:: on reading well ::

I have been thinking (a dangerous pastime, I know).

        I mainly read fiction. most of it old and "classic," but it's still fiction. that's not to say that fiction is useless or can't be good or won't teach you anything worthwhile about life (I think there is great benefit in reading [good] fiction. that is why I do it); but there is so much non-fiction out there that I haven't read, merely because... well, I'm lazy. I think about what I've already read, and I'm complacent. I feel sort of above other people who "don't like to read" or "think dickens is too complicated" and I'm like, oh yeah, do you want me analyze that passage for you? (pride is a separate problem of mine, which I do not feel I need to go into at this moment.)

        

        anyway, these amazing non-fiction books that I haven't read -- because they sound boring or I just don't want to -- are wide horizons that I have not explored, and I'm pretty undereducated in that (huge) category. I definitely had to read other-than-fiction in school, but I never pursued it farther, and I think I need to push myself in that direction. reading more non-fiction will develop the diligence and perseverance I sorely lack; it will make me a rounder person; and it will further educate me. I mean, I'm already intrigued by malcolm gladwell, so it can't all be that bad. 

        these are things I've been thinking about the past few weeks, really feeling the need to branch out a little, and then reading walden I found this. (have I mentioned I really like thoreau?)

A man, any man, will go considerably out of his way to pick up a silver dollar; but here are golden words, which the wisest men of antiquity have uttered, and whose worth the wise of every succeeding age have assured us of; -- and yet we learn to read only as far as Easy Reading, the primers and class-books, and when we leave school, the "little reading," and story books, which are for boys and beginners; and our reading, our conversation and thinking, are all on a very low level, worthy only of pygmies and manikins [sic]. 

         THIS IS TRUE. I've actually noticed how some books make my thoughts expand, how I connect more the more I read, and it really has affected how I perceive the world. this is why I love reading. I love the intellectual exchange in my head, between the author and the characters and me: how it makes me consider myself, my life, draw on their (albeit imaginary) experience, live somewhat vicariously through them, and get a different perspective on living. so how much am I missing by ignoring whole genres of books where the author speaks directly to me without the facade of characters? I think I like walden because of thoreau's thought process and reasoning; so I've deprived myself of stretching and exercising my mind because I am just too lazy to exert myself. (I immediately recall my psych book on the brain: "use it or lose it." what have I done!) 

        lately I've fallen in love with learning ("what 12th grade taught me" you might say), and this just inspired me to learn more. seriously, who ever regretted gaining knowledge, insight into the world and the human condition? has anyone ever said, "I wish I'd spent less time learning and more time entertaining myself"?

        I want to expand my reading material and enrich my mind: process and think and grow. 

To read well, that is, to read true books in a true spirit, is a noble exercise, and one that will task the reader more than any exercise which the customs of the day esteem. It requires a training such as the athletes underwent, the steady intention almost of the whole life to this object. Books must be read as deliberately and reservedly as they were written.

sure, that means it's work. but I think you get out of it what you put into it.