Making Sushi

What have you been reading lately? At a meeting, you can soon tell who the frequent readers are, since frequent readers often think and speak well too. They win the admiration, respect, and fellowship of others. After all, reading expands the mind and many people consider it one of the most satisfying pleasures known to mankind, combining, as it does, mental agility and physical relaxation way above the scale offered by television.

Reading is mostly a mental activity, as you read with your mind and use your imagination to paint the setting of the action thriller you are reading. You use your mind to imagine the pain that the main characters in the story are experiencing as the plot unfolds; or you contemplate the different arguments and ideas theorized by the author in that self-help book you are studying.

Learning how to read properly helps you to develop an extensive knowledge of words by reading different styles of books. A skillful reader recognizes a wide range of vocabulary. The reader may not understand exactly what every word means, but he/she will have a general idea of what the sentence is trying to convey.

Reading makes you more alert and more interested in new words. Some readers develop ‘the dictionary habit’, which means that every time they come across a strange word, they try to figure out what it possibly means from the context. If they cannot do this, they refer to a dictionary.

In the same way, reading develops intellectual curiosity by exposing you to a variety of subjects. You learn to read by reading books of increasing difficulty and variety. Just as in other kinds of education, you are learning by actually doing and while you are reading you are automatically learning about the subject matter of the book too – like a free by-product!

Reading trains you to have an active and open mind. Just understanding the writers idea is not really good enough, you have to have a response to what you read. Be an active, not a passive, reader. Try to develop the habit of drawing your own conclusions, the habit of active thinking, of agreeing or disagreeing with the writer. Always keep your mind open; understand and weigh the ideas that you read. A practical part of active reading is the development of one’s own conclusions.

Now let me introduce you to the phenomenon known as speed reading. All of the above applies three, four, eight, nine, even ten times over, because speed readers can read that much faster than the average reader! Consider that … being able to read, comprehend and remember all those books. You would certainly become well-read in your subject far more quickly than others. Just think how that could help you at work or in school or college …

Let me share four primary rules for effective reading and better comprehension:

1) Try to read more and more every month. Remember the saying that practice makes perfect. 2) Develop the habit of reading for main ideas, ie look for the subject and predicate – the main ideas 3) Learn to read with focus and concentration. Think of what you are reading. Good readers read with understanding. 4) Learn to budget your time. Experiment with your reading time. Try purposely to read faster. Give yourself a time limit for a specific piece that you are reading.

Reading is a fantastically stimulating mental activity. It expands your understanding and capability. You really have so much to gain by learning the joy of reading. So, go ahead and take down a book right today.

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