The Dawn Treader

The electronic media have their places and uses, and I am thankful for the accessibililty of so much worthy and important information through digital means. Nevertheless, the electronic screen is not the venue for lengthy, thoughtful, serious reading. The vehicle for serious reading is the book, and the Christian should be a serious reader.

Dr. Albert Mohler

Mohler is right.  Blogs are a blast, but they are no substitute for book reading.

Have you been able to put Reading On The Run into practice?   If you haven't done so, ransack my series on reading and find something you can use to enrich your reading!

When you have invested the hours to read a book that is worth recommending, why not write a review for it?  Recoup your investment.

After Pre-Reading a book comes the actual in depth reading of the book.

"This approach to reading is liberating.  It freed me from the bondage of having to read cover to cover.  I am going to teach this concept to all of my students and promote it when I speak at homeschool conferences."

Joe Wirtz, Founder of  The Cultural Commission and The Worldview Book Store.

I spoke with Joe two days ago.  He read the Reading On The Run series on the Dawn Treader and then ordered by the same name.  To say Joe was fired up about the concept of the Reading Continuum would be a gross understatement.

That is what happens to people who are heavy readers when they discover that they can read a book guilt free now.  That is, they don't have to read every word on every page from cover to cover in order to "read a book."   They get excited.

Joe told me that he now tells his students that he can read three 250 page books in one day.  He laughed as he told me how their eyes widen in disbelief as he makes that claim.  Which is a true claim, btw.  I can read 3 or 4 books of that size in a day too.  The secret, of course, is ransack reading.

By the way, I owe a thank you to Joe Carter for linking to my reading series on Evangelical Outpost the day before yesterday.  EO readers have been dropping by to check it out.  I know some of them will experience the same liberation as Joe Wirtz and myself have experienced. 

Not too long ago, Carter wrote

I soon realized, however, that “free books” weren't exactly free at all and that I would be paying for them with the only currency that ever really matters: Time.

Soon I became much more discerning about the books I agreed to review when I realized that the publishers or authors actually expected you to review them. If you haven't written a book review since 12th grade English class, you probably forget just how difficult it can be. Add to that the guilt that piles up alongside the 27 review copies stacked in the corner and you realize that buying your own books isn's so bad after all.

[Note to authors: I may be slow, but I'm also honest. I took each book with the agreement to read and review it and I vow to do just that. Starting next week I plan to start cranking out reviews that are long, long overdue.]

Perhaps Joe is already putting into practice the Reading Continuum concepts and knocking out that backlog of reading that has stacked up in his corner.  You can too.  Come and experience those famous words of William Wallace ... FREEDOM!

Our series on reading is now progressing into the serious, evaluative, and intellectual forms of reading.  Before we go further,  I want to make a simple suggestion.  Don't read a book empty handed.  Always read with a pencil in your hand -- not  a highlighter, a pencil.

"Pre-reading a book is a sign of serious intent to understand an entire book. When you pre-read a book you are seeking to find out the overall thematic content of the book and to see how the author is structuring his/her material to develop the thematic intent."

Robert Clinton, Reading On The Run, p.40

You have made the decision to pursue a serious read of the book.  The pre-read step is designed to get you familiar with the author's main thesis and structure in advancing this thesis.

If you don't subscribe to Stand To Reason's daily podcast, you should.   In the 9/5 podcast, Greg summarizes his approach to reading.  The podcast is called How To Read Less More, and Twice as Fast.  The essay that the podcast is based on is here (you will have to be a registered user at the site).

More on getting the most out of reading by

Your ransacking may uncover a new idea or some fresh thinking on a familiar idea.  You want to explore that further without reading the rest of the book.  The answer is browsing.

Browsing is dipping into certain portions of a book to study in detail some discussion of a topic in its contextual treatment.

Detailed reading of an extended portion of a book is what is meant by browsing.  A section of a chapter or an entire chapter on a special topic of interest would be the object of browsing. Often you will discover browsing material when ransacking for a new idea.  Browsing is a must with unfamiliar material since you can’t compare it.  

Cherry picking can be a cheesy thing when you are talking about basketball.  But when it comes to reading, it can become a time saver.

The next stage in the Reading Continuum is known as Ransacking.  It is also a form of evaluative reading.  Ransacking a book is a valuable way to uncover cherry picking opportunities in your reading discipline.