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Reading Tips
David Mays
In five years, you'll be
pretty much the same person you are today,
except for the people you meet
and the books you read.
Madeleine’s
grandfather
Show me your library and
I’ll show you your destiny.
Anonymous
Outside of a dog, a book
is a man's best friend.
Inside of a dog it's too
dark to read.
Groucho
Marx
How to discover books you want to read:
- Ask people what they are reading: friends, colleagues, your pastor.
- Watch for book reviews in the
magazines you see.
- Note books referred to in books and
articles.
- Get on the mailing list for publishers'
catalogs. Glance through the
flyers.
- Frequent the library. Look in the new
book or featured book section of your library.
- Keep a list of books you want to read
in your wallet or Daytimer.
Where
to get books:
- Borrow from individuals.
- Borrow from your local library. Use the interlibrary loan.
- Borrow from your church library.
- Borrow from another nearby church
library.
- Ask your local library or church
library to buy books you want to read.
- As a last resort, purchase. [If you buy a book, you don't have to
read it because you can always read it later. If you borrow a book, you have to
return it.]
Finding
find time to read books:
- Steven Covey says to put the big rocks
in the jar first. After it’s full
you can still pour in lots of water.
Make reading the water.
Fill in the cracks with reading.
- Develop a habit to reach for a book
whenever you have a minute.
- Talk with people about books and
ideas.
- Keep books handy, especially near the
TV and the bedstand. [Groucho
Marx said, "I find television very educational. When someone turns
it on I go in another room and read a book"]
- Prioritize your important
reading.
- Intersperse long or difficult books
with shorter or easier books.
- Read a wide variety of books,
including children's books.
- Read books instead of magazines and
the newspaper. (It’s the same old
news—just happening to different people!)
- Read instead of watching TV; if the TV is
on, hit the mute and read while it is on.
- Take a book whenever you leave the
house. Someone might be late or
not show up. Keep a book in the
car.
- Listen to books on tape while you
drive your car.
- Reward yourself for finishing a
substantive book by reading a light book: fiction, children's books, classics.
- Read large print mysteries or westerns
on the treadmill.
Tips for getting the most from books
- Ransack books. Look them over. Check out the author and
introduction. Read only the
sections you need.
- After you have read several books on a
subject, look for the new or novel ideas.
- Hunt for practical information. Skim sections that are weak, irrelevant
or that you already know well.
- Look for the key idea. Many books would make a substantive magazine
article.
- If the book isn’t worth it, don’t
finish it.
Taking notes on books
- When you see something that catches your
attention, make a tic mark in the margin. Develop your own code, quote marks,
bracketts, etc. Write the page
number on a 3x5 piece of paper you use for the bookmark.
- Go back and write up the notes.
- If it’s a borrowed book, erase the tic
marks!
- Keep your notes in a 3-ring binder and
write the year, month, and the book number on the upper right
corner. Number your notes sequentially
starting over each year.
- Set up and maintain a data base of the
books you’ve read.
56565656565656565656
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