I’m not a virtuoso reader, but I hope to be one day. I was reading Flow by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi this morning, and on page 25, he explains how virtuosos are made. He says:
“Like all virtuosi, he must spend many years learning, and he must keep constantly in training. Being a specialist, he cannot afford the time or the mental energy to do anything other than fine-tune his skill at manipulating inner experiences.”
Make no mistake, reading is a skill—but reading well is an art. While we learned to recognize words on a page in school, the ability to sustain focus, study a challenging book, and understand its meaning takes practice and lots of patience.
We beat ourselves up for not sticking with books. For some reason, we think that reading is something can either do or not do. But how is it any different than playing the violin? If you approach your books with a “practicing” mindset, you’ll see that with each page, you have the ability to make small improvements. At the same time, it’s possible to practice the violin for ten hours a day and never get any better. The quality of your practices matters, and that’s why, when you read, it’s important that you…
Read slowly – take notes – and apply the ideas.
I’ll see you tomorrow.
-Eddy
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