ONE WAY IN WHICH WE ARE NOT JUST NOW PLAYERS

you might have an ambition to become a writer so that it's everything you do ... so of course your reading is part of your writing ... you might have friends with whom you share an interest about which you all can read ... then your reading is part of that friendship ... but you might have neither friends nor the ambition to become a writer ... why would you read then ... first let me cheat a little and propose a third penultimate solution ... you might be playing a wargame and want to read a book to better understand the game ... but if we don't have a wargame to intrigue us the reason may still apply in the sense that we still have a game to play which too is penultimate ... this time to life itself ... the game I mean is understanding ... ah then you may say not penultimate to life but to action ... all understanding is penultimate to action if only to moves in a boardgame ... well no I feel obliged to answer ... unless we agree to obscure the issue and call understanding an action which of course in one sense it is but not I think to your pragmatic way of thinking ... the understanding I mean is not that of the active player but of pleased admiration