Do you only read the books that you can sufficiently grasp?  Now such is not an attempt at “oxymoronic” writing and reasoning, as who, after all, looks to spend hours reading a book that they have little idea about?!

Therefore, let me put it this way, if in the process of reading a given book, it becomes apparent that for all the words-to-pages you have read-to-date, that you are still none the wiser than you were at the time you read the back cover blurb, do you keep on reading?  If such reading experiences causes you to succumb to giving into the temptation of putting the book down and relegating all that is in your reading title, to the dust-bin of personal inculcation, you need to read the following food-for-thought!

To help challenge what may be your presuppositions that will inform your practice, firstly, think on how much you will both miss out on reading-learning from failing to read-on with the resources that stretch your reading repertoire, which means you could very well be limiting the extent to which you can have your intellectual horizons broadened in this venture of our lifetimes, that will subsequently impact on the practice of your life.  Secondly, such a position may also affirm that your expectation and interpretation of the reading process should be challenged, and maybe even reconsidered, which would provide you with the perspective to tackle tough titles, and persevere to the better, not bitter, end!

Mortimer Adler has some thoughts to help you!  Here is how he introduces some thoughts to help you read hard things…

I find that more and more people have an urge to pry into such difficult subjects as science, philosophy, religion, economics, and political theory. One clear sign of this is the widespread circulation of the serious books that are now found everywhere in paper-back editions. Decidedly, people want to go further and deeper in their thinking about many things which we used to feel were the monopoly of specialists and scholars.

More often than not, however, this urge soon dries up. People find that the book which they open with high hopes of enlightenment turns out to be beyond their grasp. They think that the subject must require more background than they have, and they quit.

Actually, any book intended for the general reader can be understood if you approach it in the right way. What is the right approach? The answer lies in one important–and paradoxical–rule of reading. You should read a book through superficially before you try to master it.  (Emphasis Mine).

I think the emboldened final line is a prescient point in the reading process, and one which we are often fraught to fail in, as we too often approach reading like a race, than a journey!

Read the rest of Adler’s piece HERE, and maybe even, practice what he preaches!

Readeeming the Time!

Jonny

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