{"id":5547,"date":"2015-09-03T15:15:41","date_gmt":"2015-09-03T22:15:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dminlgp\/?p=5547"},"modified":"2015-09-03T15:15:41","modified_gmt":"2015-09-03T22:15:41","slug":"8-helpful-ideas-about-reading","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/8-helpful-ideas-about-reading\/","title":{"rendered":"8 Helpful Ideas About Reading"},"content":{"rendered":"

How To Read A Book<\/span> by Adler and Doren is a fantastic book on the many rules and steps to reading intelligently.\u00a0 Due to the amount of minutiae though, I constantly found myself feeling the same way one does when watching a Ken Burns documentary on the United States Congress.\u00a0 The majority of people would agree that there are some really helpful scenes here, but it sure can feel like trying to swallow some unpleasant medicine.\u00a0 The doctor said it would be good for me, but I sure don\u2019t like the way it tastes or goes down.\u00a0 However, just like most prescriptions, this book is very helpful.\u00a0 Here are the eight quotes that I found most helpful<\/p>\n

1. “There if we are disposed to go on learning and discovering, we must know how to make books teach us well (Adler 15).”<\/p>\n

By the authors\u2019 own admission, this is a very practical book (not theoretical). This is a guidebook\u00a0 on how to make books teach us something new.\u00a0 The art of discovery implies that we didn\u2019t just learn some new facts or even receive the new details about facts we already know. Rather, we stumbled upon, or if we follow all the steps and rules found in this book, we will systematically discover new knowledge.<\/p>\n

2. \u00a0\u201cThe tremendous pleasure that can come from reading\u2026was spoiled for generations of \u00a0high school students who were forced to go\u2026scene by scene, looking up all the strange words in a glossary and studying all the scholarly footnotes (Adler 66).”<\/p>\n

This is helpful for two reasons.\u00a0 First, it describes me as a high school student.\u00a0 I hated reading in English class mainly due to the reason that I never could get the \u201cbig picture\u201d of a novel or play because I had to trudge so slowly and get lost in what seemed like endless Dictionary work.\u00a0 Secondly, because I teach high school history, this quote reminds me that my students need to get an overall view first before picking a few events to learn about in great detail.<\/p>\n

3. \u00a0\u201cIn that situation, if we want to go on learning, then we must know how to learn from books, which are absent teachers (Adler 37).”<\/p>\n

Books are teachers!\u00a0 This a reinforcement of the first quote.\u00a0 It also points out an important dynamic about reading.\u00a0 The author is a teacher, but the author is not present.\u00a0 Of course, through the words the author is \u201cthere,\u201d but books are absent teachers.\u00a0 They are tools of discovery. Like trying to dialogue with someone who is dead, books do not answer back when one asks questions at the end.<\/p>\n

4. \u00a0\u201cState in your own words! (Adler 115).”<\/p>\n

This is appropriately exclaimed as the best test for understanding.\u00a0 I agree!\u00a0 It reminded me of a financial class my wife and I went through.\u00a0 The presenter stated that if you can not explain an investment plan, then do not do it.\u00a0 In other words, you don\u2019t understand it if you can\u2019t put it in your words.\u00a0 One of the goals of reading is to make the book our \u201cown.\u201d\u00a0 Not that we have to agree with each proposition, but to have a conversation with it, we need to understand it.<\/p>\n

5. \u00a0\u201cReading a book is a kind of conversation (Adler 125).”<\/p>\n

Once we comprehend a book we can start talking with it.\u00a0 Remembering, that books are \u201cabsent\u201d teachers, we are able to still engage in a discussion through asking questions and searching for answers in other books on the same topic.\u00a0 This also brings out the point the authors make that reading well is a lot like writing well.\u00a0 Pursuing this degree will require me to do both so I am happy to be reminded of the conversational nature of reading and writing.<\/p>\n

6. \u00a0\u201cSince men are animals as well as rational, it is necessary to acknowledge the emotions you bring to a dispute, or those that arise in the course of it (Adler 137).”<\/p>\n

Because of #5, this quote is a solid acknowledgment that readers have emotions.\u00a0 Readers have prejudices.\u00a0 I literally laughed out loud when I read the first part of this quote.\u00a0 I couldn\u2019t help but wonder if the \u201cmen are animals\u201d was part of the original 1940 version or if it was added during the \u201967 or \u201970 publication dates.\u00a0 Comedy aside, men AND women are emotional beings.\u00a0 We bring all of who we are when we read a book.<\/p>\n

7. \u201cIn synoptical reading, as we have noted, the books that are read serve you, not the other way around (Adler 154).”<\/p>\n

This is the opposite of analysis when the reader is more the disciple of the book.\u00a0 Here though, when we read synoptically, the disciple becomes the teacher, the master.\u00a0 For me, I see a lot of tension\u00a0 between reading analytically and synoptically.\u00a0 One aspect of this tension is the authors\u2019 charge to use a syntopicon.\u00a0 My hope is that my faculty advisor will act as a syntopicon and steer me in the direction of appropriate books which will aid in transforming me from an analytical reader to a synoptical reader.<\/p>\n

8. \u201cYou must tackle books that are beyond you, or, as we have said, books that are over your head.\u00a0 Only books of that sort will make you stretch your mind.\u00a0 And unless you stretch, you will not learn (Adler 318).”<\/p>\n

This is a summary of why the authors wrote this practical, albeit extremely detailed, guidebook on reading.\u00a0 It also describes why I am pursuing a DMin degree at George Fox.\u00a0 After 12 years of planting and pastoring a local church and 20 years of teaching at the local high school, I am ready to have my mind and heart stretched.\u00a0 Given that this is a book about reading I understand the emphasis on books as tools of discovery.\u00a0 I am hoping that we are exposed to a plethora of tools of discovery, even those that are not books.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

How To Read A Book by Adler and Doren is a fantastic book on the many rules and steps to reading intelligently.\u00a0 Due to the amount of minutiae though, I constantly found myself feeling the same way one does when watching a Ken Burns documentary on the United States Congress.\u00a0 The majority of people would […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":73,"featured_media":0,"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":[660,663],"class_list":["post-5547","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-adler","tag-lgp6","cohort-lgp6"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5547","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\/73"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5547"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5547\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5550,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5547\/revisions\/5550"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5547"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5547"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5547"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}