels sustainable and it allows me to digest what I read. I take notes on my notes app in my phone, then I paste them into a document in my One Drive and I arrange by year. Every now and then I’ll read my notes to remind myself what my takeaways were from books - definitely need to revisit information otherwise they get lost somewhere in my mind.
Thank you Petya and Celine for such insightful/inspiring info!
i love the idea of a reading date! a good date involves attention, care, focus, and discussion. all qualities that would help me add intentionality to reading.