Attention & Focus · “You Become What You Hold”
Kleiser's Daily Reading-Aloud of Great Authors
To enrich vocabulary, rhythm, and quality of thought, and to steady and absorb the mind, by reading aloud daily a page or more from a great prose writer or poet — ‘flavoring the mind with the essence of good literature.
Kleiser’s daily reading-aloud in 5 lines: Each day, read aloud a page or more from a great prose writer or poet (as Rufus Choate did for life). Give it full attention; savor the phrasing so it stores in the mind. Use a comfortable, clear voice. When a phrase strikes you, say it aloud and build a sentence of your own around it. Daily, for years.
What it is
Kleiser urged a daily ritual practiced by some of history’s finest speakers: read aloud, every day, a page or more from a great prose writer or poet. It is at once a vocabulary-and-style builder, a voice trainer, and — for our purposes here — a focused-attention practice: the deliberate, sustained, absorbed engagement with excellent language steadies and enriches the mind.
Kleiser frames it as “storing the mind with choice passages. and thus flavoring it with the essence of good literature,” holding up the great American advocate Rufus Choate, who read aloud daily from a great English author for much of his life.
The Method
- Choose a great author. Kleiser specifies the best prose writers and poets — not casual reading matter. The quality of the input is the point: you are flavoring the mind with the finest available language.
- Read aloud — not silently. Voice it. Reading aloud is what trains enunciation, rhythm, and the ear, and it deepens absorption. Choate’s daily practice was explicitly aloud.
- A page or more, every day. Kleiser cites Choate, who “read aloud daily during a large part of his life a page or more from some great English author.” Modest daily quantity, sustained over years.
- Attend fully — let the passage occupy the mind. This is the focusing element: give the reading your whole attention, savoring phrasing and cadence, so the language registers and is “stored.” The aim Kleiser names is “storing the mind with choice passages from the best prose writers and poets, and thus flavoring it with the essence of good literature.” 5. Optional companion drill (vocabulary). Elsewhere Kleiser pairs reading with an active step: when you meet a striking phrase, pronounce it aloud and then fit it into a complete sentence of your own making — “this practice gives added facility and resourcefulness in the use of words.”
- Make it a fixed daily habit. Like Choate, treat it as a lifelong daily discipline rather than occasional study. The compounding over time is the value. (Sourcing note: the bracketed phrases — the Choate example, the “flavoring. essence of good literature” aim, and the sentence-building drill — are Kleiser’s documented counsel, attributed. Step ordering is faithful paraphrase.)
Source & Lineage
Grenville Kleiser (1868-1953), former Yale instructor in public speaking, repeatedly recommended daily reading-aloud across his books, anchoring it in the practice of celebrated orators.
The method belongs to the long self-culture / classical-rhetoric tradition of imitatio — improving one’s own expression by steeping in master models (Cicero and Quintilian counseled the same) — and overlaps with lectio / devotional reading aloud and with modern read-aloud pedagogy.
As a focused-attention practice it sits beside contemplative reading and concentration drills.
The Traditions' versions
Classical imitatio — Cicero, Quintilian: read and recite the masters aloud to shape your own style.
- Lectio divina — slow, voiced, absorbed reading of a sacred text; the same attentional posture toward different ends.
- Concentration / single-pointed attention — sustained absorbed engagement trains the attention muscle.
- Memorization of choice passages — committing great lines to memory; Kleiser’s “storing the mind” taken one step further.
- Modern read-aloud and elocution practice — Toastmasters vocal warm-ups, actor cold-reads, language-learner shadowing.
Common refinements
Reading silently. The production effect, voice training, and rhythm-ear all depend on reading aloud.
- Choosing weak material. The method’s value is the quality of the input; read the best, not the convenient.
- Skimming / divided attention. Treat it as focused practice — phone away, attention fully on the page and the cadence.
- Bingeing then quitting. A page a day for years (Choate) beats a rare long sitting; consistency compounds.
- Pure passivity. Add the sentence-building drill on striking phrases to convert exposure into usable skill.
- Straining the voice. Read at a comfortable, well-supported volume; this is daily practice, not performance.