Category: Reading

Posted on

Do THIS, Not THAT: Reading Speeds

In this continuing series, I provide concrete dos and don’ts for a variety of writing and reading practices.

Do THIS: Read things at different speeds.

Not THAT: Assume you can read everything at the same speed.

Explanation: I encourage students to listen to audiobooks while they read. One benefit of audiobooks is that you can adjust the speed. Audible, for instance, now offers you the chance of listening to your book 3.5x the normal speed, with increments of a tenth of a speed.

I shouldn’t assume that I can read everything at the same speed. Faster is great, but faster is not always better. Faster is relative. I do not read Shakespeare the same speed that I read Patti Smith which is not the same speed I read the Bible or a piece of literary criticism or a personal productivity.

The standard reading speed is 250 words per minute. Here are some categories of work I read with the corresponding speed.

  • A business book…3x
  • Web articles…3x
  • A personal productivity book…2.5x
  • A typical 20th century novel…2.5x
  • A typical 19th century novel…2.0x
  • The Bible in a modern translation…2.5x
  • Student work…2x
  • My own writing…2x
  • Classical philosophy….1.5x
  • A Shakespeare play…1.5x
  • Epic poetry…1.5x
  • Continental philosophy…1.25x

If I am reading a difficult article, I try to skim the whole thing faster than I can actually read it just to get a sense of its contours. Then, I go back and read it more slowly. That is, I read the same thing at different speeds.

If something is worth reading well, it’s worth reading more than once. You should use the speed of your reading as a way to figure out if it’s worth reading more than once.

Posted on

Do THIS, Not THAT: Read the Introductions

In this continuing series, I provide concrete dos and don’ts for a variety of writing and reading practices.

Do THIS: Read the introduction to an article / chapter provided by the editors.

Not THAT: Ignore everything in the book but the assigned reading.

Explanation: This is a companion to the previous entry in the series.

If I wanted to drive to Lookout Mountain, GA from my home in Fountain Inn, SC, it would be silly not to look at a map, either before I leave home or during my trip to check my progress.

The prefatory notes provided in your textbooks are a map. They point out the destination and even mark some interesting sites worth seeing along the way.

In other words, the prefatory notes should give you the main idea from your reading. If you read those notes first, you’ll enter the piece knowing what’s most important and what points are complementary at best or not worth remembering at worst. If you read those notes after you’re done reading (another legitimate practice), you’ll have something to compare your own sense of the assignment against.

If your interpretation of the reading assignment clashes with the introductory notes, fantastic! ! You have something interesting to write about. If your interpretation of the reading assignment is in concert, congratulations! Write down the supporting pieces of evidence that confirm the conclusions both you and the prefatory note writers have reached.

The introductory material is a road map. No, looking at Google Maps directions to Lookout Mountain, GA is not the same as driving those windy Georgia backroads, but I’m much more likely to get to my destination if I use the guide than if I try to go it alone.

Posted on

Do THIS, Not THAT: Using Outside Sources

In this continuing series, I provide concrete dos and don’ts for a variety of writing and reading practices.

Do THIS: Use outside sources to complement your reading.

Not THAT: Use outside sources to replace your reading.

Explanation: If I offered you a bowl of ketchup as a meal, you would turn it down. If I offered you a glass filled with lemon wedges and no water, you might throw it in my face.

Ketchup and lemons are complements. They enhance the flavor of something substantive, but they are not designed to provide nourishment on their own.

This is true of outside sources too: summaries, author interviews, essays on major themes, or even YouTube lectures. When used properly, all of these can enhance your enjoyment of the work.

But if you decide to replace reading The Great Gatsby with reading a summary of The Great Gatsby from SparkNotes? Well, you’ve just consumed a bowl of ketchup.

The temptation comes from the fact that these outside sources seem like a less-time-consuming replacement meal: exchanging a regular meal for fast food.

But this is a mistake. You’re not exchanging steak for a hamburger. At best, you’re exchanging steak for a bowl of A-1.

If you use outside sources well, you’ll find your experience of the book your reading richer and more rewarding. If you substitute outside sources for the work, don’t be surprised if you develop a tummy ache.

Posted on

A Review of Michael Lewis’s Book on Bias

Lewis, Michael. The Undoing Project. Penguin Books. 2017. Print.

         One project Michael Lewis undoes in his 2016 book The Undoing Project is his own best-seller Moneyball. In their review of Lewis’s 2003 book, economist Richard Thaler and legal theorist Cass Sunstein argued that the scouting mistakes Lewis explored were well-documented biases of human judgment and decision-making. The work documenting those systematic errors had just earned Daniel Kahneman a Nobel Prize in Economics in 2002. Lewis had never heard of Kahneman or Kahneman’s collaborator Amos Tversky, who had died in 1996. The Undoing Project shows Lewis offering a richer explanation for the phenomena documented in Moneyball by telling the story of Tversky’s and Kahneman’s relationship, explaining the ideas their research uncovered, and surveying the impact that research has had in fields ranging from medicine to economics and, yes, even sports.

Continue reading “A Review of Michael Lewis’s Book on Bias”
Posted on

Do THIS, Not THAT: Reading Notes

In this continuing series, I provide concrete dos and don’ts for a variety of writing and reading practices.

Do THIS: Take notes right after you finish reading.

Not THAT: Tell yourself you’ll take take notes later.

Explanation: Because reading can be mentally draining, the thought of following an intense mental workout with more mentally draining writing can be daunting.

Remember, the material you’ve just absorbed will never be fresher than the moment is after you’ve just read it.

So what exactly do you write down?

If you don’t have a template for your notes, I would suggest jotting down these three things:

  • 3 things you already knew
  • 3 things you didn’t know
  • 3 things you have questions about

The above categories are not intensely analytical. They simply ask you to take what you can immediately remember about what you read and put them in three non-evaluative boxes.

It may take time for you to know how you feel or what you think about what you’ve read. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t write something down immediately after reading, however.

If you make reading then writing a habit, you’ll have a head start on the harder work of making sense of what you’ve read.

Reading and writing are ideal partners, and one of the best habits you can form is firmly connecting your input (reading) with output (writing). When you follow your reading with notetaking, you’re both consuming and producing.

Posted on

Do THIS, Not THAT: Reading Goals

In this continuing series, I provide concrete dos and don’ts for a variety of writing and reading practices.

Do THIS: Have a reading goal before you start.

Not THAT: Pick up and read a book without a plan.

Explanation: The chances that any book you start to read will suck you in is small. The chance that a book you’re assigned will suck you is, unfortunately, even smaller. You won’t keep reading if you haven’t made up your mind to do.

You have two options for your goal: input or output.

You can read for certain amount of time (input) or you can read for a certain number of pages (output). Either works.

Reading a chapter per sitting makes sense. Reading for fifteen minutes works too. I’m not telling you what your goal should be, but you must have a goal.

The beauty of this plan is that should you fall in immediate love with the book you’re reading and then blow right past your time or page commitment, you’re fine. If you make a plan, you will get your work done and you’re still open to the power of page-turner. If you pick up the book without a plan, you lower your chances of getting your work done, much less being sucked in by it.

Posted on

A Review of A Memoir about an English Prof’s Conversion

Butterfield, Rosaria Champagne. The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert, 2012.

Formerly a Syracuse University tenured-professor of English and queer feminist activist, Rosaria Champagne Butterfield tells the story of her tumultuous conversion to Christianity and her sanctification as the wife of a minister and mother to adopted children of different races. As churches debate how to respond to both their LGBTQ neighbors and proponents inside the church, Butterfield has found herself a poster woman for Christians who believe scripture condemns the expression of same-sex desire. In this book, Butterfield does not rehearse that debate’s typical discussion points. She doesn’t discuss the origins of her same-sex desire (i.e. whether or not she was “born this way”), approve or condemn conversion therapy, or give her views on the various political issues surrounding gay marriage. Butterfield doesn’t even recount her childhood or give many details about the lesbian relationship she was in when she came to Christ. The book’s title is important. Butterfield hasn’t written The Secret Story of an Unlikely Convert. Neither, I presume, would her thoughts about a variety of political and cultural issues be “secret” since that’s what everyone would expect her to write about. Instead, she’s provided a testimony that is, at minimum, sixty percent about the difficult sanctification process that follows conversion. I recommend this book as a great starting place to consider with prayer and humility what it is we’re actually praying for when we ask God to save those who do not know Him.

Continue reading “A Review of A Memoir about an English Prof’s Conversion”
Posted on

A Review of a Classic 18th Century Novel

Defoe, Daniel. Robinson Crusoe, 1719.

A voluminous writer who has been hailed alternately as English’s first novelist and the language’s greatest hack, Daniel Defoe wrote this wildly popular tale of isolation in 1719, just before he turned 60. Defoe adapted the true account of Alexander Selkirk, a Scottish sailor who had lived alone on a remote island for four-and-a-half years and whose exploits had been recorded in “true histories” prior to the novel’s publication. In this the 300 anniversary of the novel, it’s worth noting that Defoe’s book remains staggeringly popular, with too many cultural adaptations (think of Swiss Family Robinson or the film Castaway) to count. The book has given many an economist a fictional representative to help explain a host of basic principles like consumer goods or capital goods in the pursuit of capital accumulation. In it, you can find the very roots of the novel, the dominant literary form of the past 300 years. You can also read the book as a story of redemption and resurrection, one that foregrounds physical isolation and the desire for physical rescue as a way of getting at the human need for spiritual deliverance. I recommend the novel as a seminal volume of English literature, one that shows how close the roots of the English novel are to spiritual autobiography.

Continue reading “A Review of a Classic 18th Century Novel”
Posted on

How to Not Lose Heart: II Corinthians 4:16-18

Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

II Corinthians 4:16-18

These three verses contrast two views of the world.

One is external, momentary, and visible. It is deteriorating and ridden by affliction.

The other is internal, eternal, and unseen. It is constantly refreshed and full of glory.

Paul can see both of these perspectives. It’s not as though he’s unable to see his body or feel his affliction. The difference is that Paul has chosen to focus on the view that’s filled with glory.

This week, I will be meeting with my composition students to discuss their rough drafts. These meetings can be rushed, and when they’re done, I often wonder if I’ve shared with them everything I need to know.

It’s so much easier to address the afflictions I can see than engage with deeper invisible issues. Yet it’s this unseen dimension of each of my students that is most important and redemptive. I pray that God gives me the strength to focus on dimension of each student that is most important, to encourage them in the midst of visible affliction, and to call them to a discipleship that will never waste away.

Posted on

A Review of a Minister’s Call for Christians to Think

Piper, John. Think: The Life of the Mind and the Love of God, 2010.

A pastor of over 30 years with a fervor for solid, Biblical exposition, John Piper adds to the pile of evangelical books calling for the renewal of the evangelical mind. Piper’s ministerial thesis has been something he calls Christian hedonism, which claims that God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him. In this book, Piper explains the role thinking provides in glorifying God and allowing us to be truly satisfied in Him. The book will work best if you approach the chapters as devotional sermons. This is not a work of scholarship so much as an exemplary book of Bible study. If you want to know the answer to the question, “What does the Bible say about the life of the mind?” you’ll get answers. If you’re on board with Piper’s general theology and specific thesis about God’s glory and our satisfaction, you’ll find his discussion even more illuminating. I recommend the book as a great starting place to consider with prayer and humility how the Bible directs us to love God with “all our minds.”

Continue reading “A Review of a Minister’s Call for Christians to Think”