Anchor Texts: A quarterly practice for a grounded reading life

Join me for a year of connecting the literary dots.

When we moved into our new home at the end of January, the trees were bare, the ground was covered in snow, and we had no idea what foliage might pop up around the yard. When spring arrived, each week brought a new surprise: tulips, daffodils, hostas, peonies, rhubarb! I suppressed any urge to change the landscape. It was more important to sit back and see what happened before adding anything new.

I did have a little space to experiment with four raised garden beds, where I planted zinnias, cucumbers, tomatoes, kale, carrots, and mint. The kale and carrots were a bust, so I sprinkled more zinnia seeds in their place. The zinnias sprouted beautifully and still provide me with the best colorful blooms each week. I planted a few pumpkin seeds in a corner behind the beds, and their fate is not yet decided. We’ll see what happens over the next few weeks.

While I observe our current landscaping and enjoy the fruits of my garden, I’m always plotting what’s next in the back of my mind. We need to mulch next spring, I’d like to add hydrangeas to the front yard, the hostas need to be split and moved and spread. More flowers for the garden!

A few weeks ago, I realized this was the same approach I inadvertently took when reviving my newsletter after maternity leave. After closing the chapter on Novel Pairings in the midst of a lot of life changes, I needed to sit back and observe, experiment a bit, and then move forward with loosely held plans.

While walking around the neighborhood this summer, I took note of how my neighbors filled their yards and what I might like to bring to my own. When my mind wandered, I pondered what pieces of Substack I most enjoy, what I love to read and write and create, and what seems to resonate most with my readers. Our short summer classic readalongs served as my garden beds this season, an experimental space where I could work out which pieces of Novel Pairings felt right to carry with me, what kind of public reader and writer I want to be, and how to make a readalong feel fulfilling for both myself and our community—and how much time do I realistically have during the week?

I am still experimenting, aren’t we always? But I am also ready to move forward with a new plan for the landscape of this newsletter. I’m excited to introduce Anchor Texts, a quarterly readalong series.

What is an Anchor Text?

Two definitions of Anchor Text frame this project, one: when I taught 9th and 10th grade English, “anchor texts” served as our core novel or short story for a unit. For example, our mythology unit anchor text was The Odyssey, our memoir anchor text was Night by Elie Wiesel. In addition to these texts, we would read various Greek myths, primary source texts on the Holocaust, or poems about survival. Each text connected to the others in terms of literary devices, theme, or time period in order to create a web of context and connections for my students, but the anchor text took top priority in terms of close reading and literary analysis.

Two: in internet terms, anchor text refers to “the visible, clickable text in an HTML hyperlink.” Additionally, “anchor text usually gives the user relevant descriptive or contextual information about the content of the link's destination” (Wikipedia). Anchor text is now so ubiquitous, you may not even realize how often you click on it to get more context or learn a definition while reading an article, but it contributes valuable information for the reader and for the internet’s almighty algorithms as they sort data for SEO.

For our purposes, quarterly anchor texts will serve as core texts to which we devote intention and energy to close reading and literary analysis. Anchor texts will also serve as links to other literature, creating opportunities for cross-analysis from one book to another in our individual reading lives.

What to expect

• Quarterly anchor text readalongs with check-ins for discussion, but not a strict schedule.

• Book club meet-ups via video call to discuss the anchor text and our interconnected reading experiences.

• Hyperlink-ish notes or essays based on my own related reading experiences or research deep dives.

• Book recommendations to support our anchor texts.

• Audio content for busy bookworms who wish to participate on the go.

Anchor Text Schedule

My hope is that a quarterly practice of close reading fits right into your already busy reading schedule. I will not treat these as slow reads, but you can create your own slow read schedule if you wish. My plan is to share a check-in post after reading the first few chapters in which I share what I am annotating, noticing, and wondering, and then a final reflective podcast episode/audio essay with questions, connections, and close reading analysis. Each quarter, we will meet up together via Zoom or Google Meet (I need to decide on our platform) to discuss the Anchor Text together. As we continue through the year, our connections from text to text will build, and our discussions will get richer. I’ve built in a little “break month” each quarter for myself as space to breathe, to prepare for the next season, and to focus on other areas of The Eclectic Reader.

Fall: The Street by Ann Petry

• Oct: Introductory Materials

• Nov: Podcast Episode & Book Club

Winter: Country Place by Ann Petry

• Feb: Podcast Episode & Book Club

Spring: The Narrows by Ann Petry

• May: Podcast Episode & Book Club

Summer: Miss Muriel and Other Stories by Ann Petry

• August: Podcast Episode & Book Club

Why Ann Petry?

I’ve been meaning to read Petry for so long! The Street has been sitting on my shelf for years, and I recently picked up her subsequent novels at the bookstore. It’s been quite awhile since I’ve indulged in a full deep dive into just one author. With podcasting and writing reviews, the pressure to share a wide variety of book selections means that reading one author’s entire oeuvre feels like a special treat. I’m excited to see how focusing on one author for our Anchor Texts impacts my reading life and our book discussions.

Curious? Start here. Tayari Jones: In Praise of Ann Petry (NYT).

Are you ready for an anchored reading life? Join our paid subscriber community for just $40/year and stay tuned for our first readalong: The Street by Ann Petry.

P.S. If the idea of participating in Anchor Texts excites you, will you please take a minute to share this post with a friend, on Substack, or tag me in a post/story on Instagram? I want to spread the word, but it is increasingly difficult to reach anyone on social media platforms. Word of mouth is the best way to welcome new readers, and your recommendations mean the world to me.

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