Tips to Make Your Reading Affective

The master tool for personal development may be inside one of the books that are sitting there on your shelf at your local bookstore, or the worldwide library known as the Internet. Reading challenging books could demand a considerable effort, but that effort could pay tremendously in the future. If you didn’t start a reading plan for this upcoming summer, consider these reasons on why you should start planning.

To do this, you must first understand your thoughts and ideas. Whether you’re aware of this or not, your thoughts and beliefs might be shaped based on social norms that have evolved since your early childhood. The independent ideas you have might be someone else’s ideas created by a thinker from the previous generations. Robert M. Hutchins once said, “These books are the means of understanding our society and ourselves. They contain the great ideas that dominate us without our knowing it. There is no comparable repository in our tradition.”

Let me ask you this, what do you think of love, happiness, democracy, or freedom? Okay, now that you’ve answered. Do you think these answers and ideas are your own? Are you the only one who thinks that way about love or happiness? What about democracy and freedom? Maybe there is an outside force such as cultural and social factors influencing these ideas. By reading books over time, you can clearly see how these ideas have developed overtime, and how they affect you and made you the person you’re now. Whether you’re going to accept the way you’re thinking today or not; what matters is that you will become aware that it’s a choice and you have to make the final decision yourself.

Vera Nazarian once said, “Whenever you read a good book, somewhere in the world a door opens to allow in more light”. Another excellent way to improve your reading is to get a genius twist. They say, “you’re who you associate with”, I believe it’s the same when it comes to books. There are some great books written by great thinkers and historians, and by reading them you expand your thoughts and take them to a higher level.

Selective reading is effective reading. To quote HarukiMurakami, “If you only read the books that everyone else is reading, you can only think what everyone else is thinking.” When I was in high school, I noticed that people only read popular modern-day books, forgetting about the classic books and the great thinkers of history. As Descartes said, “The reading of all good books is like conversation with the finest men of the past centuries.” No matter where you come from, or what your background is, reading classics can give you a full understanding of the different ideas in the world. It’s possible to bring your intellectual level to the same level as those great thinkers by pursuing a self-study plan of their famous work. Remember, they weren’t born ready.

One thing I ask is that you don’t focus on one specialty. Focusing on subjects related to your major is a smart move, but it will only help you earn a living. Shutting yourself from other specialties will inhibit your excelling and improving. To be a well-rounded person, one needs a good understanding of the world and the different fields of study. Be a jack-of-all-trades. Don’t limit yourself at all. Whether you’re studying information technology, computer science, medicine, or business, gaining vast knowledge in a lot of subjects covered in books will enhance your chances to excel in the future.

You must learn from past experiences. As George Santana said,” Those who don’t remember the past are condemned to repeat it”. Winston Churchill said it best,” Study history, study history. In History lie all the secrets of statecraft.” Reading about past discoveries is a guide for us to avoid the mistakes that were made by those before us and learn from them. Everyone has to create his or her own path in this life, so why not benefit from past experiences? Not reading about these past experiences is like getting lost in the city without using a map.

Although they weren’t written for specialists, stepping out of your reading-comfort zone by reading challenging books will develop your comprehension and will enable you to read all kinds of books; as a result, no need to run away from academic or historical articles.

In the end I would like to say that reading could help you to develop your personality and be a better person. Not only will they help you to develop your personality, but alsothey will give you answers to questions. You’ll notice that a lot of books are talking about roughly the same theme,and they won’t give you one answer, but each book has it’s own view on that particular theme, so this will help you to grasp all the different views. You have the final decision to pick which idea suits you the most.

Most don’t bother themselves knowing how ideas developed and made the world the way it is today but asSamuel Butler said,” A little knowledge is a dangerous thing, but a little want of knowledge is also a dangerous thing.” Reading books can bring that desire to strive for knowledge and the curiosity to learn more about the world. What’s the use of all the discoveries and the experiments that happened in the past if we didn’t learn them?

By: Faris Alothimin

You can follow the writer on twitter: @AlothiminFaris

Reading as a part of your daily life activities

Before many technologies were invented, namely the Internet, people considered reading their only way to gather information and keep up with current events. Advances in technology dominated our lives; movies, television, and video games took so much of our time when it comes to the usage of our free time. Unfortunately, many of us, especially the younger generation forgot about reading in favor of these other activities. In my opinion, the more you do these activities, the more you develop passion and love toward them, it’s exactly the same case when it comes to reading.

Medical professionals have said that the brain is a muscle like any other, and to grow your brain and broaden its ability, you have to read. Reading is essential for your brain to function properly and is one of the most affective ways to exercise it. It’s the same when you go to the gym to workout your muscles. Our brains actually process information when we play video games or watch the television, but it doesn’t come close to the same level of processing when you read. While reading, the brain does two things: It processes the information that you’re reading, and also creates imagery and visualizes the words that are in front of you. The brain does all of this. Picture this for example, “ The red car rushed through the jungle.”  Creating imagery enhances your brain function.

Another reason why you should read is that it’s an effective way to become knowledgeable in a lot of subjects. There is no limit to the categories that books, novels, and magazines can offer. You can find all these information waiting for you online no matter the topic. What should you look for, you may ask? My advice as a member of society is to be familiar with the current affairs in the society and in the world. 

I agree that sometimes people don’t have enough time to read due to their busy schedule, and they get their information through other medium such as television or radio, and that’s fine, but keep in mind that this information that you hear on the radio or see on TV can be a little bit condensed. When you read a full article on a familiar topic, you will discover much more information that you other wise wouldn’t be familiar with. I also recommend reading some history, it’s said that you don’t know where you going if you don’t know where you come from. It’s really important to read as much as we can on historical topics to know how things evolved from nothing. 

Reading improves your memory. It helps to activate your memory muscles, and it requires you to remember details, themes and characters. Also the more you read, the more knowledgeable you get, and the more confident you become.  People will look at you for answers because you have a lot of knowledge on different topics; as a result, your confidence will develop, and you will feel better about yourself.  You don’t have to necessary look for an easy book to read, challenging books will improve your vocabulary and will give you some interesting information.

Reading about different ethnicities and diversities will give you an insight to a new whole world. You’ll become more aware of the different cultures and languages. Have you ever found yourself in a situation where you didn’t have anything to talk about? A remedy for this is to grab a book and start reading! 

Note: If you want to break the lack of interest in your life, go grab an interesting book and introduce yourself to a world full of new information and ingenuity. Importantly, the more accurate information you have, the more it will lead you to reach your accurate goals, and the more your level of reading gets high, the more you will be able to knock on the different opportunities in this world.

"Not every reader is a leader, but every leader must be a reader."

---Harry Truman.

By: Faris Alothimin

You can follow the writer on twitter: @AlothiminFaris