Selective reading

  

 

 A big part of many of our paths is reading.  We read books or websites to learn new information, we read to expand our worlds, and we read for pure enjoyment.  But the amount of information at our fingertips has grown exponentially in recent years, and there is just so much available to read, and not enough time to get to it.

I grew up a reader, I devour books.  It's not a big deal for me to sit down and read for a few hours.  I have very broad tastes and I enjoy reading non-fiction books as well as fiction.  I am fascinated by how other people think and do things, so I will happily read books on subjects I never intend to explore personally.

And sometimes this becomes a problem.  I have this idea in my head that if I own a book, I should read it, from cover to cover.  I also feel like I should not just read it, but I should read it slowly, so that I can think about every sentence as I read it.

Now obviously, this kind of reading has it's time and place.  I am sure it is a habit I picked up when I was reading books for school, when I was going to be graded on my retention and ability to parrot back pretty much any fact in the book, and prove that I understood what I had read as well.

The funny thing is I don't typically read novels like this.  I can consume a novel, just breezing through it.  And I don't know every little detail when I am done.  I love to reread favorite books, and it is a very common occurrence for me to discover new details each read through, things that I just didn't catch the first time around.

The problem occurs when a book just doesn't click the way I had hoped it would.  And I actually run into this with both fiction and non-fiction.  I'll have been really excited about reading a book, but then I start reading it, and it's a slog fest.  I find myself not wanting to pick up the book at all (which often either leads to me not reading anything, or setting the book aside on a shelf and forgetting about it).  Sometimes I can force myself to read, but it makes for a kind of miserable experience.

There is always a part of my brain that tells me I might need to know the information in the book.  Or that it might get better (this is normally the case with fiction books, I hold out eternal hope because I loved the idea of the book and I want the story to be good...even when it's not).

Here's the thing that we have to remember though:  at the end of the day, we only have so much time.  And we can spend that time reading bad books, or we can selectively read and use our time to read books that are actually clicking with us.

One tip I've come across many, many times, is to skim or skip parts of a book that don't seem to apply.  This could be either stuff that just isn't interesting to you, or things you have read a million times before.  This is a skill I struggle with, but I'm really working on getting better at.  It's a common speed reading technique, where you quickly skim the content of a book and only slow down and properly read the bits that really call out to you.  

The really interesting thing is that our brains really do pick up information from very scant exposure to it.  We can't always recall that information on our own, but when we are prompted or think of something related, then it springs to mind.  We may not even remember where we read about it.

I don't consider myself to have the greatest memory.  When I read things, I'll often retain the general ideas, but not the specifics.  For me, having notes or marking my book is a great help.  It lets me find the information when I need it, without having to hammer it into my brain.  I personally am okay with writing in books I own, but I also love removable book tabs.  

I can't really recommend taking personal notes enough.  If there is specific information you want to recall, write it down!  When I check out books from the library, I often take extensive notes, because I know I will be returning the book, and if I have taken notes from it, then I can refer to those when my memory starts to get a little fuzzy.  This is especially great for any kind of exercises or correspondences that the book might have covered.  Making a photocopy or scan of relevant pages is another great way to hone in on the information you want.

I think that learning to set books aside is also a really handy skill.  Sometimes books just aren't what we think they are going to be.  The author voice may really grate on us, or the summary might be completely misleading.  As we struggle to read the book, we just find ourselves frustrated at what we are reading.

It can be really hard to stop in the middle and not finish reading a book (especially if you are an avid reader).  I find it especially hard when I'm reading Pagan stuff, because I feel like I am doing a disservice to the very people I want to write more books.  It doesn't help that I can normally find one or two great thought provoking bits in about every book.

The thing I keep trying to remind myself is that if I need to mine a 300 page book for two sentences, how much more benefit would I have gotten by reading a better book, and gaining 100 moments of insight in the same number of pages.  Spending time scouring a bad book trying to find those few bits of gold is frustrating and ultimately not the best thing we can be doing with our time.

So, if you are like me, and you love to read and are interested in a lot of different subjects, you may find it useful to be more selective with your reading.  If you aren't a big reader, you might consider that you just haven't found the right books yet...if you aren't feeling a book, put it down and try a different one.  There are more books out there than we can read in our lifetime, even if we did nothing but read, so spending our time reading books that aren't bringing us the right kind of value is something we should practice avoiding.  It is worth your time to learn how to read selectively, so that when you do sit down to read, you are getting the most out of it.