Reading is a big part of every student’s life, and so today’s topic is how to read a book. To discuss this with me is Cherie Harder. She not only loves books and reading, but a big part of her role as President of the Trinity Forum is helping others learn to read well and love books as much as she does.
In this podcast we discuss:
Why Cherie loves books
Tips to help students read effectively (to understand well)
Some of the challenges to reading well in our day of social media
Reading different types of books differently
How what you read shapes you
How to read in ways that discern truth from error
The value of courses in the humanities for non-humanities majors
Why it is important to read those we disagree with
The value of reading books from other times and cultures
Why to re-read a book now and then
The value of reading with others and reading groups
How to understand the book’s parts in light of the whole (and vice versa)
The importance of understanding genre (types of writing)
When it is important to read an entire book and when it is not important
How and when to consult a book’s online reviews and CliffsNotes
Are paper books or ebooks better?
How to best read an ebook
The value of pleasure-reading
Resources mentioned during our conversation:
Eugene Peterson, Eat This Book: A Conversation in the Art of Spiritual Reading
Alan Jacobs, Breaking Bread With The Dead: A Reader’s Guide to a More Tranquil Mind
C.S. Lewis, “On The Reading of Old Books”
Gordon Fee and Douglas Stuart, How To Read The Bible For All Its Worth
Mortimer Adler and Charles Van Doren, How to Read a Book: The Classic Guide to Intelligent Reading
The Trinity Forum (and their “Bookclub Box” and the Trinity Forum Conversations podcast)
Jessica Hooten Wilson, Reading for Regeneration (a Trinity Forum Conversation)
________, The Scandal of Holiness: Renewing Your Imagination in the Company of Literary Saints
________, Reading for the Love of God: How to Read as a Spiritual Practice
Maryanne Wolf, Proust and the Squid: The Story and Science of the Reading Brain