Republican, having paused curiously, gets info from books? (5,2)

I believe the answer is:

reads up

'gets info from books?' is the definition.

'republican having paused curiously' is the wordplay.
'republican' becomes 'r' (abbreviation).
'having' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'curiously' indicates anagramming the letters.
'paused' anagrammed gives 'eadsup'.
'r'+'eadsup'='READS UP'

(Another definition for reads up that I've seen is " Acquires information".)

I've seen this clue in The Times.

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