The story itself does not give any specific indication as to why the lawyer's reading habits changed and went through the ebb and flow that they did. The first thing that he read was light reading. I think the reason that he did that was because he was trying to simply pass the time. He could only do that for so long though. He probably realized that as long as he was going to be...
The story itself does not give any specific indication as to why the lawyer's reading habits changed and went through the ebb and flow that they did. The first thing that he read was light reading. I think the reason that he did that was because he was trying to simply pass the time. He could only do that for so long though. He probably realized that as long as he was going to be in his prison for years and years, he might as well learn something useful. That's probably why he began studying languages. Being multilingual is something that he could immediately apply upon his release. After mastering multiple languages, he turned to history and sciences. That's beefing up his knowledge base. For the lawyer's final two years, his reading habits became seemingly random.
During the last two years of his confinement the prisoner read an extraordinary amount, quite haphazard. Now he would apply himself to the natural sciences, then he would read Byron or Shakespeare. Notes used to come from him in which he asked to be sent at the same time a book on chemistry, a text-book of medicine, a novel, and some treatise on philosophy or theology. He read as though he were swimming in the sea among broken pieces of wreckage, and in his desire to save his life was eagerly grasping one piece after another.
I think the reason for that is the lawyer systematically went through most of his reading and learning, and he is now trying to fill in whatever gaps he happens to think that he has. Or he might be just trying to fill his remaining time with whatever reading material strikes his fancy at the moment.
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