<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is not the quantity that is read, but the manner of reading, that yields us profit.\u00a0 Those who read fast, reap no more advantage, than a bee would by only skimming over the surface of the flower, instead of waiting to penetrate into it, and extract its sweets.\u201d (Madame Guyon – A Short & Very Easy Method of Prayer)<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n I was reminded of this image from Madame Guyon as I read Bayard\u2019s work on how to read quickly and superficially, or how not to read at all. Admittedly, Madame Guyon is talking about prayerful and meditative reading (perhaps closest to the analytical reading of Adler, or the \u201cgutting of a book\u201d by Jason Clark) and she goes on to say: \u201cMuch reading is rather for scholastic subjects, than divine truths<\/em>\u201d. I do find myself asking the question, however, about how much we really benefit and learn when we fly quickly over single or multiple texts, having a sniff here, and a lick there (I am continuing the metaphor, not revealing some strange penchant for licking books), rather than reading more slowly and carefully and meditatively.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The answer has to be: it depends. I understand and agree with Bayard\u2019s reference to the importance of placing the work in the wider literary context (reading syntopically \u2013 Adler) and having an overall perspective. And it appears that Adler and Madame Guyon and Bayard all agree on the need to read extensively, and somewhat superficially, to gain mastery over \u2018scholastic subjects\u2019. I also find myself confronted with a large swathe of material that I have to review and understand and contextualise as I start my DMin research. It would be impossible to read slowly and deeply in these areas \u2013 neither would I want to, when it comes to the likes of Pink.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n And yet: my personal preference at this stage remains to read slowly and deeply, and even to reread books, to feel that I am learning something and digesting and imbibing it. It feels like the difference between wolfing down a McDonalds and eating at a Michelin restaurant. It reminds me of two vignettes, both of which I experienced in France on holiday.<\/p>\n The first is my memory of reading Peterson\u2019s The Contemplative Pastor<\/em>, sitting on a veranda overlooking the mountain valleys in the Ardeche region. I would read slowly, with a cup of coffee and a journal, and reflect on each chapter. It was a wonderful slow process which I found relaxing and rewarding.<\/p>\n The second is a meal at a French farm, eaten with German friends. The meal lasted three hours or so. The French chef had picked the ingredients fresh from the garden, we ate slowly and drank and relaxed in the sunshine of a French valley. It was a memorable meal.<\/p>\n And I guess that the last two paragraphs prove Bayard\u2019s point of how, ultimately, when we talk and write about books, we really end up speaking about ourselves and our inner book. We spend less time speaking of the actual real content of the book itself, which is a moving object, and begin to create our own stories and points of reference. This will be happening throughout this process. As we blog and comment on each others\u2019 thoughts and blogs, it seems sometimes that the factual content of the book itself recedes into the background.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Ultimately, it is important to realise the different types of reading and reviewing covered by Bayard and Adler, and to apply them according to the context we find ourselves in.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n It\u2019s just that, personally, I would rather be sitting in the French mountains, with the sun rising, as I sip coffee and mull over Eugene Peterson, than skim-reading Pink\u2019s Visual Ethnography at a rate of knots. But it all adds to my inner library!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u201cIt is not the quantity that is read, but the manner of reading, that yields us profit.\u00a0 Those who read fast, reap no more advantage, than a bee would by only skimming over the surface of the flower, instead of waiting to penetrate into it, and extract its sweets.\u201d (Madame Guyon – A Short […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":89,"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":[477,903],"class_list":["post-9489","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-bayard","tag-how-to-talk-about-a-book-you-have-not-read","cohort-lgp7"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9489","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\/89"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9489"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9489\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9489"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9489"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9489"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}