> Do consider adding your favorite books, or book-reading strategies, in the comments!
Here are some book-reading strategies I’ve found useful:
When I feel angry, offended, frustrated, or some other emotion that seems to want me to stop reading or to not let the words get all the way in, I ask myself what I want from the book/author that I’m not getting. For example, while reading Nonviolent Communication, I felt something like angry whenever there was a sentence I didn’t totally agree with (which was most of the sentences). Turns out I wanted a trusted adviser, someone who would guide me in my studies so I didn’t have to create all of the structure for my education myself. While that desire was active and pointed at whatever I was reading, obviously false statements were quite painful. When I recognized that this was going on and that I would not find such an adviser in Marshall Rosenberg, I was able to receive whatever he had to say in a much more opportunistic, “let’s see what I *can* do with this information” sort of way.
In addition to trying on the perspective of the author, I also like to try on the perspective of the ideal reader: I pretend that even though I semi-randomly selected this book off of a shelf, it was secretly written to me in particular. The author knows all about me and and is actually extremely wise, and these are precisely the things I need to hear to solve my most pressing problems. While occupying that perspective, I ask myself what it is I need to hear from this book, and what’s true about me such that I need to hear it.
Whenever something sounds trite or vapid and yet is emphasized by the author, or by large swaths of society in general, I try re-reading it with the assumption that *I’m* the one who’s been trite and vapid up to this point, and now I have an opportunity to learn what is life-changingly important in this phrase/paragraph/book.
I try to be brash and selfish when I read. I try to have as many valuable insights as possible without any concern for whether the author meant anything along those lines. Sometimes this feels rude, and I find myself being pulled into a dull, studious, subservient sort of mental space. It’s those times when I remind myself to be brash and selfish. (I also use this reminder when I encounter a vapid thing and need find what’s life-changingly important about it.)
I highlight things and write in my books. Rather than highlighting things that seem “important” (or that could conceivably appear on a test), I mainly highlight things I have emotional responses to. Sometimes I use several colors of highligher to track several kinds of emotions (especially confusion, desire/curiosity, and satisfaction/insight). What I write in the margins is an attempt to give voice to the emotion. I think that most of what this does is keep the book in constant dialogue with System 1.
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> Do consider adding your favorite books, or book-reading strategies, in the comments!
Here are some book-reading strategies I’ve found useful:
When I feel angry, offended, frustrated, or some other emotion that seems to want me to stop reading or to not let the words get all the way in, I ask myself what I want from the book/author that I’m not getting. For example, while reading Nonviolent Communication, I felt something like angry whenever there was a sentence I didn’t totally agree with (which was most of the sentences). Turns out I wanted a trusted adviser, someone who would guide me in my studies so I didn’t have to create all of the structure for my education myself. While that desire was active and pointed at whatever I was reading, obviously false statements were quite painful. When I recognized that this was going on and that I would not find such an adviser in Marshall Rosenberg, I was able to receive whatever he had to say in a much more opportunistic, “let’s see what I *can* do with this information” sort of way.
In addition to trying on the perspective of the author, I also like to try on the perspective of the ideal reader: I pretend that even though I semi-randomly selected this book off of a shelf, it was secretly written to me in particular. The author knows all about me and and is actually extremely wise, and these are precisely the things I need to hear to solve my most pressing problems. While occupying that perspective, I ask myself what it is I need to hear from this book, and what’s true about me such that I need to hear it.
Whenever something sounds trite or vapid and yet is emphasized by the author, or by large swaths of society in general, I try re-reading it with the assumption that *I’m* the one who’s been trite and vapid up to this point, and now I have an opportunity to learn what is life-changingly important in this phrase/paragraph/book.
I try to be brash and selfish when I read. I try to have as many valuable insights as possible without any concern for whether the author meant anything along those lines. Sometimes this feels rude, and I find myself being pulled into a dull, studious, subservient sort of mental space. It’s those times when I remind myself to be brash and selfish. (I also use this reminder when I encounter a vapid thing and need find what’s life-changingly important about it.)
I highlight things and write in my books. Rather than highlighting things that seem “important” (or that could conceivably appear on a test), I mainly highlight things I have emotional responses to. Sometimes I use several colors of highligher to track several kinds of emotions (especially confusion, desire/curiosity, and satisfaction/insight). What I write in the margins is an attempt to give voice to the emotion. I think that most of what this does is keep the book in constant dialogue with System 1.