The Well Educated Mind-Part 2

Chapter Two- Wrestling with Books: The Act of Reading

• You become informed by collecting facts-- you become enlightened when you make sense and use the facts you gather.
• Technology eases the gathering of facts but does little to simplify the gathering of wisdom.
• Reading is a life-long process-- no semester schedule.
• Serious readers are not trying to assimilate tons of info as quickly as possible but are trying to understand a few multi-faceted ideas.
• Speed reading's three rules (1) the more abstract words a passage contains, the harder it is to read quickly, (2) the fewer ideas a passage containes, the easier it is to read fast, and (3) the more prior knowledge, the easier it is to read.
• Speed reading is most useful when pure information is offered.
• Serious reading gets easier with practice.