Even when I see someone on the subway or gym intensely reading gossip rags as if they were studying for some unethical exam, I cringe.
With its Dickensian cast of characters and inventive exploration of psychological vulnerability, Mighty Fizz Chilla is a bizarre but intensely absorbing read, drenched in the sounds and scents of the sea.
Yesterday Forbes revealed the highest-earning musicians of 2014, and if like me you're the jealous type then it made for some intensely depressing reading.
sercambi47 "Zia Haider Rahman's 'epic and intensely moving' debut" – Read the Guardian's review Published in the UK on 22 May "Ben Marcus is a genius.
Also during his college years, having lost his religious faith, he read intensely in German philosophy and literature, and afterward he traveled to Germany for a year of study in philosophy, physics, and law.
Cassandra and Rose are nothing like us, but I find it intensely comforting to read about any sisterly relationship; about jealousy and frustration, and about camaraderie and unconditional love.
The Collected Stories, by Lorrie Moore (Faber, £9.99) It's astonishing, considering the depths of her subject matter - death, divorce, suicide, Iraq, the horrors of the American midwest - how very funny Lorrie Moore's stories are, and how intensely pleasurable to read.
But you should also take advantage individually of opportunities to read intensely and discuss what you read with other writers, to hear and talk with visiting writers, and perhaps to work on a literary journal, do archival work with literary texts, or develop skills in print and digital production.
It may be true that the lonelier the stretch of life, the more intensely experienced the novels read in that stretch.
