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Alan Jacobs, the author of this book is an English Professor at Wheaton College, Illinois. Given his position as a professor, his students and other people ofttimes ask him, "What are the 10 best books on literature that every educated person must read", "Beloved Prof, Tin you suggest some books to read this summer?", This book is written to answer all such questions. So one might think this volume is basically a recommendation blazon / instructional / didactic guide to reading. Far from information technology, this 150 folio long essay on reading at Whim, with no fixed pattern, with only one objective in mind, " Pleasure ".

The volume starts off with the author noticing that many people including his son are put off by books such as, " How to Read a Volume?", " How to Read Literature like a Professor ? " , " The New Lifetime Reading Plan " , etc. The premise backside all these kind of books is that reading needs to be systematically carried out and there are certain books that need to exist read to appreciate and become good at agreement literature. Nigh of these books smell of Responsibility, Obligation and Virtue, the very attributes that make people brand run abroad from reading. So, he says, reading needs a model that works, i.due east "Read at Whim". The people who look out for such "10 best books to read" recommendations actually don't really want to read a book, but want to bank check things off from a mental bucket list. They desire to say,"Yes, now I am done with this book". Reading at Whim means reading something that gives you pleasure,i.e there is nobody that nosotros are signaling to , nobody that we are trying to print.It is really out of pure enthusiasm that one reads. I usually sees this in children when you give them a book. They read it for the pure joy of information technology. At that place are tons of authors out there who experience that reading must not exist frivolous, meaning, Harry Potter is not serious book, in their stance. In fact they take this causeless checklist of books that,`Ought to be read' by a serious reader. The writer states that this model is broken, and says, "Read at Whim" should be the new model.

Ok, fine. You should read at Whim, So option up whatsoever you feel like reading and the one that you think will requite you pleasure. Done bargain. twenty pages in to the book, the writer makes this abundantly clear.And so, Is there any betoken in going over the 130 odd pages in the volume ?

Well, the rest of the book is Non reiterating this bulletin over and over again. `Reading at Whim' is the foundation of the model that the author talks near in the volume. If this were the only principle that we follow, soon nosotros will be facing with situations as these

  • Let'due south say you like Jane Austen novels and y'all become joy/pleasure reading her words. All the same you lot before long hit a limit. She wrote merely six novels. So, once you read these books, y'all would want to become back and read these books once again. Only,every bit nosotros all know, too many rereading squeezed into too narrow a time frame will drain the books' power and leave them forever inert on the shelves. So you face this Law of Diminishing returns when all you want to read are a few select books.

  • Let's say yous like Lord of Rings and actually loved reading information technology. Presently, you might start reading books that carry stories similar to Lord of Rings.Given the amount of books published in a yr, it is certain that there volition be enough imitators of hits. Y'all might get frustrated reading those books as they fail to match up to the original. You might take them for what they are, imitators of the original and continue reading. The 2d behavior can be dangerous as y'all might start accepting plots less clever, characters less bright, prose less dynamic and thoughts less insightful.

And so, you see reading at Whim tin take us only so far. In this context, the writer talks nearly the second chemical element of the model, i.e self-knowledge and discernment . These are crucial to develop while reading. These will help y'all chuck the books midway, if you think prodding through the text doesn't requite you pleasure. This besides makes y'all aware of your tastes and preferences. " Cocky-noesis and Discernment" are precisely the things that yous will not develop if y'all tend to follow somebody else'south recommendations, maintain a listing of books to be read, etc.

"How to Read a Book" and like guides offload accountability for our reading: they say, implicitly, that self-noesis and discernment aren't needful because experts tin take care of that for us. But if we reject that implicit merits, the next question that needs to be addressed is," How to move from `blind propensity' to `informed consent' to `Whim's sovereignty' " ? One of the suggestions past the author is to " Read Upstream ", i.e read books that your favorite authors accept read as they give a peek in to your favorite books' characters, plots and imagination. This kind of upstream reading is also useful in math. Yous might meet a good application of a technique, simply if you read upstream you might get to read all the trials and tribulations that went behind the technique etc. For example,Baire's failure in categorizing functions helped Lebesgue in defining measurable and non-measurable functions. If yous read Simply nearly Lebesgue and don't look in to the development made by Baire, you are likely to miss a lot of activity. Reading upstream need not be but be nigh historical developments backside a technique. Information technology might be about things that brand you wonder, curious nigh life in general. If y'all look at Cantor's math and read about the Cantor'south life, what shaped his ideas virtually infinite infinities, What drove him mad, what made him dice alone in an asylum, What made his story tragic but his achievements a mathematical breakthrough, y'all will forever wait upon George Cantor in a completely different light.

The author and then makes a stiff example for annotating the text / reading with a pencil. By turning our passive reading mode in to an active i, the book tends to offer more than what it might seem in the beginning. There is also alert against highlighting, as Highlighters allow you lot very quickly and easily to mark a text, but only by covering it with a bright color; and the very quickness and easiness of the procedure are inimical to the kind of active reading that is needed. This betoken is similar to DocMedina's finding mentioned in his book Encephalon Rules. By making the initial contact about an idea/phrase/character more elaborate , it is likely that ane remembers better. By reading fast we miss on the opportunity of elaborate encoding. Obviously this does not utilize to every book. I should not read Harry Potter with a pencil , such books are good when the reader goes with the momentum, the less stoppages the better. This means that as a reader, the decision to annotate or go with the flow of the book is important.

Reading Slowly is the next aspect that author focuses on. Most of united states read fast considering of the implicit idea that " Time is likewise curt to read all the books". Yep fourth dimension IS short, but ane crucial aspect that gets neglected past making reading . `a race' ,is, "Books become better when they are reread. Unless you annotate , read slowly, your re-read would exist equivalent to a new read". Reading fast – It's similar y'all have the content uploaded in your working retention, feel good about it, bank check off that item from the list, move on to the next volume." Considering the short term nature of working memory, its like all the content is in RAM. Once the application shuts off, RAM is erased. If you desire the stuff to get stored in long term retentivity, y'all have to read slowly, annotate and Almost IMPORTANT function is to re-read. Whenever you have the urge to read a fix of blogs / books in quick succession, pause and inquire yourself, " Practise you want to read' ? " or "Do you want to have read ?". An honest answer volition go on y'all off the speed track.

Via a Poem from Westward.H.Auden, the author makes a case for `eye-on-the-object' look that is needed for getting pleasure from a volume, i.e we must cultivate attending while reading. We need to be attentive of words , phrases, characters, etc. and so that we can lose ourselves in the process of reading. The poem mentioned in this context is very beautiful and goes like this,

You need not see what someone is doing to know if it is his vocation.

Yous have only to sentinel his eyes; a cook mixing a sauce, a surgeon

making a principal incision, a clerk completing a bill of lading,

wear the aforementioned rapt expression, forgetting themselves in a office.

How beautiful it is, that heart-on-the-object await.

There is a department that talks virtually a 12th century Abbot, Hugh's advice to his monks. Fifty-fifty though it belongs to communication centuries ago, information technology is equally relevant for people whose motives for reading are far from monastic. Hugh's advice on humility is relevant to the book as information technology says the reader should keep in mind three aspects,

  • Hold no noesis or writing whatsoever in antipathy
  • Should non blush to learn from any man
  • When he has attained learning himself, he non look down upon anyone else.

These lessons mean that one should non simply be attentive to what one studies, but also positively disposed towards it: friendly,fifty-fifty affectionate.

Amidst all this discussion about reading, the author takes a radical view point , i.e Schools tin never teach students to deep-read. Irrespective of which course a student is in, there is always this feeling that, ` I will exist graded' lurking in his mind. So, the kind of attentiveness that is proper to school is more than of `hyper attention' than `deep attention'. Look at any kids curriculum, you will amazed at the QUANTITY that is covered equally a part of syllabus. With grades and the competitive force per unit area, Tin a student deep-read ? No , says the author equally reading textbooks and the like-does non require extended unbroken focus. It requires bailiwick not raptness.I don't agree to this point. Yeah, a student probably tin can't deep-read all subjects but I recall focusing on a few subjects and understanding them really well, might exist better than knowing a flake well-nigh all the subjects. Yes, the student might autumn backside on the boilerplate grade across subjects, merely he will graduate from a school or a college with a better frame of mind. However looking at the mode the educational system in India, I recall the author might exist right equally LOT is taught and tested from the immature minds that there is no choice but to cram.

One of the most important points that I found relevant to my reading habits is : Reread . I tend to read math /stats books a lot and I find it imperative to reread them.Well, 1 aspect of summarizing and posting them to a weblog is that, these summaries serve as a starting point when I reread a book. The writer makes a strong example for reading and I quote the author ,

If well-nigh of us read too fast, virtually of united states also read too many books and are unwisely reluctant to return to something nosotros recollect we already know. I apply "think" hither carefully, considering , equally my examples show, a first meet with a worthwhile book is never a complete encounter and we are usually in error to make it a concluding ane. But those who desire to have read, who are checking books off their saucepan list , will find the thought of rereading even more repulsive than the idea of reading slowly and ruminatively. And yet rereading a book can ofttimes be a more significant dramatic and new feel than encountering an unfamiliar piece of work

This visual broadly gives the structure.model explained in the volume

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image Takeaway :

We commonly read for information or agreement or entertainment. Dismissing all the so called expert recommendations that one receives on reading, the book has one central message , "Read at Whim". It warns the reader from making reading in to a 'have read' activity.