Not sure about the meaning of one sentence in the essay of "Why we read" by katha pollitt.
"But what about reading for the aesthetic pleasures of language, form, image?What about reading to learn something new, to have a vicarious adventure, to follow the workings of an interesting, if possibly skewed, narrow, and ill-tempered mind?" I don't understand "the workings of an interesting, if possibly skewed, narrow, and ill-tempered mind" . Does that mean although the writer is interesting most of the time but sometimes narrow-minded and hot-tempered? How to understand "if possibly skewed"? Thank you !

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"to follow the workings of an interesting, if possibly skewed, narrow, and ill-tempered mind" means "to understand the author and his/her ways of writing and it doesn't matter how mad or ignorant he or she is".

The meaning of "skewed mind" might be different first of all it is "mental illness", secondly, it is "mind with all sorts of information", you know like a "walking encyclopaedia".

Hope, it helps :)

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In this sentence, possibly skewed means distorted or biased.

Answer

The sentence is writing about the pleasures of reading.  The mind that the sentence is describing is the mind of an author.  Many famous authors, like Hemmingway and Edgar Allen Poe are thought to have eccentric personalities and maybe even a hint of mental illness.  The sentence is saying that reading the works of these "skewed, narrow-minded minds," can be an adventure.  Hope this helps.

-Peace

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