A Shift in Reading

I am learning a new way of reading: simply pressing on.

If something doesn’t line up with my memory I’m continuing anyway rather than going back for more clarity.

I see only two possibilities: it will be cleared up later, or the author made a mistake.  Neither option changes my main my goal of consuming the story, and going back hinders it.

Thinking on this epiphany (the fact that is was an epiphany) it really is curious to observe the contradiction of my thoughts; the working of my brain.

First, I want to have everything *just* so, to understand everything neatly in its place.  Simultaneously I delight in finding un-obvious connections; in exercising my story-sense.  Stopping and back-tracking for names or obscure references feeds the first tendency, and pressing on makes use of the second.

It involves “trusting myself;” a belief system I’ve kept at arm’s length due to the near-sacred position it has gained in our modern world (despite its true followers being as rare, perhaps, as true Believers).  Even so it is a confidence-builder to have a type of working partnership with an author: reading carefully, but once, and trusting she’ll give me enough to keep me afloat.

~ ~ ~

I’ve told myself I want to finish this novel before I  pick up another book.

Too often I’m a “read the one you’re with” type, which results in much pleasurable and varied reading but less a sense of accomplishment.

And when that’s done I want to finish reading windows.  I dearly wish to apply this pressing-on method of reading to an instructional book.

I’ve kept putting it down, wondering how in the world to take notes on the myriad of … everything the author is pouring into the book, and I want for a change to just consume it and trust, for a while, the partnership of my brain and the Holy Spirit.

I believe and have frequently said:

I don’t think the brain really forgets anything: Once it has something it just needs the right trigger to bring it back.

Incidentally, this is why I think simply reading scripture has value– even if you don’t feel you can memorize well.   At 17 I had an experience where God used a passage I *never* spent the time to memorize (and trust me, I didn’t read it a lot– it wasn’t that sort of passage) to encourage a baby believer.  It was one of those things that feels ordinary at the time, and you look back later realizing you were in the midst of a miracle.

I want to test my theory a bit and see if just consuming the information can be enough.

I know someone could say we’re supposed to be doers, not merely hearers but I’ll remind anyone who cares that it all starts by hearing.  So that’s where I’m starting.

This entry was posted in Reading.

4 thoughts on “A Shift in Reading

  1. Being of the opposite camp where I devour the books and then go back and find flaws, I can say that there are good things for both.

    Good thoughts–and I’m glad the book was worth staying up for.

  2. That “learning to read” post I did was more me trying to arrange my own thoughts after reading a book I disagreed with very much. I don’t think I was successful – blog posts reacting to something else, when I don’t completely explain what I’m reacting to, are a problem for me. I was considering taking it down and re-doing it at another time.

    But I look forward to reading your thoughts! And I will, eventually, be writing about the book that bothered me, once I can form coherent thoughts about it. ;)

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