I am currently going through a reading phase. I go through a lot of phases. (Blogging phases, type 4 phases, homeschool methods, etc, etc, etc…..) Right now, I am on an education phase, and I am reading education books. I always read, but sometimes I read things that are just time wasters. Recently I took a break from education books and picked up a Dickens book “Our Mutual Friend”. I think Charles Dickens is the most amazing writer EVER!! I do love Shakespeare but sometimes… the going gets pretty tough. He seems to take a lot of work to understand. Dickens is certain not a light read, but I don’t seem to get lost in the words the way I do with Shakespeare. I could compare it to the four gospels verses any letter of Paul’s.
So while on a trip to the library I picked up several books on Dickens life, and also a book on getting the most from you reading. (If anyone has any suggestions on books that help you get the most from your reading, send them my way, I might flip through them.) In looking for books I came across a book I have read before. It is called” The Well Educated Mind”. I love the ideas the book has on writing. “We write to remember”, the book said. I keep a commonplace book, in fact I keep several. I have yet to finish even one of them. I just buy a new one when I need inspiration to get back into a reading phase.
So, I do try to write, but the phase usually ends with the same type of burst that it started with, explosive and short lived, somewhat fireworkish. While reading, I also learned, “What we summarize becomes our own.” But who wants to read a book summary? I don’t. I do love to read other people’s thoughts on books they have read. (Hence my addiction to Goodreads.com…. I could get a lot more reading done if I just quit reading what others have to say about the book I am currently reading….waste_of_time.)
Here is what “The Well Educated Mind” has to say about journaling or keeping a commonplace book:
“…the journal is the place where the reader takes external information and records it (through the use of quotes…); appropriates it through a summary, written in the reader’s own words; and then evaluates it through reflection and personal thought. As you read you should follow this three-part process: jot down specific phrases, sentences, and paragraphs as you come across them; when you have finished your reading, go back and write a brief summary about what you’ve learned; and then write your own reactions, questions and thoughts.
In this way, the journal connects objective and subjective learning, and ideal described by Bronson Alcott in his own journal of 1834:
Education is that process by which thought is opened out of the soul,and associated with outward…things, is reflected back upon itself and thus made conscious of its reality and shape. It is Self-Realization…. He who is seeking to know himself, should be ever seeking himself in external things, and by so doing will he be best able to find, and explore his inmost light.
I might write a summary of what I learned, thought, felt while reading Dickens…. and I might pass through the writing phase before I get any actual writing done. But either way, I let you know.



























