Lesson: As we approach the conclusion of ‘The Focused Reader’ 30-Day Challenge, today’s lesson is an opportunity to reflect on your journey and share your experience. This exercise is about looking back at where you started, the progress you’ve made, and how your approach to reading has evolved. Consider the various strategies, tips, and lessonsContinue reading Day 29 – Write a Review
My initial goals for participating in this course were to learn to be a better reader and to retain more of what I read. The idea of reading slowly was important to me. Frankly, I had never considered that there were many benefits to reading slowly. I had focused on reading as many books as I could in a year (quantity). Now, I realize the value of reading for quality and for gaining value and personal growth. To be reminded that it will not be possible for me to read all the books on my TBR list made me pause to deeply consider how I really did want to spend my reading time. It is limited.
I’ve added books to my TBR list just because they were on the NYTimes Best Seller list or because a friend suggested them, or because a review I read online made the book sound interesting. As a result of this Focused Reading course, I now realize how narrow this approach has been because it limited my reading to what was popular, or what someone else liked, or what good marketing by the publisher led me to chose. These realizations require me to find new ways to make decisions about what I want to read.
I’ve read some really great books using my old methods of choosing, so I don’t want to change my approach completely. Perhaps what I want is to add to my decision making process regarding book choices. Really, what I need is to develop a way of deciding what I will read based on topics of interest: new knowledge, entertainment, history, contemporary events, the classics, etc. I’ve read from several different genres during the past 7 years since I retired. I’d like to develop a consistent method for choosing books .
Another area of development for me from this course has to do with note taking. I’ve always made notes in margins, underlined, or in other ways captured material that I would find particularly helpful. Now, I think that to derive usable knowledge (if that is my goal for a particular book), I will need to copy key concepts notes in cursive in journals or index cards. And, if I am reading for pleasure or enjoyment, I will continue to highlight and annotate but I expect there will not be much personal application to remember, and that’s okay.
So, all-in-all, this course has definitely met my goals: made me a better reader, more thoughtful, more engaged with my books, and even a better writer as I have become better able to communicate with words!
THANK YOU, EDDY!