The Invisible Mentor

Archive for the ‘Reference Books’ Category

The summer is here and it’s the time when most people get caught up on their reading. Why do you read? Do you read for entertainment, for information, or for knowledge? How often do you read a book? What kinds of books do you read? Do you read books that stretch and grow your mind?

What would you do if you were offered $5 billion to stay on a deserted island for five years with only some articles and 15 books? You wouldn’t have access to any modern day technology such as the radio, television, telephone, PDA, iPod, iPhone – nothing. Which books would you take? Which books would you be willing to read over and over? And if you had access only to the internet, how would your choices change?

Years ago while studying the program “Lead the Field,” Earl Nightingale stressed the importance of learning and growing. He suggested that we read a book a week and learn a word a day. Do you think that’s good advice, and relevant today?

I mastered reading a book a week, and now I try to read two books a week since I write book reviews for the Invisible Mentor Blog. I subscribe to two vocabulary builder websites that email me a word every morning. I also purchased a vocabulary builder system. How easy is it for you to expand your vocabulary by a word a day?

The book Superlearning 2000 suggests that the best way to learn words is to hear them on a tape, while playing 60 beats per minute baroque music in the background. Even though I wasn’t exposed to a lot of classical music while growing up, like most things, the more you are exposed to them, the more comfortable you become with them. I now play baroque music while I do my work, and I have noticed that it has a calming effect, while heightening my alertness. What about you, what type of music heightens your awareness?

YouTube video of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons

If you cannot view the YouTube video of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, click here.

The interesting thing is that you notice the difference in your writing when words pop into your head and you suddenly realize that your efforts to expand your vocabulary are not in vain.

If you do not read many books and are wondering how you can read a book a week as suggested by Earl Nightingale, perhaps, the best place to start is by reading How to Read a Book. And, say for instance, at work you are working on a project which requires you to amass large amounts of data on a specific topic, how do you read through all that information? You would read syntopically to be more effective. All this and more is covered in How to Read a Book.

How to Read a Book: The Classic Guide to Intelligent Reading by Mortimer J. Adler & Charles Van Doren was originally written in 1940 and updated in 1972. It’s packed with lots of useful information, and it isn’t the type of book you read once. It functions best as a reference book and you would find it beneficial to discuss the contents with a group of people to fully grasp and make use of the wealth of knowledge that it contains.

The stated primary goal of How to Read a Book is to “know how to make books teach us well” if we are open to continuous learning and discovering. Mortimer J. Adler and Charles Van Doren define the art of reading as “The process whereby a mind, with nothing to operate on but the symbols of the readable matter, and with no help from outside, elevates itself by the power of its own operations. The mind passes from understanding less to understanding more…” Adler and Van Doren suggest that before reading a book you should decide if you are reading for entertainment, information or for the sake of understanding. Making this kind of distinction determines how you would read the book.

The authors describe four levels of reading – Elementary Reading, Inspectional Reading, Analytical Reading and Syntopical Reading. Elementary Reading is the level of reading that you learn in elementary school. There are two types of inspectional reading, (1) systematic skimming or pre-reading and (2) superficial reading. With inspectional reading, the emphasis is on time – getting the most out of a book within a short time frame (this is ideal for students who have to complete assignments in a specified period of time). Analytical Reading deals with classifying the book, coming to terms with it, determining the book’s message, criticizing the book and the author. Analytical reading is a very active type of reading. And finally, syntopical reading or comparative reading, the most complex form of reading, is the reading of multiple books on the same subject and placing them in relation to each other.

If you actively read a book, you should be able to answer the following questions – (1) what is the book about? (2) What is being said in detail, and how? (3) Is the book true, in whole or in part? (4) What of it? If you are able to answer these questions, you truly understand what the author is trying to say.

Adler and Van Doren suggest that if you are reading to become a better reader, or in other words reading for understanding and enlightenment, you cannot read just any article or book. You must read material that stretches and grows your mind.

I recommend this book, but be prepared to read it at least twice to get the most out of it. This extra effort will save you lots of time later when you are using the information to read other books.

Book List

How to Read a Book, Mortimer J. Adler & Charles Van Doren

Superlearning 2000, Sheila Ostrander & Lynn Schroeder with Nancy Ostrander

All book links are affiliate links.

This is a springboard from Alex Shalman‘s post “Building Self-Esteem (or, Why Are You Worth Feeding?).” We are usually very tough on ourselves, I know that I am. While I was reading Alex’s post, I felt that I should explore the topic further. Fully exploring the question is a process in self discovery. The related questions, which popped into my head include:

Why should anyone hire me?

What is my unique selling proposition?

Why should anyone listen to me?

Why should anyone support me?

Why should anyone value me?

Why should I put myself first?

How would you answer these questions? At the very least, answering the questions allow us to get to know our selves better, as well as identify what we “bring o the table”. Many times if we took the time, we would discover that there is more to us than meets the eyes, and I think that this knowledge would definitely be a self-esteem booster. What are your thoughts?

We are unique  and we all have something unique to offer, so believe in yourself and know that you are a beautiful soul. Every now and again do not take yourself so seriously. I am writing this post as much for myself as I am writing it for you. So, whenever someone asks you why you are worth feeding,  always keep in mind the L’oreal slogan, “Because I am worth it.” Let’s keep the conversation flowing, please comment.

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Related Post

Building Self-Esteem (or, Why Are You Worth Feeding?)

Photo Credit: Burt Everson

Readers of this blog may have figured out by now that I am a voracious reader, but what some of you may not know is that I often integrate what I have read into my personal and professional life. Reading is a way for me to expand my body of knowledge. In How to Read a Book , the authors Mortimer Adler and Charles Van Doren suggest that there are three reasons for reading – for entertainment, information and for understanding. I read for all three reasons. What are your reasons for reading?

However, when I read, I do not read in a vacuum, I build on what I already know, so I am continuously furthering my knowledge. This has served me well as a writer and researcher because I am able to question things that do not look right to me. This has also served me well when working on projects. For instance, while I worked on a project for an association where I had to write 15 stories for an Anniversary Booklet, because I read extensively and broadly I had a large pool of knowledge to draw so I was able to do a good job and make the stories very different.

Recently, I have found myself writing many articles, and studies have shown that over 80 percent of people read an article because of the title or headline. So how can you increase the chances that your information gets read? To answer this question, I will demonstrate how reading has helped me tremendously with writing good headlines. I am not a master headline writer, but the more I practice writing headlines, the better my headlines, and the more they grab attention.

In the 1926 book The Art of Thought, Graham Wallas, an American psychologist, adopted and expanded, Hermann von Helmholtz‘s process to develop an idea. In the book, Wallas describes a four-stage process for generating great ideas – preparation, incubation, illumination and verification. (I have mentioned this book before)

In the preparation stage, a period of study and fact-finding, you gather information to resolve any issues, challenges or problems that you may be facing. This phase includes activities such as reading about the subject matter to identify what’s been done before, interviewing subject experts and any other means of collecting opinions or ideas on the subject. When you become stressed, bored, overwhelmed, or distracted, or feel that it’s futile to gather more information, it’s time to take a break. Stop thinking about the problem(s) and let all the information incubate. Mull it over for a while. Though you are not consciously working on your issues, challenges or problems, your subconscious or other than conscious is busy working at connecting the different pieces of information to form ideas, creating something different and new.

When you least expect it, you have a sudden flash of insight, an “aha” moment where the new ideas to resolve your issues, challenges or problems surface to your conscious mind and you suddenly become illumined – the light bulb goes on. The great ideas that surface could be implemented the way you conceived them, or you may have to refine them so that they’re workable.

So, even though The Art of Thought was written to help people generate new ideas, I have expanded that concept to help me generate better titles and headlines. I prepare myself by knowing the material that I am writing about inside out. I also have a list of 52 headline archetypes and a headline file I have been building with some of the most successful headlines over the past 100 years. I practice using the archetypes to write my headline. Sometimes I will write at least 100 headlines as practice for coming up with the right one. When I feel as if I have done enough, I forget about it and move to another task. Incubation is a very important stage for the appropriate headline to form. Suddenly the light bulb goes on and I have the right headline. The time it takes to move through this four-stage process varies. For me, it has taken as little as under an hour to as long as two months. One thing is sure is that the process works.

So, the next time when you are reading, have a notebook and pen handy. Think about what you already know on the topic that is covered in the book, so that you bring it to the forefront of your mind. While you are reading, capture interesting and useful information in your trusty notebook for further use. Combine the new infromation with what you already know because ideas are formed wheb you unite elements in unique ways. Practice this technique until it becomes second nature and remember that nothing exists in a vacuum.

How do you create great headlines? Let’s keep the conversation going, please comment.

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Photo Credit: Flickr Free License

To get the most out of your reading, the following books make great reference guides and are filled with tips on how to read more productively and also what to read. Not only do these books help you to become a more active reader, they also help you to be a more discriminating reader.

The Art of Thought, (The Thinker’s Library) by Graham Wallas

The Book-Lover: A Guide to the Best Reading by James Baldwin