'Twelve Tips on Reading'

Reading is important to me. But as I grow older, I've become both less and more discriminating about what I read.

For example, I read more different kinds of things. But I skim some books nowadays. That feels like growth to me. I want to be more open to various aspects of life; yet I don't want to waste time.

But what do I skim?

I always skim the books of Bob Woodward. In a Bob Woodward book, you'll never miss great sentences that make you pause and wonder. A Woodward paragraph's first sentence tells you everything you need to learn from that paragraph. There's no point in pondering. Cut to the chase.

The same is true of government reports like that of the 9/11 Commission or anything written by former CIA agents, businesspeople, or law enforcement people. (I read very little of this stuff anyway.)

Gretchen Rubin skims too. Skimming is just one of twelve tips on reading presented by Gretchen Rubin here. You might want to read them.

I like Rubin's tips, although I can't speak about one and I would add one other one.

The one I know nothing about is Tivo. I don't own one. Never had the hankering to do so, either.

I would add a thirteenth tip: Read the Bible. You can read the whole Bible in one year if you read just three or four chapters a day. Believing, as I do, that the Bible is the Word of God, I also believe that it's good for us to read in order to get a good idea of Who God is and of God's will for our lives.

If you do read the Bible, you're bound to run across things you don't understand. I do every day. A good study Bible helps clear up most confusion. But I wouldn't let the difficult things vex me too much, if I were you. I like what Mark Twain wrote: "It ain't the parts of the Bible that I can't understand that bother me, it is the parts that I do understand."