Last Updated on October 2, 2022 by Dayanand Kadella
From the ages, we have been hearing, readers are leaders, and we can become more and more productive as we read books. It might seem weird to dedicate an entire blog article to reading books, although you may love reading about it. And if you’re reading about this, you’re probably able to read more –effectively and efficiently. However, reading books and any other article in the magazine effectively and efficiently is a totally different thing that we are rarely taught. To be honest, we’re never really taught how to actually read.
I’m sure, we all have been trained to believe that good reading is only measured by speed and breadth throughout our educational career. The more we can read, the more intelligent we become, heard many times during my school, college, and even during the period when I was in the University. And also many times heard people saying, the more we can read, the intelligent and prudent we appeared to be.
We might lose out on a lot of useful ideas because of our obsession with reading more day by day. Wisdom from the centuries, lessons learned from those who have overcome incredible obstacles, and the opportunity to learn something new that challenges our views in the modern days. All because the greatest meta-skill, the art of reading –the attitude, is never taught.
Actually, if I’m not making any mistake, we have never been taught how to build a Reading Attitude, throughout our academic careers.
So what’s next!
To read more successfully and quickly, I mean to make it a habit, you’ll need to establish a foolproof system for capturing ideas, analyzing arguments within the pages, and asking the correct questions to yourself. It requires selecting appropriate books to read. The flavor -category of the book you like to read, comprehending various reading objectives, and employing evidence-based strategies to boost reading productivity.
In many ways, increasing our reading skills is the most important ability we can develop to improve our professional and personal life.
Also Read: 20 IDEAS FOR WORK-LIFE BALANCE THAT CAN LEAD YOU TO LONGEVITY
The Value of Efficient and Effective Reading
“I do believe something very magical can happen when you read a good book.” ― J.K. Rowling
We all know books have had a huge influence on our life. They’ve served as a personal mentor and a channel for knowledge accumulation.
1. Books have always been my personal Mentors
If you asked me to pick the persons who have had the greatest impact on my life (apart from my immediate family). I wouldn’t hesitate to name a group of people who have changed my perspective via their remarkable acts, thoughts, and experiences. People, on the other hand, would not be the most significant impact on my life. It’d have to be the books I’ve read in my entire life, not too long life.
With minimum personal efforts, I’ve managed to acquire decades of information, experience, and wisdom from the world’s most incredible minds by reading a lot of books (and trying to read effectively, every time I read). I’m very lucky that I’ve learned from my mistakes without having to fail, I’ve learned from my triumphs without having to take enormous risks, and I’ve traveled thousands of miles without ever leaving my home bed.
As I always say, I can’t go through the experiences, all the great people have gone through, but I can still get their experience from the books they have written. I can learn whatever I want to, just have to make the right selection.
For me, reading a book is like having a mentor without any cost, pain, or suffering, I can feel the essence of a writer. Without the enthusiasm, motivation, inspiration, and limitless insights provided by my paper friends, I would not have launched my personal blog and decided to publish a book. Seriously. I don’t have any regret with my reading habit, all is going as I planned.
2. Books are key to wisdom (my firm belief)
“Compound interest is the 8th Wonder of the World” – Albert Einstein
We all must know that personal knowledge, like money, comes and grows exponentially as it snowballs and branches out over time. To put it another way, the more we read –build reading attitude, and the better our reading processes get, the faster our ideas, beliefs, and views grow, and that’s what wisdom is all about.
Not only does our brain learn to directly connect seemingly unconnected pieces of knowledge, but it also eventually emerges as a holistic and creative answer to some of our most baffling and vexing situations which we often face throughout our life. It has become the personal superpower that every one of us can tap into and get better –effective and efficient.
“To develop a complete mind: Study the science of art; Study the art of science. Learn how to see. Realize that everything connects to everything else” – Da Vinci.
Also Read: 5 SOURCES THAT INSPIRE YOU AND EVERYONE ELSE
The Reading Goal
If you can read, choosing a reading goal is the first step in improving our ability to read more successfully as a method of unlocking our own unique potential –to unleash the power within. After all, reading Paradise Lost will most likely provide us with a different goal and experience trapped in, than reading our favorite Harry Potter novel or a comic book, the difference is always there.
Many great authors in history describe novels as having a hazy goal of success, pleasure, or personal fulfillment type of feelings.
However, I’d agree, that these are my personal viewpoints, and are just abstract, subjective, and mostly ineffective in dictating how we should read. As compared to the description and tactics described by Mortimer Adler and Charles Van Doren in their book “How to Read a Book,” and “Learn to Read Activity Book: 101 Fun Lessons to Teach Your Child to Read” by Hannah Braun, it’s easier and more effective for our purposes to divide reading objectives into different categories.
The three categories advised by Mortimer Adler in his book How to Read a Book are:
1. Reading for Entertainment
We read novels only for pleasure in this category, as by Mortimer Adler. As being a reader, it’s how we spend vast amounts of time engaging ourselves in a book. There aren’t any kind of restrictions, and we don’t have to think -overthink, about what we’re reading too carefully or critically. Our objective with reading is very simple: we may be relaxed, take a breather, and become completely immersed in the story.
Nothing is inherently wrong there about reading to pass the time. After all, our goal is to adopt a self-improving –reading, attitude.
It’s a great way to release stress and get a mental breather after a long day at work if you’re a person like me. Books written on personal development Fantasy novels are one of my favorites to read (or listen to) (With the books written by Robin Sharma and Napoleon Hill are being my personal top favorites.
2. Reading for information
Our objective with the second category of book reading is to learn specific facts or information about something, the goal is to keep learning and improving. The layout and structure of these books are usually basic and easy to explore by anyone who just starts to read books. This allows us to skim over them quickly and go to key portions, which are juicier, without losing the essence of what’s being stated in the book. Our objective with this type of reading, again, is to gain knowledge without being judged.
We don’t have to be specific here. We can read the newspaper in any language we can understand, a tourist guide our favorite place, or the Guinness World Records, for example, all to stay informed and soak it. Although we can find some of them are interesting and entertaining like comics books. We generally read them to gain a factual understanding of current events, a certain area, or some other piece of information we want to soak.
Once Again, reading to learn isn’t a difficult task for most of us, especially when we know no one is going to take our test or measure our knowledge. But we know we have to be better than we were yesterday.
3. Reading for understanding
Reading for understanding is the last category, described by Mortimer Adler in his book “How to Read a Book” about reading and be effective, efficient, and productive, that most of us (including me) struggle with. As a result, when it comes to increasing the quality of reading ability –efficiency and effectiveness, of our reading, it deserves the majority of our focus.
The issue is that of the three reading types –the categories given by Mortimer Adler in How to Read a Book, reading to comprehend demands the most mental effort we put in to understand. It pushes us to question our assumptions about reading and understanding, examine the current quo critically, and confront concepts with which we may not be instantly comfortable and understand. This is a really difficult task to achieve, not so. It can be inconvenient for us. However, this is the only method for us to improve our thoughts –thought processes, and personal development.
CONCLUSION:
Reading is not as hard as you might be thinking unless it is perfectly guided how-to. If you can read, you must read. There aren’t any disadvantages of reading, as far as my knowledge is concerned. And also I haven’t found any legitimate person who neglects the power of reading. It fills you with great knowledge and makes you fresh whenever you return to reading. Just find a way to build the reading attitude.
If you want to crush it and grow yourself to the next level then you may need some sort of support of technology like me. You can take notes on Evernote, which can help you to save and process later free of cost. With all of your notes, tasks, and calendar in one location, you’ll be able to remember each and everything and handle any project to be more productive.
Here is a Three-in-one; Get three great tools at the price of one – the Clutter this software is a premium one but it is really amazing. With the clipboard, files and notes feature you can manage yourself more productively and be an efficient and effective reader without any doubt.
Also Read: HOW TO GENERATE NEW IDEAS FOR WRITING