The Murid Art of Reading

Among the most important things that one can learn from Buber is how to read...Modern man is a voracious reader who has never learned to read well. Part of the trouble is that he is taught to read drivel that is hardly worth reading well...One ends up by reading mainly newspapers and magazines--ephemeral, anonymous trash that one scans on its way to the garbage can...We must learn to feel addressed by a book, by the human being behind it, as if a person spoke directly to us. A good book or essay or poem is not primarily an object to be put to use, or an object of experience: it is the voice of You speaking to me, requiring a response.

--Walter Kaufmann, "I and You: A Prologue," 38-39.