Lowering standards
I’ve not been writing much of anything lately, but rest assured, I’ve just been spending all my free time reading books.
I’ve been so concerned with adhering to a certain standard for my posts, or having enough content to justify even creating a post to begin with, that I’ve ended up writing nothing at all. Nevermind the fact my website has no visitors, or that my mediocre IELTS writing score can only improved with further practice.
Speaking of which, ever since then, I’ve started to pay more and more attention to what I read, and often wondered whether I could write like the authors of the books I’ve been reading recently like John McWhorter’s Woke Racism/Power of Babel or Jared Diamond’s Guns, Germs, and Steel. If that’s what mastery of English writing looks like, I have a very, very long way to go.
Given how much my writing pales in comparison, there is no doubt that my Band 7 score for writing—with the implication that I still have a lot of room for improvement—is rather accurate. I can’t imagine being able to write at their level anytime soon, including authors of most other books I’ve read; if this is the difference between my ability and theirs—the difference between a 7 and a 9, then this generous room for improvement is an overt blessing that’s hardly in disguise.
I know IELTS isn’t everything and I’m not actually obsessed with the results, but it comes up occasionally in the back of my mind as a way of motivating and reminding me that I still have a long way to go—that I still have a lot to learn. I find it helpful.
Closing
I can think of no reason I decided to bring up that old topic again today, other than by coincidence as a result of free rambling. As I just needed to write something instead of being stuck reading all the time, I think I’ve accomplished my goal.
Though I haven’t written much today, it remains that I don’t have anything coherent enough to write about just yet. Despite how I began this post, I still do want to hold some standard to my posts, lest it eventually devolves into a kind of personal self-run Twitter, in which case I might as well just use Twitter, saving the time and effort of trying to maintain a website on my own.
Alright, I’ve written something—now back to reading! This book list isn’t going to write itself, y’know?