PERSONAL GROWTH

The Joyful Challenges of Reading an Actual Book

Books still matter in the social media age

I’ve spent most of the last ten days reading books and taking notes, as research for updating the zine that Nikki Hill​​ & I put out three years ago, "The Troubles of 'Invasive' Plants." Much of what I’ve been reading has been challenging in a couple ways:

First, some of it is scholarly/academic writing, which is dense, and contains jargon I need to look up as I go.

Second, I’m being exposed to ideas that challenge my own. That kind of challenge is fascinating because sometimes my mind resists the new idea at first, and I have to make a conscious effort to loosen my grip, so to speak, so I can take it in. I don’t mean that I’m immediately accepting it and replacing my old idea entirely -- I mean that I’m setting aside my preconception long enough to give the new idea a fair shake on its own terms.

After all, my present idea might be entirely wrong, no matter how long I’ve held it or how sure I’ve felt about it. You never know! For that matter, the new idea could be complete b.s., but I’ll figure that out faster, the clearer I’m being with myself.

Taking notes helps improve reading comprehension for me. Just the act of repeating the words in…