BY BORDI JAEN
ONE OF THE most memorable (and perhaps not in a good way) activities we had in high school were the insane reading requirements. I found motivation through telling myself that all that reading would be good law school preparation.
The library was a sight to behold every afternoon. Lines were always long. Everyone gorged on books. It was like a Viking feast. I didn’t blame the educational institution for the rigorous requirements because I understood the importance of reading and books for in our lives.
We encounter different reading materials in our lives every day. One thing I notice about people, and with myself, is the zeal to read as much as we can in a timespan. Avid book readers would often say how many books they read in a year or month or how long it took them to read this book or that. However, I find myself remembering the quote, “It’s not how many books you go through, it’s how many books go through you.”
I do not imply there is an indirect correlation with the quantity of books read and the level of understanding, but the point stands: Books must be read not for the sake of reading but for the educational or entertaining pursuit that they are.
It is foolish to read without takeaway lessons. I remember reading a story about how a man’s wife would often zoom through books that they own. However, the husband complained that she certainly didn’t read them well enough, because sometimes she would be halfway through a book but then remember that she had already read it before! It’s really pointless reading. It’s like going to a buffet and not strategizing what to eat (of which the strategy consists of picking the food that gives you bang for your buck).
I learned the lesson of taking books slowly through my interest and fascination with Russian literature. I contend that Russian classics are the densest and most arduous to read yet at the same time the most satisfying and thought-provoking.
Anyone who’s read Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov (my favourite book) or Tolstoy’s War and Peace can concur. I swear, reading the notes for War and Peace is another book in itself. There is no way to simply sift through the pages of a Russian classic because each sentence conveys a detail that adds richness to the story. They also interconnect. It takes months to complete with many hours of dedicated reading but the destination is also very rewarding. As a Quora user put it, reading Russian classics is like eating an elephant which must be eaten slowly and piece by piece.
It’s also good to read a book again. We’re only human after all. Needless to say, we don’t and probably won’t remember half the details of the book. We’ll remember the things that we find fascinating and oftentimes, the main summary of the story in our heads.
With that said, reading books that we like and the ones we find intellectually-fulfilling gives the mind a different journey every time with the same satisfaction. Once again, I take The Brothers Karamazov (I hold the opinion that this book must be a required read for all senior high students; no other book best encapsulates the human as Dostoyevsky did in his magnum opus) to be an example of a book highly deserving to be reread time and time again.
The lessons that one gets from the book are always different and our understanding of the contents changes as we mature and acquire more life experiences. It is never a bad thing to read again to understand the book deeper. Don’t we like ordering the same food we often like? The tried, tested and true?
Our betters, since time immemorial, have always told us to read books because it’s good for us, because we can derive benefit from them. We’re given the intelligence to utilize this medium of knowledge for self-improvement and utilize we should.
However, it is often left out on how one must approach the business of reading in the first place. The activity of reading, like all other activities worth doing, must be done strategically. Unfortunately, I cannot finish all the details of eating books here so hence, this article will have a part two. Stay tuned./PN
