The Dawn Treader

There simply is no short-cut to learning.   The time-tested, best way to really learn an idea or a  subject is to read about it.  There appears to be something magical about reading ... something God-given in the way our brains are wired that reading taps into.  Listening to a book on tape, listening to a lecture, or watching a video are simply no match for good old fashioned reading.

There are only two problems.

One, most of us do not know how to read intellectually1. No one ever taught us.  We simply make our eyes roll across the pages, sound out the words in our brain, and when we turn the last page, we pat ourselves on the back for having read another book.  But have we really read the book intellectually?  Hardly.

Two, time, time and time.  It takes a long time to read a book ... to intellectually read a book.

The answer is a methodology called the Reading Continuum.  The Reading Continuum (RC) was developed by Dr. Robert Clinton and documented in a little book called "Reading On The Run, Continuum Reading Concepts", published by Barnabas Publishers.

Clinton writes in the introduction,

"Most people learn to read by reading every word on every page.  The reading continuum is based on the assumption that one does not have to read every word in order to benefit from information.  One can read different books differently and obtain useful information without having to read every word of every book."

The RC is not a speed reading technique.  It is a systematic approach for progressively mining a book for information.  Relax.  Slow readers can use the RC approach too.

The idea is to learn how to effectively triage a book in order to get the most useful information out of the book in a timely manner.  Some books do not need to be read cover to cover. Other books *need* to be read cover to  cover with a highlighter in your hand.  The key is knowing which is which.

The RC is a continuum.  It starts off with the least time intensive form of reading and moves toward the most time intensive form of reading.  Here is the continuum.

Scan => Ransack => Browse => Pre-Read => In-Depth Read => Study

Here is the kicker.  You need to recognize that each step in this continuum constitutes "reading".  This requires a paradigm shift.  Most people do not feel like they have read a book until they read every word on every page.  Stop it!  Get over it!  Each station in the continuum constitutes a form of reading.  I know, paradigm shifts are hard ... but stick with it.  It is worth it.  Stop feeling guilty for not reading every word on every page. Learn how to read smart.

I will take a blog post to unpack each of these forms of reading.  The pay off is worth it, so stick with me.

1Intellectual reading is a term used by JP Moreland in his book Love God With All Your Mind.  It means an attempt to grasp the concepts, structure, and arguments that form the content of the thing being read.  The goal is to learn something new, to master specific content, to develop one's intellectual categories, and to grow in one's ability to think.  Moreland contrasts intellectual reading with a different kind of reading called "devotional reading" ... which is a type of reading done with spiritual attentiveness and openness.  The kind of reading that this series will deal with is intellectual reading -- not devotional reading and not pleasure reading.