Readings

Lately it seems like I have had much more time to read than I have in a long while.  Or maybe it is because Cathy and I are starting to put Alli to bed earlier each day, so we can have time to do things we want to do without having a baby to look after all the time.  Whatever the cause, the result has been more free time to pursue a passion of mine: reading.

I have been reading several books at the same time.  I enjoy this, because whenever a book reaches a dull part, or I lose interest in it, I can go to another book, and put up where I left off with that one.  After awhile, I come back to the first book.  I have found I have more interesting thoughts, and make connections better when I am thinking of multiple plot twists in the same day.

I wanted to write about a few quotes from several books.  Two are from Words Onscreen by Naomi Baron, and the other two are from Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle.  Words Onscreen is about how eBooks and eReaders, tablets and cell phones have changed the way American's read today, and whether it will help or hurt our literacy in the long run.  And Sherlock Holmes is a classic novel that I have never read before.

"What if you have real work to do, like taking a test on Macbeth in high school, or writing a paper on War and Peace in college?  Teachers would like to believer that in preparation, everyone actually read the works in question.  But let's not be naive.  Not when there are cliffnotes and sparknotes, offering tidy plot summaries." - Baron

"Make no mistake: short form reading can be both enjoyable and edifying.  The essay is short formed, as (obviously) are short stories.  The issue is whether today's surge in snack sized texts also marks a more towards more light weight reading." - Baron

I think these two quotes are the basic for Baron's book.  Her argument is that tablets and eReaders are changing the way people read, and they don't really read the heavy classics anymore.  I admit, when I started Sherlock I didn't know what some words meant.  A lot of people don't read because reading can be hard.  Most people don't read classics because it takes time and effort to read.  The classics are classic because the life lessons they teach, and not many people are reading them anymore.  The most popular books are fast paced, violent novels that are full of fluff.

"He was not studying medicine.  He had himself, in reply to a question, confirmed Stamford's opinion upon that point.  Neither did he appear to have pursued any course of reading which might fit him for a degree in science or any other recognized portal which would give him an entrance into the larned world.   Yet his zeal for certain studies was remarkable, and within eccentric limits his knowledge was so extraordinary ample and minute that his observations have fairly astounded me.  Surely no man would work so hard or attain such precise information unless he had some definite end in view.  Desultory readers are seldom remarkable for the exactness of their learning.  No man burdens his mind with small matters unless he has some very good reason for doing so." - Doyle

"You see," he explained, "I consider that a man's brain originally is like a little empty attic, and you have to stock it with furniture as you choose.  A fool takes in all the lumber of every sort that he comes across, so that the knowledge which might be useful to him gets crowded out, or at best is jumbled up with a lot of others things, so that he has difficulty in laying his hands upon it.  Now the skilled workman is very careful indeed as to what he takes into his brain-attic.  He will have nothing but the tools which may help him in doing his work, but of those he has a large assortment, and all in the more perfect order.  It is a mistake to think that that little room has elastic walls and can distend to any extent.  Depend upon it, there comes a time for addition of knowledge you forget something that yo knew before.  It is of the highest importance, therefore, not to have useless facts elbowing out the useful ones." - Doyle

I love these two quotes, because they describe Holmes so well.  He is so good at solving crimes, he has no use for anything else.  The second quote shows how to be excellent at anything.  All you can do is practice, eat sleep and breathe what you want to be good at, whether it be sports, gaming, singing, or the piano.  I don't know if I have that type of commitment to anything, so I don't know if I have the drive to become excellent at a single thing.  And that is OK with me.  I want to be good at many things, so I can help myself and others out.