The Philosophy of Reading: Optimizing Your Leisure Reading Experience
Reading refines your destiny.
The required reading selection in my high school ELA (English Language Arts) class marked the zenith of my hatred for reading. From outdated Shakespeare vernacular to the cryptic messages in The Bluest Eye Girl, the curriculum was not designed to inspire leisure reading.
You can not pay me enough to read another Shakespeare novel — “for fun.” Nor decipher the hidden messages in the Bluest Eye Girl.
Apparently, the main character in the Bluest Eye Girl experienced a psychic disorder at the end of the book. Though I read the last chapter word for word, I could not understand how my ELA teacher came to such a conclusion. Like, what sentence gave it away?
However, with time, my perspective toward reading evolved and I discovered that the right book can refine your destiny, especially if you intend to live a purposeful life.
Preemptive Love: Pursuing Peace One Heart at a Time by Jeremey Courtney was the first book I read, cover to cover, during my leisure time. Followed by Born Free: Writing with Girl at Gugulethu by Kimberly Burge.
Within five years, I have read over 200 rewarding books.
Here are four practices that fueled my momentum:
- Establishing a Reading Philosophy
- Self-Introspection
- Building a Perspective Library
- Golden Rule: Don’t Read More Than You Have To
Let’s explore these concepts further.
1. Establishing a Reading Philosophy
A wholesome reading philosophy allows you to read with intention. However, this philosophy has to be rooted in your identity and life's purpose.
Your inner being actively seeks knowledge and opportunities to actualize the purpose of your existence. Therefore, you will find inner joy and satisfaction in books that nourish your identity and feeds your purpose.
Take a few minutes to answer the following questions:
- Who am I? (Think of three cardinal traits).
- What do I want to gain from my experience on earth?
- What contributions do I want to make toward the betterment of humanity?
The answers to these seemingly philosophical questions inevitably determine your actions and commitments — consciously or unconsciously. They are the fine line between fulfilling leisure reading versus dreadful compulsory reading.
Use your answer to those three questions to construct a reading philosophy that can mirror the following:
“I read to obtain relevant information that fosters my growth as a [your identify]. And it empowers me to serve others as [your life purpose].”
Once you have a reading philosophy, invest in books compatible with your philosophy. Millions of books exist, some in print and others in electronic form. The price you pay to access the content in a given book is a matter of perspective. Any book that is consistent with your reading philosophy will always be affordable.
Weigh every book by your philosophy. If there is a scarcity of books that aligns with your philosophy, then write one and let that be your contribution to humanity.
As previously mentioned, I read Preemptive Love and Born Free thoroughly because both books resonated with an aspect of my identity — as a Christian and my experiences as an African woman. Also, those books stoked my passion for humanitarian service.
On the other hand, you may probably find either book to be unremarkable and unrelatable. That is good. It signifies that your inner being perceives that those books will not add much substance to your identity, experiences, or life purpose.
So, if you want to preserve the hope of ever picking up another book, I suggest you listen to your inner being and set aside those books.
Don’t just read to remember a story. Read to be transformed, refined, and restored. — Serwaa Akoto
2. Self -Introspection
Self-introspection and journaling would drastically transform your leisure reading experience. It is my favorite part about reading a good book!
As you read, make sure to muse over an intriguing statement. Underlining or highlighting a thought-provoking sentence is not enough.
These subtle moments are meant to refine an aspect of your identity, experiences, or life’s purpose.
Anyone who seizes these moments will gain an understanding that anchors their faith, produces wisdom, and mends suppressed wounds.
In Born Free: Writing with Girl at Gugulethu, the author wrote a profound statement that pierced my heart.
“Beautiful means to Be You to the Full.”
Ruminating on that statement shattered all the walls that I built to constrain the full expression of my beauty.
It was liberating. It was the healing I did not know I needed. However, I was glad I embraced that moment instead of merely underlining the sentence.
In the case of good books, the point is not to see how many of them you can get through, but rather how many can get through to you.” — Mortimer J. Adler
3. Building a Library of Perspectives:
I conceived the concept of a “perspective library” through the self-introspection process mentioned above.
In my Notion App, I have a list containing sentences I felt strongly about when I read a book.
For most of these quotes, I have written a short reflection of my thoughts about the author’s statement.
Over time, I have referred to these quotes when writing a blog post or a book to add perspective to my message. If you are a writer, you will one day thank me for this!
Below is a picture of a portion of my library and a snippet from my reflection on a quote in Elisabeth Elliot’s Let Me Be A Woman.
It is only right that I end this section with one of my favorite but lengthy quotes on the value of knowledge — straight from my perspective library!
The error is sometimes committed of valuing knowledge principally as the instrument of pecuniary gain. Those who hold this opinion, degrade its excellence. Considering knowledge, therefore, as an inalienable possession, let us trace it effects upon the intellect that acquires it, we perceive that it imparts strength and dignity; that while it enriches the casket, it enlarges its capacity. It gives the ability to weigh, to compare, to decide; and a mind accustomed to such labors, expands and consolidates its powers. — Letters to Young Ladies by Lydia Howard Sigourney
4. Golden Rule: Don’t Read More Than You Have To
Listen, you do not owe any author a full read. In other words, you are not obliged to read any book verbatim. Instead, selective skimming is key. Besides, the average person will forget most of the content they read within a day.
So, I adopted the practice of selective skimming, which requires using the author’s writing style or pattern to your advantage.
Knowing the author’s writing scheme gives you authority as a reader because it allows you to filter through the excess details, examples, and background story in a given chapter — to obtain concepts relevant to your life and destiny.
Authors share what they want you to know, but you will only retain what your inner being needs to actualize your life’s purpose. So read with that understanding in mind.
Quick disclaimer: I only read nonfictional books ranging from biographies, personal development, and historical events. And this approach has helped me tremendously, but I doubt it would apply to fictional novels like Harry Porter.
Let’s proceed. So, I always read the first two chapters of every book verbatim to identify any notable pattern in the author’s writing. Then leverage these patterns to skim the subsequent chapters effectively.
Dale Carnegie’s book, How to Win Friends & Influence People best captures this technique. The first two chapters began with an intriguing title, such as “Do This and You’ll Be Welcome Anywhere.” Then he proceeds to tell a short story to introduce a principle — which, in essence, is a response to the title of that chapter. Afterward, he provides about three scenarios to illustrate the application of the principle.
The first four to five pages of both chapters capture all three aspects (background, principle, and one application). Likewise, the last page of both chapters had a short memo of the principle that the author discussed.
With this parameter in mind, I selectively skim subsequent chapters to gather essential knowledge in a shorter duration. For example, if the first scenario was lucid enough, I would proceed to the next chapter instead of reading all three applicative scenarios.
Try all four of these strategies and share your experience with me!
“Books are mirrors: You only see in them what you already have inside you.” — Carlos Ruiz Zafón
