Critical Reading Archives

It has often been said that “there is no such thing as bad publicity.”

The other night on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Fallon did a piece he called his “Do Not Read” list, probably parodying all the reading lists circulating this time of year. True confessions, we caught this, although I was dozing when Fallon included on his list How to Read Slowly by James W. Sire. My wife succeeded in waking me up just in time to see a close in shot of the book. Fallon’s comment was, “It’s actually a pretty good book. I’ve been reading it for years. I’m only on page 4 but so far, so good.” You can catch the video here and the part on Sire’s book is at the 2:02 mark.

James Sire is actually a good friend whose book Apologetics Beyond Reason I reviewed recently. So I got a laugh out of this for different reasons than most of the audience. I’m also hoping How to Read Slowly saw a spike in sales because of Fallon, that his publicity actually helped. It has been many years since I read this book and it is actually one of the best books on reading I’ve read, better, and more accessible, in my opinion, than Mortimer Adler’s more famous How to Read a Book. I’m relying on memory as well as the Amazon “table of comments” preview (I lent the book out to someone who knows when and it has not found its way back to my library) but here are some reasons this should be on your “To Be Read” list:

1. This is a book about reading better, not faster or more. Sire introduces to the process of engaging books with our minds and entering into the world of the author. He has been one of the leading exponents of thinking “worldviewishly” and one of the things he does is help us look for cues to the underlying premises in whatever we read–what is the view of ultimate reality, the really real, what are the author’s assumptions about human beings and the human condition, what’s wrong with the world and is there any remedy, where is history going, if anywhere, and so forth.

2. Sire wants us to read both sympathetically and critically. He wants us to really understand authors on their own terms, and yet also critically engage their “worldview” in light of our own (and perhaps in the process clarify our worldview as well).

3. As a former English professor, he gives us cues on reading different genres of literature from non-fiction to poetry, as well as how we might read “contextually” to better understand the world of the author, or the world the author is creating in the work.

4. Throughout this, as well as in other works, Jim illustrates his points from a variety of written works. More than once, his use of these has intrigued me enough to seek out those books for myself. I would likely not have come across Stanislaus Lem otherwise, for example.

5. Somehow, Adler’s book seemed to make reading a chore, as helpful as many of his suggestions were. Sire’s book stoked my love of reading and enriched it. His concluding chapter gets at the essence of “better reading” in talking about what to read and when.

Sire inspired me in my own reading life, particularly to engage books more deeply and thoughtfully, and to savor the richness of good books and to allow myself to be changed and enlarged by those encounters. So I hope the publicity, whether through Fallon, or this blog might acquaint an new generation with slow reading. I even hope Jimmy Fallon might get beyond page 4!

Tuesday nights are Capriccio Columbus rehearsals. One of the things I was reminded of once again was how much goes into “reading” and singing even a simple piece of music. One is paying attention to notes, pitches, tempos, dynamics and other markings in the printed music. Then there is that person up front waving the stick to beat time and communicating in a variety of ways his or her wishes (we have two directors, Larry and Karrie). There is your section–you want to blend with them so that all the voices are one and none stands out. There are the other sections with whom you want to harmonize. And there is that accompanist, or in some cases the orchestra.

Then there are the words we are singing and the mood they evoke–loving, tender, playful, jubilant, worshipful, and dancing are some of the descriptions of moods in the pieces we are currently rehearse them. To sing them with meaning that connects with the audience means grasping, and being grasped by that mood. There is “syllabic stress”– which syllables get the emphasis. Then there are languages–English, French, Spanish, and Latin are just some of those in which we’ve sung.

It is a wonderful thing when all these elements come together, especially at a concert! I’m always amazed with the process that begins with a “read through” where I hit maybe 20% of the notes, am learning the words, head buried in the score while the director tries to get our attention. With practice and rehearsals, it starts making sense as you learn the rhythms, the dynamics, and the “mood” of the piece as you pay attention to the mysterious interweave of words and music.

All this makes me wonder if there is more to reading a book, or any piece of writing, than just scanning and registering in one’s brain the sequence of words on the page, and maybe comprehending the basic sense of the sentence and if the skills one uses to bring so many different things together in reading a piece of music can also apply to reading a piece of literature or non-fiction. Might we not simultaneously be aware of character development, imagery, plot turns, allusions, the mood evoked in a work, figures of speech. In non-fiction, there is the exposition of an idea, the arguments for a thesis but also the use of wit, irony, sarcasm, humor, appeals to authority.

Reading and singing a piece of music demands one’s total attention. This makes me wonder whether reading a book well might also call for that kind of attention if one is to read on the various levels simultaneously that a well-written piece of writing demands. (I also recognize that there are “junk novels” and fun reads that may not require such attention). Does it even involve re-reading? I know that some of the great books I’ve loved disclose new depths with each reading.

Have you had the experience of reading richly and deeply? What book were you reading? What was that like for you?