The nature of reading habits - enhancing the learning of reading

Reading furnishes the mind only with the materials of knowledge;
it is thinking that makes what we read ours.

~ John Locke  ~

I have been pondering the nature of my reading habits of late.  My reading to learn, more than my reading for pleasure.  I still take immense pleasure in reading fiction when time allows, but as the stack of unread ‘something to learn’ books grows I find myself needing to devote more time to the reading-to-learn type of reading.

Recent changes I had made to the bookshelves in my study have meant I had to move my to-read pile off the shelves – they are now sitting in three – count them! – three neatish tall stacks on my bench waiting to be sorted and put back on the new shelves. So they have been very much front of mind and in my face during this process… and I have come to realise that there are a number of challenges I have with my reading to learn.

There is the matter of time.

Of course, if I had all the time in the world, I would be able to sit somewhere nice and quiet and plough through the reading material. As it is, there aren’t many minutes in the day where I get a chance to sit and read in peace. So the challenge is to set aside time, make time, rather than waiting until I have a spare moment. 

I need to make my learning a priority or it just won’t happen.

There is the matter of attitude.

In my mind (and I have only realised this recently) reading is an indulgence.  Something you did when the work was done. Something for free time.

In some ways, I think this attitude stems from the fact that I love to read and that I have never seen reading as ‘work’.

I also think, as a bookworm child, I was teased for hiding with my head in a book when there were chores to be done.

In my quest to have work I love, what better could I spend my time on than reading?  Good, solid, meaningful reading…

There is the matter of focus.

Oh! I just love books.  I can lose myself in a good bookshop for hours. Any present that comes beautifully wrapped in the shape of a book thrills me to bits before I have even opened it. I could spend my entire earnings on books without much effort.  But then, of course, there is the reading of them. 

Books are not made for sitting looking pretty on the bookshelf - you actually have to open them and start to read.

And concentrate.

I have been known to have more than a half-dozen books I am reading at the same time.  And the number of bookmarks in books on my shelves attests to how many books I get part way through, only to be distracted by another.

I’m curious to know how others choose which book to read now, and how they concentrate on that book, and that one alone, without being tempted to open something else that may be enticing them… (or do we all have too many books on the go at the same time??)

There is the matter of process. 

I have never been one to write in books or mark them up. I never dog-ear a page. I was brought up to believe that books are hallowed ground, and that they represent a sacred object, never to be defiled. It was something about leaving them in pristine condition for the next reader (in the hope (?) that there would be a next reader).

But reading from people like Tim Sanders and Rosa Say about marking up books, creating indexes and writing your thoughts and learning right there in book totally has me challenged to change my ways.  Can I do it?  I’m not there, yet, but think I might start with a small book and do it as an experiment. 

Any tips?

There is the matter of stickability.

We’ve all read books where we thought – this is great!  This can change my life!  Wow!  And we promise ourselves to implement what we have read … then find ourselves a few weeks later, with no change at all.

As I have been learning - by reading many of the wonderful posts by JJLN contributors – there are other steps and actions that can be taken to reinforce learning, change habits and implement new ways of doing and being.

A change to my reading habits

So, with my pile of books serenading me with their siren song, luring me in, and the list of books I’d like to read growing every single day, it’s time for me to make some changes in the habits of my reading to learn, including:

1. Reminding myself, constantly, that reading is not an indulgence to be done in my spare time (I’ll save that for fiction) – it is a necessary part of my personal and business development. Absorbing these lessons
2. Scheduling time for my reading to learn in my diary in ink
3. Picking a book out of the pile that resonates with me at this moment (they all interest me, otherwise they wouldn't be in the pile!) and learning from it with focus.  Unless, of course, I find I am not learning anything, in which case it will NOT return to my bookshelf.
4. Don't pick up another book until the last one is done with me (OK, this one will be particularly hard...)
5. Breaking the habit of a lifetime by marking up a book and assessing whether this works for me
6. Reinforcing my learning by talking about it, writing about it, thinking about it, doing it, debating it, googling it, whatever it takes to cement and optimise the learning for me. Absorb the lessons here.

What about you? Do you have challenges around your reading to learn?

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Post author Karen Wallace believes that writing about the lessons she's learned not only helps to cement the learning for her, but may one day help others in their quest for a calmer life.

Comments

[Rosa Say]

Ah Karen, I knew we were kindred spirits!

I will have to do a book-sharing project with you so that you will see just how much I do mark them up! Delightful abandon is the phrase that comes to mind... get your feet wet with a soft-cover if you must, but heaven is in the annotation of those hard-covers!

And thank you for the generosity of links in this posting! There is one more I have to give you in the spirit of what is written here though, and I'll link it to my name :-) It was written for Managing with Aloha, and it's called Breathing Life into Books with Your Mana‘o.

[Karen Wallace]

Rosa,I am honoured you would think me a kindred spirit.

Thank you for that link - I missed that one, and it is so important! Breathing life into books is exactly the next step I want to take, and having read that post (again) now, I would dearly love to do a book-sharing project (Hawaii to Australia) with you. That would be brilliant!

And yes, I see your point about hard covers - when I start buying books again I will choose to spring for the hard cover, makes total sense.

[Greg Balanko-Dickson]

I brought two books with me to Hawaii, purchased two more while here and purchased six audiobooks. Yikes, I need a strategy for reading and digesting books. I am reluctant because I do not want to turn my reading into 'work'.

I read for tidbits of an authors' perspective, inspiration, and insights. I rarely read a business book and follow every suggestion and/or exercise.

For almost three years I went on a reading fast because I felt I had not applied whatI had already learned and felt quite out of integrity with myself.

I might have to impose a 'limited fast' again to digest what I am currently reading and learning while I write my next book.

When I write my books I never read other authors books before or afterwards as I want to make sure that I think for myself, write unique and original books that reflect my points of view.

[Karen Wallace]

Greg thanks so much for your comment.

I read recently about an author's fast - in fact their recommendation was to box up your library and don't take it out again until your book is completely finished. Made sense to me intellectually, but don't know if emotionally I could box all my books up and have empty shelves! I'd love to hear more about your three year fast - and how that went for you.

Do you think that having a strategy for reading and digesting will make it into work for you? I'm curious about that...

For me, having the strategy will stop a lot of my frustration that there is all this knowledge there that I haven't got around to tapping into!

Hope you're enjoying your time in Hawaii!

[Steve Sherlock]

I am fortunate with my commute via train to Boston to be able to use some of that time for reading. I alternate between pleasure and learning. Although the alternation maybe more of a few in a stretch at a time than exactly one or the other.

I also go with the flow. Coming out of March's Love Affair with Books, I was taken with a few and put them on the list. Some of them have indeed jumped into the reading list before other that have been sitting on the shelf.

I never marked a book unless it was for school until I read Tim Sanders' Love is the Killer App. Now most "learning" books are marked which helps set up for the review to be written and the blog posts that take off on one quote or another.

Occasionally, a pleasure book will get marked for a good quote or passage to be referenced or re-used.

With Harry Potter's 7th book coming soon, I'll delve into rereading 1 thru 6 in preparation.

The biggest challenge I find is that more reading can be done online, i.e. blogging, following what others are writing (here and elsewhere) so that instead of finding my seat on the porch with a book inhand, I am usually found at home and comfy with my laptop inhand.

The marking up (with comments) generates a more immediate response and sometimes an extended conversation so that is very satisfying. It is akin to the feeling of completion when you have reached "the end", but you don't have to wait to talk about the book.

[Andrew Hartley]

I'm not sure that I could have put all of that into words as well as you, Karen, but if not for that it could have been me writing this post!

I currently have 3 books going at once - one fiction, two non (and two other non-fictions on the shelf unfinished since the current three usurped their positions!).

I also want to try to break my "bad" habit of not highlighting and writing in the margins, etc... unfortunately, I have to buy the books instead of just getting them at the library to do so! :) One of my current books has about 15 pages of notes tucked into it, and I'm barely half-way through it!

Anyway - please keep us advised on your journey to "better" your reading habits - it may just make for inspiration to many of us out here thinking about the same things!

Namaste,
Andrew