March 13, 2010

• How to Read Slowly

  

  
  

  Early on, reading became for me a way of life–
  joyous, fascinating, refreshing, challenging.

  I’m thankful, for my sake, that I read a borrowed copy of James Sire’s book How to Read Slowly.  It slowed me down.  Instead of marking and highlighting passages and turning pages, I read with a journal and pen and copied copious notes and quotes.  Instead of zipping through 179 pages in three evenings, it took me almost a month to complete. 

  Sire writes for readers on every level.  If you like the idea of reading, but haven’t finished a book in a year, this book is for you.   If you enjoy reading, but sense there are better books, Sire will guide you.   And if you, like me, can’t not read, you will get a great refresher course on how to better do what we can’t escape doing. 

  How to Read Slowly is a simple book.  He devotes a chapter each on reading non-fiction, poetry and fiction, followed by a chapter on contexts and one on finding the time.  Simple.  Really.

  I was immediately captured by the dedication: To my father who in his eighties still reads voraciously.

  Sire doesn’t just tell you…he shows you.  His chapter on poetry would make the most reluctant reader of poetry want to dip his big toe in the pool of poems.  Here’s a sample:

  The Red Wheelbarrow
  William Carlos Williams

  So much depends
  upon

  a red wheel
  barrow

  glazed with rain
  water

  beside the white
  chickens.

  Simple enough, right?  Yet Sire asks questions and makes observations which make me want to jump up and click my heels!  Visually, what do you see in this poem? Sire concludes, “Williams’s poem is like a still-life painting.  Quality presents itself quietly and yet persistently.  And, though we cannot say why we see, we see.” 

  Excellent questions, superb commentary, quotes that express what I’ve always felt, more book titles to read: that’s what you will find in this wonderful read.

  We will just have to realize that ignorance will always
  be our lot and then get on with the task–often
  a joyful one–of learning what we can
  with the time and abilities we have.
  
  
  You see, I have a problem. I read too much.
  I pay attention to plot, image, character and theme
  when I should be paying attention to wife,
  sons and daughters, the peeling house paint
  and the leaking toilet tank.
  Actually, I need advice
  about how to spend time not reading.
  
  
  Here is where I believe reading becomes of most value.
  We are not just bifurcating our lives into the dull
  pursuit of information and world view on the one hand
  and the exciting pursuit of sheer entertainment on the other.
  We are putting together what should never be split–
  excitement and knowledge, joy and truth, ecstasy and value.
  Indeed, in such moments of reading we are living the good life.
  
  
  Indeed, great books teem with peoples and lands,
  with ideas and attitudes, with exuberance and life.
  Let us take our fill, doing it slowly, thoughtfully,
  imaginatively, all to the glory of God.
  

  • 2:23 pm
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