Books take flipping forever to read. I’ve always been a slow reader, I like to take my time and make sure I’m actually reading the words. I know that “speed reading” is a thing that people do. I could try to increase my speed but, to be honest, I don’t think that appeals to me as a solution. To me, Speed Reading seems like a tool to be used when reading poorly written books. I have little interest in reading poorly written books.
A friend of mine once read the entire 5th Harry Potter book in a single night, at least according to her. I think I can understand how that works. I mean, Harry Potter is not exactly poetic with it’s wordings. There’s nothing of real value in making sure you read every word, right? You could probably skip at least 50% of the total book without missing a single important thing. The problem for me is that I ain’t trying to read no flippin’ Harry Potter books.
Here’s my Back Log that has been building up.
- I need to finish Seven Pillars of Wisdom
- Actually make progress on Plato’s Republic
- See what I think of The Seven Lamps of Architecture
- Read Tao of Jeet Kune Do
- Read Shakespeare’s Hamlet so I can better understand Rosencrantz and Guildenstern
- I promised my parents I’d read Tattoos on the Heart
- I wanna read Stephen King’s The Running Man
- I’ve been wanting to read some poetry, starting with Whitman’s Leaves of Grass and Song of Myself
- And lastly, I have a book on The Buddha that I want to read.
Now, you tell me where Speed Reading would make the experience of any of these better? To be fair, I might be wrong about what “speed reading” is. Maybe, it would be perfect for me but, I have my own idea of what it is and I refuse to take the time to google it and see if I’m right.
I’m actually getting slower at reading. You’re probably wondering how that’s possible. Well, it’s all about my resurging fondness for taking notes. You see, I, like most people, took notes in College classes but I hadn’t realized until more recently how much I actually enjoyed it. That’s not to say that I’m obsessed with it or that it’s my favorite thing to do. When I say that I enjoy it I mean that it feels like a powerful supplement to any experience.
When I read Seven Pillars of Wisdom I make sure I have Google Docs open on my laptop or something. I’ve been using it to take notes while I read. I make sure to write down any particularly good quotes. Through 435 pages of the book I have 7 pages of quotes; my favorite passages, especially poetic lines, important ideas.
I’m keeping a list of every word I need to look up the definition of. I have 89 words that I’ve had to look up because I had either never seen them before or because they were being used in a way that I didn’t understand. I’m not exactly the most well read guy on the planet but my vocabulary isn’t exactly lacking. It says alot about this book that I have that many words written down. That’s an average of 1 new and separate word that I need to look up every 5 pages. Words like:
- Usufruct
- Bathos
- Propitious
- Prevaricate
- Noesis
- Internecine
I do all this for two reasons, I think. One, is that it makes sure I never have to read the book a second time. I have no problem watching the same movie a bunch of times, if it’s a good movie, and I’ll notice new things quite often. I’m sure I could read the same book again and see new things I didn’t see the first time but, holy heck, I don’t want to. I don’t have the free time, and considering how much free time I have (a shit load) that’s saying alot.
I think I’m gonna start taking notes all the time. Have I said all this stuff already in a different blog post? Shit, did I just repeat a topic? I gotta check to see. Give me a sec. OK, so I did talk about taking notes on things but I didn’t talk about how that makes my reading take longer. That’s not too bad, I guess. Whatever, the content of the post doesn’t matter.
A couple posts ago I talked about Spider Solitaire and I found out then that the Two Suits version I had been playing was not the real deal, hard core, version of the game that I thought it was. I’ve been playing 4 suited, random deal, Spider Solitaire. Needless to say, it has taken up alot of my time. Not a crazy amount but it’s addictive. It’s one of the lesser reasons I have such a back log of books to read. The primary reason is that I haven’t really wanted to read books in a long time so I’m trying to get used to it again.
OH! That gives me a good idea for my next Feature Blog Post. I have this very detailed idea of the “Perfect” reading conditions. It’s my theory that if I could put myself in this position consistently I’d get through my Back Log in a matter of days. I’ll have to write down that Blog Post idea somewhere so I remember it.
Ok, well, I guess I’m done writing this. I usually like what I’ve written more than I do with this particular post but there’s nothing I can do about that. I promise, I’ll finish Seven Pillars of Wisdom by the end of the week, write a Book Club post on it, and get back into Plato. I’ve made promises like that before on this blog and based on how those went it’ll probably be another few months before I actually do anything. Maybe my saying that will change things.
The Mind of Joshypoo 