If you’re struggling to build a reading habit, it’s because you’re ignoring the Goldilocks Rule. “The Goldilocks Rule states that humans experience peak motivation when working on tasks that are right on the edge of their current abilities. Not too hard. Not too easy. Just right” (Clear 231). Applied to our reading goals, this meansContinue reading The Goldilocks Rule (of Reading)
Join a book club if you want to become a better reader. It doesn’t have to be mine, but it should focus on books you find interesting, and it should support open and equal conversation. It must be easy to access, meetings should be recorded for later viewing, and the group should have good ratings.Continue reading The #1 Best Way to Become a Better Reader (In My Opinion)
Because I spend all my time in the reading community, I hear the same proclamation weekly – someone has set a goal to read a certain number of books this year. I often wonder how they decided on 50 or 100 books. Are they basing their goal off an arbitrary internet list? Or did theyContinue reading The Problem with Reading Goals
Most of what you learn is surface-level drivel. You never get into the meat of something because you’re trying to learn too quickly. You can’t learn well if you’re in a rush. I start all books the same – casually. I give them a read, and if I’m interested, I highlight passages along the way.Continue reading Some Books MUST Be Read Twice
I don’t have time to write today’s post, but I’m doing it anyway. I’m an accountant, and with the tax deadline looming, my industry is slammed. I don’t do taxes personally, but I am a partner in the firm and that’s enough madness for one day. Anyway, I’m writing this at 7:45 p.m. after havingContinue reading There’s Always Time
The great German writer, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749 – 1832), summarized the mantra of our reading community when he said, “We must plunge into experience and then reflect on the meaning of it. All reflection and no plunging drives us mad; all plunging and no reflection, and we are brutes” (Becker 199). The mantraContinue reading Madness and Brutes
At 9:00 a.m., the Mayor for our little town blew the foghorn and a mass of children ran onto baseball fields to collect thousands of Easter eggs dumped in the grass. I thought it would take quite a while to pick them up, but those kids swarmed the field and stripped it clean in lessContinue reading The Swarm of Children
My alarm goes off every morning at 6:30 a.m., and my first thought is always the same thing: What am I reading today? I’m so excited to get up, find my books, and get lost in my thoughts. I have no predilection toward drugs or other distraction because reading fills every gap in my life.Continue reading The Drug of Reading Books
I love personality tests. I’m always curious to know which type of “human” I am. That’s why, when I came across The Four Types of Readers by Samuel Coleridge, my curiosity spiked. Coleridge was an 19th century English poet, critic, and philosopher which helped the Romantic Movement, and was a member of the Lake Poets,Continue reading The Four Types of Readers
On August 31, 1837, a speech was delivered to the Phi Beta Kappa Society of Harvard University that would become famous. The address was titled, The American Scholar, and it was given by Ralph Waldo Emerson. He challenged the students of Harvard, along with all future thinkers (which include you and I), to realize thatContinue reading Dear Reader, What Do You Think?