<\/p>\n
The book, How to Read a Book<\/em> by Adler and Doren, was especially helpful to me since it has been over twenty years since I have been in a formal learning or school environment. Refreshers on how to get what you need from a book in a short amount of time will come in extremely handy as I get into the piles of reading I will be doing for my dissertation.\u00a0 Some of the key elements I will take away from this book are:\u00a0 determining what level of reading I will engage in, how to effectively inspect a book through the skill of skimming, and how to become a demanding reader.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The following definition of the art of reading caught my attention\u2026 \u201cThe art of reading, in short, includes all of the same skills that are involved in the art of unaided discovery: keenness of observation, readily available memory, range of imagination, and, of course, an intellect trained in analysis and reflection\u201d (p. 14). I love how they relate reading to the art of discovery, which includes the skill of analysis and reflection. I feel like I am much stronger in the analysis department, but not as much in reflection. My experience tells me that I am much more prone to recall and apply what I have read if I take the time to reflect on what I have read. This is where the application of the material I am uploading to my brain comes in and I take more ownership of the information instead of just turning the pages. This seems to fall under the category of analytical reading, according to the authors.\u00a0 They say, \u201cAnalytical reading is thorough reading, complete reading, or good reading\u2014 the best reading you can do. If inspectional reading is the best and most complete reading that is possible given a limited time, then analytical reading is the best and most complete reading that is possible given unlimited time\u201d (p. 19).<\/p>\n <\/p>\n As I said before, since I, as well as everyone else, will have enormous amounts of reading to get through in the process of my research, the 6 suggestions in the Inspectional Reading section regarding skimming or pre-reading a book will be most helpful (p. 32). The times when I have skimmed books in the past have usually been because I was not very interested in the topic, or I did not give myself adequate time to read the book. I tended to feel like I was not an adequate student of the material, instead of being confident in the deliberate process of inspecting a book or article to get what I needed from it.\u00a0 After reading this book, I feel more equipped and validated to use the skill of inspectional skimming instead of wasting valuable time and energy reading more of the book than is necessary. Even though I have skimmed books in the past, I did not have a particular strategy to systematically get what I need from a given book. Having their six suggestions now gives me a basic framework to inspect any book that I may want to glean from.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The other aspect I appreciated in the section on inspectional reading was their giving permission for \u201csuperficial reading\u201d. They say, \u201cIn tackling a difficult book for the first time, read it through without ever stopping to look up or ponder the things you do not understand right away\u201d (p. 36). I feel like this takes the pressure off of me as the reader to understand or comprehend everything, and gives me permission to not take every book so seriously and not be critical of myself for not understand the concepts readily. I think I have gotten bogged down with the parts I did not understand and did not glean what I could have more efficiently. I tend to be a slower reader already\u00a0so this tip will help me move along through the difficult parts of a book without wasting too much time trying to make sense of everything. They said it best with, \u201cOur point is really very simple. Many books are hardly worth even skimming; some should be read quickly; and a few should be read at a rate, usually quite slow, that allows for complete comprehension\u201d (p. 39).<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I must confess, reading can be one of the best ways to put me to sleep. I\u2019m not sure what it is, but I can start reading feeling fully awake and before long the book has fallen to the ground and I am sawing logs. Not sure if I have a reading disorder, but it sure is frustrating when I am wanting to get something out of what I am reading. This caused me to be convicted by the statement, \u201cIf your aim in reading is to profit from it\u2014 to grow somehow in mind or spirit\u2014 you have to keep awake. That means reading as actively as possible. It means making an effort\u2014 an effort for which you expect to be repaid\u201d (p. 45). I think learning how to become a more active reader will help cure me of this \u201cdisorder\u201d. I love the concept of demanding to be repaid for the effort I put into reading a book. I have not approached reading in this manner and I believe this perspective will help keep me engaged so I can get what is due me. This will appeal to the thrifty part of my personality because I hate wasting time or money and not getting what I paid for.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Even though some of the concepts were rather elementary, overall, I would say this book helped empower me to be a more skilled and efficient reader. I look forward to putting some of these tips into practice and hopefully stay awake in the process.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The book, How to Read a Book by Adler and Doren, was especially helpful to me since it has been over twenty years since I have been in a formal learning or school environment. Refreshers on how to get what you need from a book in a short amount of time will come in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":95,"featured_media":14135,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[660,2],"class_list":["post-14134","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-adler","tag-dminlgp","cohort-lgp8"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14134","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/95"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14134"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14134\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14138,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14134\/revisions\/14138"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14135"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14134"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14134"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14134"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}