How to read

Posted on | June 25, 2010 | 2 Comments

I wanted to share a portion of a book we have been going through at church. It was something of an eye-opener for me mainly because I never thought of taking notes while reading. Imagine that? I always took notes in class, but never thought to do that while learning from a book.

This is from “Spiritual Leadership – Principles of Excellence for Every Believer” by J. Oswald Sanders from the chapter entitled “The Leader and Reading”. Here goes:

Use the following proven strategies for making your reading worth-while and profitable:

  • What you intend to quickly forget, spend little time reading. The habit of reading and forgetting only builds the habit of forgetting other important matters.
  • Use the same discrimination in choosing books as in choosing friends.
  • Read with pencil and notebook in hand. Unless your memory is unusually retentive, much gained from reading is lost in a day. Develop a system of note taking. It will greatly help the memory.
  • Have a “commonplace book,” as they are called —a book oto record what is striking, interesting, and worthy of second thought. In that way, you will build a treasure trove of material for future use.
  • Verify historical, scientific, and other data.
  • Pass no word until its meaning is knows. Keep a dictionary at hand.
  • Vary your reading to keep your mind out of a rut. Variety is as refreshing to the mind as it is to the body.
  • Correlate your reading—history with poetry, biography with historical novel. For example, when reading the history of the American Civil War, take up also the biography of Lincoln or Grant and the poetry of Walt Whitman.
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Comments

2 Responses to “How to read”

  1. John Carney
    June 25th, 2010 @ 1:34 pm

    I always carry a blank book when I go on my mission trips — I use it for everything from journaling to practical stuff like keeping track of what I spend, and of course some of the notes I keep there find their way into the series of newspaper stories I write after a trip. I find it a wonderful tool — but I really haven’t done much with journaling the other 50 weeks of the year, and maybe I should.

    I’ll be going back to Kenya in less than three weeks, by the way; please keep me in prayer, if you’re so inclined.

  2. phisch
    June 25th, 2010 @ 1:37 pm

    I would be happy to keep you in prayer, of course. I hope your taste for kale comes back!

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