Reading

February 28th, 2009 by Sam Rae Posted in Books

I am a terrible reader. I’m the kind of person who sits down to a magazine article, gets a third of the way through, and can’t be bothered reading the rest. I don’t know how many books I’ve read the first chapter of and never gone further. I have a bookshelf of books that I haven’t read, and I have a file full of documents that I should read sometime.

I realise that part of the problem is that I have the attention span of a newt. I need some discipline in order to sit down and read a book. The other problem is that the books haven’t been interesting enough. Harry Potter—no problem. Through a glass, darkly—I want to die after after a chapter.

So a question for you lot: What are your tips for reading? When do you read? What do you read? When do you give up on a book and when do you persevere?

  1. 2 Responses to “Reading”

  2. By Adrian Fry on Mar 2, 2009

    I don’t read much, my sister gave me the NIV on mp3 and I found that I can get through more bible, in less time while understanding it better- *individual results may vary*.
    It’s good as long as you pay attention, and it doesn’t just become ‘white noise’ in the background, and it’s probably best suited to narrative… doesn’t work so well trying to figure out Paul in the NT.

  3. By Catherine Juniper on Mar 4, 2009

    I think persevering with a book is a skill that you have to develop. Often the books that you somehow can’t get through are the best ones, and are good worth reading because of the quality content. Harry Potter is easy to read, just like a Women’s Weekly because it takes very little brainpower to absorb the information.
    In my experience the more you force yourself to focus and keep at what you are reading, the better you get at it. My tip is – instead of reading a paragraph then switching on the TV coz its easier, consciously set aside a period of time to read (not at 11:30pm when you are about to jump into bed in exhaustion) and make yourself do it. Start small if you have a short concentration span. It gets easier!
    But some reading material is just dead boring and a waste of time, so in that case ditch it and find something worth reading (ie something well-written, thoughtful, broadens your mind, edifying etc). For example, I got about 100 pages into Bill Clinton’s autobiography before I abandoned ship – there is so much good stuff out there you can’t possibly hope to get through it all, so best not to waste precious time.

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