Researching Troubles (Books)
Jan 4th, 2009 by Mark Lefers
I am not an avid reader. It’s actually embarrassing the number of books I have read. It’s not that I don’t read, it’s just that I’m a slow reader. I blame it on having to read numerous journal articles and scientific reports, where I have to carefully read and think about each sentence. I therefore never learned to read quickly, so picking up a 300+ page book is daunting.
Reading books in my researching my doubt is even worse. Not only do I have to read and think about each sentence, I often have to do some background research because many of the topics are out of my expertise. My doubt further complicates matters because many times I am skeptical of what an author may say, so I have to do some further research to verify what they say. All this makes each book become a small research project.
Another problem that I face is that I’m not a huge fan of reading history and theology books, and since most of my free time is late at night, I find myself falling asleep in my chair. I also have found that even with highlighting and writing notes in the margins, I quickly forget key arguments or evidences presented. So I am trying with future books to try to capture my notes and summaries and add it to this website in the wiki section. I’ve chosen to do this in a wiki format so that others can add their notes too. Hopefully this will be beneficial.
Mark,
I am also a slow, detail-focused, analytical, and busy reader–so my “to read” list grows much faster than my reading log does. It’s frustrating because I want answers now, but apparently the search for truth is far from overnight!
I also take notes on books I read to aid memory. I like the idea of putting them on a wiki. I will peruse your notes; thank you.
Ashton,
Yeah, the time it takes to do all this reading is frustrating. But as one of my co-workers once said, “Learning is not just about facts, it’s not just about learning specific details, it’s about the process; the path one takes toward that knowledge.” So I hold out hope that this struggle when I look back will be worth it. I hope so…