Get More Out of Reading: 2 Strategies
“Fighting for reading is fighting for life.”-Martyn Lloyd Jones
Indeed, books pump intellectual air to the brain and emotional nutrients to the heart. Reading is the ability to breathe in knowledge, ideas, stories, and writing is the ability to exhale what has been read. For many, sitting down to crack a theological tome or even a short novel is a hot or cold exercise. For some, sitting down to crack anything except a bag of chips in front of the throne of Netflix seems like a foreign idea. In both cases, one of the biggest motivators to read or not to read is the assurance (or lack thereof) that you are gaining something useful from this activity.
How many times have you read an article or a book that blew the roof off your brain, but a day, a week, or month later it is impossible to retrieve the useful parts of its content? This demoralizes attempts to read, and leads you by the hand back to the recliner for another episode of The Office. Before that, not having a strategy for attacking your reading growth cripples any attempts to get going. If the goal is to go deeper into the knowledge of theology, or to simply boost your appetite to read in general, here are two detailed strategies to organize the attack and maximize the profits.
What to Read
There are many schools of thought on how to structure what to read. Two reading philosophies particularly helpful here could be nicknamed “structured reading” and “whim reading.” Structured reading generally involves detailed blueprints of what to read geared toward building skill in particular genres; For example, a structured reading approach aimed at developing knowledge in U.S. history would involve mapping out the books needed to increase such knowledge and setting completion goals for each book. On the other hand, Whim reading simply requires following the passion of what is currently exciting the reader; Whim reading is just running hard down the literary rabbit trail of whatever keeps the pages turning. These camps of reading strategies have been popularly pitted against each other, but I hope to explain how both have been blended to extremely enhance literary endeavors.
If I attempt to rigidly structure my reading with prescribed plans and completion goals, at some point I burn out, yet if I simply run after the flurry of fluctuating subjects week to week, I never grow considerably deep within the subjects I am eager to gain expertise in. The best approach, in my opinion, is to harness the organization and intentionality of structured reading while taking advantage of the motivating spark within whim reading. This involves overlaying the framework of the former onto the kindling of the latter.
Structured Framework. What genres or niches do you want to be an expert in? I am not talking about one-off fairy tale dreams like desiring to be a master woodworker after admiring Ron Swanson’s canoe from your couch. I am talking about the topics and passions consistently, year after year, you want to engage with. I call these “categories.” For me, four categories dominate my interests: theology, apologetics, history, and classics. These topics, listed by importance, encompass the areas I wish to continually grow in. With defined categories, I have structured lanes to run in. A very popular tip for reading is to always read multiple books at a time in order to switch around when there is a lack of motivation. Categories provide a goal-oriented “switching around” that aims in a desired direction. The framework here will always provide a wide path of options, yet a guided goal to run toward.
Implementation: Decide the categorical lanes most intriguing to you. (I’d recommend 2-5 max). Write them down. Stick to them.
Whim it. Like I said earlier, confining myself to the structure too heavily results in burn out, so what’s the key to avoiding deflated failure? Whim it (within the categories)! Read absolutely whatever you want as long as it fits into one of the predetermined lanes. Do not plan out a long list of books to read. Leave the future wide open. For instance, I recently became intrigued by existentialism from wading through the critical analysis of a book, Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, in my “classics” category. Following my whim, I have now pursued existentialist driven works such as Albert Camus’ writings in my “classics” lane, and have started reading books from Christian philosophers analyzing existentialism in my “apologetics” category. In both cases, my knowledge is increasing both apologetically and in classic literature. I’ve harnessed the fresh interests to serve the categories, or, reversely, I’ve harnessed the categories to serve my interests. The whim ignites the powder while the categories guide the bullets. The most motivated reading expeditions are ones that snowball on each other, and the lanes have provided a desired destination for my literary instincts.
Implementation: Within your predetermined categories, think of a fresh interest for each lane, and start reading! Follow whatever you find.
Meaningful Note-Taking
Notes. At fourteen, I thought every bullet point written was a punishment from God. “What a senseless activity!” Oh how easy life would have been if only I was one of those students who retained biology vocab or recited lines of Shakespeare as easy as remembering my childhood landline. The truth is, I was never that talented, and neither are most of those reading this article. Recalling information requires glancing back at the condensed lines of scribble taken as the information was communicated: notes. When reading, especially in pursuit of greater knowledge or insight, what is the most fruitful note-taking strategy?
As an aspiring pastor, apologist, and flat out lover of literature, I am always hunting for both well-informed facts about God, humanity, and the world along with illustrations that assist in beautifully or boldly communicating those facts or ideas. Sources need to be quickly accessed and the compounding skills from my categories (theology, apologetics, history, classics) must be sharp. Notes are an essential part of synthesizing what I read in order to use the most important content found. In my humble opinion, to maximize the usefulness of notes, do it all digital.
Paper notes just do not cut it. If notes are taken in a binder or a journal, they get lost six months later. A month, four months or a year goes by, and the notes for that riveting book are hidden in the weeds of the stack of journals collecting dust on the shelf. Even if you do keep up with where the notes taken for particular books are, they can be hard to organize and put into good use; The penmanship can be messy, and lugging around paper journals is tedious. I do not even mark up books themselves: underlining, writing in the margin, etc. Again, this requires attachment to the physical book itself. Just like the sermon notes from two years ago you never look at, any notes you take on paper about a book will likely also be forgotten.
Converting to digital notes will create a single source for hard-earned knowledge, and provide a quick draw holster for retrieving such knowledge. Think about it. Using Google Drive or a similar cloud service, all my information is in one place ready to be accessed on multiple platforms: phone, computer, tablet, etc. If I am out for coffee with a friend sharing insights from a book, all that’s needed to relay quotes or notes is filed on the Google app. My thoughts and helpful citations are a click away as I prepare for a bible study or sermon. Instead of rummaging through my bookshelf to find a specific section underlined in a book, my digital library of notes points me to the quote I wrote down and the page number to double-check. If that sounds complicated, here is specifically how it works:
First, On Google Drive, I have multiple folders of notes entitled Book Notes, Topical Resources, and Quotes. The first folder, Book Notes, contains an individual document (Google Doc) for every book read; As I work through a book, notes are taken in this document (quotes, paraphrases, comments) recording the page number from which the note(s) are based off. Yes, typing out important quotes takes time, but it is worth it to have those written down digitally. Within Topical Resources, I document helpful sources and quotes on specific topics as I read across the categories. For instance, If I make a helpful note (in Book Notes) on morality found in an apologetics book, I will also copy and paste that same note into the Topical Resources file designated for apologetics. The purpose here is to have sources and quotes readily available on specific topics that have been gained over years of reading. Lastly, the Quotes folder is simply one long slog of quotes across all categories of books, articles, podcasts, lyrics, tweets, and sermons that I find moving. It is almost a pocket reader of snips collected along the way to share the greatest gems found on the reading journey.
The organization of all the precious insights discovered along the reading quest into a one-stop digital shop is empowering. This library of critical thinking can be wielded at any time simply by the touch of a button. No more shuffling through stacks of books, or thumbing through scribbled notes in the margins. Especially if exhaling the information in spoken or written word is the goal, digital note-taking makes the task less rocky. For all those wanting more retention and retrieval from the task of reading, this is a big step forward.
Implementation: Choose a cloud service (Google Drive, OneDrive, etc.). Create the necessary folders: Book Notes, Topical Categories, Quotes. Start collecting.
Get Going
Is there any reason not to put effort into strategically tackling the exercise of reading? No. Think of reading capacity and comprehension the same way most people in our culture think about fitness; Nobody serious about shaping up goes into the gym without a plan. To maximize physical exercise, a strategic routine is implemented. The same goes for reading. A predetermined attack leads to a profitable result. These two strategies provided above offer a route for your literary future. Get going!
Further Reading/Listening:
Whim Reading
Art of Manliness-How to Get More Pleasure and Fulfillment Out of Your Reading (Podcast)
The Pleasures of Reading in an Age of Distraction by Alan Jacobs
Structured Reading