Active Reading

"What you get out of what you read is determined by how you read it." Before I read this chapter, I would not have necessarily agreed with this statement. Usually, or at least before college, I thought of reading as simply a process in which one reads the words off of the page and there is nothing more to it than that. I would read a couple of books here and there, but usually when I did this, I would not process it or actively read it. But now that I have fully read this chapter, I do believe that one can actively read and should actively read, because it is not a difficult process. Most of the tools or ways to actively read I have already done. For example, I usually annotate or take notes. However, this chapter also talked about relating to past experiences and mythology and religion. As I was reading that part, I realized how much I relate to that, because I love books about grace and forgiveness and religion. This is because God has shown me so much grace and forgiveness in my life that I want to read more and more about this topic. Also, this chapter showed me how to look deeply at the character and analyze them. I subconsciously did this before, but now I realize that it is important to actually engage the author and each character. Also, one thing that I learned was to pay more attention to the title, because the title has significant importance and might provide insight to the literature at hand. Also, something that I did not know that cross referencing in literature existed. I thought that was for dictionaries and encyclopedias, but after I thought about that section I realized that this tool is used more than one might think. This statement that I quoted at the beginning of this blog, is very true and important. Literature is something that has tended to bring frustration in my past, however this statement tells me that this can be different. I have a tendency to read exactly what is on the page and not to think deeper unless it is obvious. This chapter provided many tools that I can and will apply to my reading as I work on becoming an active reader instead of a passive reader.