When & How To Read Book(s)?

Here is my last post on book reading. I was traveling within the country again. I went to buy my trip ticket when i saw an unusual spectacle. The place was filled, no, swamped with high-school girls ... they were all looking for trip tickets to go back home for the Easter holiday.

Finally i got the ticket and went for the bus. And sure enough there were only 4 men and the rest were those intrepid girls. Oh la vie! :). They were just like i remember them in high school. OK, that's a story for another time. But something else caught my attention as we were traveling. The bus grew quiet for a while and then books started flying all over the place and within few minutes, everybody was reading. I was re-reading Dr. Ravi Zacharias' book: "Jesus among Other Gods" and the young lady by my side was reading a french romantic novel. As i looked around as far as my eyes could see, similar books mostly in french and few in English were the focus of the girls attention. That's when i got the confirmation of what i wanted to wrote but didn't get any independent confirmation.


WHEN TO READ:

1. Read whenever you can and if time permit. Like those girls did, take opportunity from the trips you make. I do read in Buses even if it is just for few minutes when i am not with someone. So start walking with a bag, or a stylish container or something like that. Just make sure that it can contain a book.

2. Read in restaurants. While waiting for your order to come, stop playing with the stupid cellphone and do some reading.

3. Read when you have some time free during the day or the evening. I like reading before i sleep.




HOW TO READ:

In the new movie the 'Mechanic' played by Jason Statham, a group of expert assassin lived by a strict code of success that made them dangerous. This code was written on their guns: "Victory Loves Preparation".

This code is indeed a good one for those struggling with finishing to read a given book. Since finishing what one starts is indeed a challenge that needs a definite victory, i have some suggestions to make in order to help wanna-be readers to be psychologically prepared to win this reading battle:

1. If you are a new reader, avoid reading book(s) with a discouraging thickness. Start with smaller book(s) not big book(s). When i started reading, i used to choose my readings from booklets. Some exception are listed in point 4 below.

2. What really helps me in launching myself in a reading program is to look how many pages the book have and also to know what type of book it is. For example, i am about to start reading a book having 452 pages if we take out the appendixes and if we include them it makes a total reading of 508 pages. Now to read such a book, it is usually easy if it is a novel or a biography, but when it is an academic book on science, you really better know why on earth you want to torture yourself with such endeavor. In knowing the number of pages and your reading speed, you can calculate how many pages you should read per day before you are able to finish it.

3. The number of pages in a book indicates to you the approximate amount of time the reading will take you before being completed. It gives you the opportunity to clear up your schedule in order to allow you to run your reading course uninterrupted. When reading, avoid interruption. For-example there are books that i don't read in a 10 min bus ride, because they demand a lot of attention and concentration hence being frequently interrupted will disrupt the reading flow as well as the reading comprehension of the document.

4. Like the high school girls on my story above, read books that not only interest you but are written in the format that attracts you. How i started reading those big books, started with my interest in spirituality and the desire to know if other people were actually living what i was reading in the Bible. Hence i started reading somehow thick books like: "He came to set the captive free" and "Un Vase d'honneur" - Rebbecca Brown; "The Fourth Dimension" - Paul Yonggi Cho; "Evagelism by Fire" - Renard Bonkhe; "Happiest People on Earth: The story of Demos Shakarian" - John & Elizabeth Sherill; and the Biography of T.L Osborn. I read them between 1996 and 1999. They all had an attractive feature, they were written in a story-like form. Their biographical format made the reading easier for me and captured me up to the last page.

5. Read with someone. This helps you to surmount your lack of discipline. In reading with someone a particular book, you can be encouraged to keep up with the reading. That is how i read systematically for the first time my whole Bible. We were reading it at three and though we didn't finish it at the same time, we all at least finished it. This works better when at least one partner is really committed. Look for committed friends and create a book club where you can share and discuss what you are currently reading. It can be for a specific book (like the Bible, etc) or it can be for a genre (ex: Fantasy - one may read 'The Golden Compass' and the other person 'Perelandra' and then both tell the story and discuss it. Whatever you do make it fun. With my brothers we discuss what we read or watch and it is fun.)


CONCLUSION

Preparation is the key in forming a successful habit in book reading. Take the opportunity that life hands to you and use it to learn. Know your timetable and start walking with a book in your bag. You might just be lucky a get some free time to read it. Choose well the book you read based on the genre that is easier for you to be attracted by before you transition to other book format. Make reading fun! Hence choose the format that will not burden you.

Remember: "VICTORY LOVES PREPARATION".

May the Lord teach you that which will help you grow and progress fast. Hope the few thing that i wrote up will help.

God bless you in Jesus' name and Merry Christmas!