You Are What You Read

It is nice when you come across a book that provides a clear title for a blog post about it. I recently read You Are What You Read: A Practical Guide to Reading Well by Robert DiYanni. He is a Humanities Professor at NYU and his career primarily has been in college teaching. When I picked up the book I immediately thought of the phrase, “You are what you eat”. It makes sense then since reading is food for the mind we are what we read. In the forward of the book he states, “ You Are What You Read celebrates reading’s value for learning and for living. It presents ways to enrich your reading practices and enhance your reading pleasure.”. In my emphasis on being a Bookhead this is what I believe about a passion for reading. Reading adds much to our lived experiences. I will just touch on a few points that stood out to me from the book. One of my favorite concepts comes out of chapter one in which he emphasizes the importance of questions in our mind while we read. As I have mentioned in the past on critical thinking having a questioning mind is important. Our questions can help us in finding the meaning of the text and also understand the context of the story or information in the best way possible. On page 15 DiYanni presents good insights on questions, “At their best, our questions about texts prompt us to think about them more thoroughly and expansively. Our questions encourage analysis and appreciation, and they invite us to explore the ways texts stimulates our feelings and thoughts about them.” So with a questioning mind we gain more personal in-depth insights into whatever we are reading. This works whether it is fiction material or non-fiction works. He also brings out the point that we each bring to the reading experience our own perceptions and personal experiences as we interact with whatever we are reading. Think of it that is how in a book club the whole group can read the same chapter of a book but there are differing ideas as each person’s perceptions tap into a different aspect of what the author is writing about. That is amazing if you think about it. DiYanni discusses in the book some stories in the Bible and this idea I see so much in stories from the Bible. Granted there is often a common truth in the Biblical story but each reader often applies it in various ways to their lived experiences. This can be seen in any work of writing. He then goes through different types of fiction, non-fiction and poetry to show how to interact with various genres of writing. One other point that stood out to me is his analogy of reading to sports in life. “Those who experience the pleasure and powers of reading early carry them into later live, as athletes carry to adulthood skills developed playing sports in their youth. Reading like certain sports…. Can be learned early and continued throughout one’s lifetime. An ability to read perceptively identifies a person as educated, and likely interesting. An ability to read with understanding and enjoyment provides a source of lifelong pleasure.” (page 157). For a Bookhead such as myself, as I call lovers of books, his reading concepts like these show great benefits to reading. There are many other ideas to help us enjoy and be better readers so that is why I encourage picking up a copy of DiYanni’s book and spend time with it. Near the end he also has short descriptors of 9 reading practices: Read – Actively, deliberatively, predicatively, retrospectively, interpretively, evaluatively, purposefully, habitually, pleasurably. At the end of the book he in his appendixes includes a discussion on print and ebooks. Also he looks at other recommended books on reading. Those added sections of the books are well worth reading the book just for that information. Reflection: What are your personal thoughts on the idea “You Are What You Read”?

Adventure at Your Library

Since COVID I haven’t emphasized like I did in the past the Library Summer reading programs that go on across the country. A couple of weeks ago I went to my local library here in New Braunfels to renew my library card. It was nice to see a full parking lot. I went in to renew the card and picked up a book to read. I only took one as being a Bookhead I already have a large stack of books to read at home. I then went over to the information table and saw information on the Summer Reading program. This as always brings back to me memories of my childhood in Barberton, Ohio and my mom taking me to the public library for the Summer reading program. I believe that started for me when I was in second grade. Reading captured my attention as being in a poor single parent home I could read about stories from all over the world. The passion for reading helped me academically in school. I have many good memories of the library reading programs and it was a highlight of my Summers. I picked up a free bookmark off the table and it had a theme for the reading program on it. The theme for this year is, “Adventure Begins at Your Library”. This is a wonderful theme. Adventure should be connected to libraries and reading. Culture at large looks at reading and libraries as boring so the theme is an important reframing. With libraries in today’s world they are much more than books, which of course as a Bookhead that is the most important part to me. Yet as I looked at the library calendar they have presentations for adults on self help topics such as creativity, coloring and meal prepping. They have activities for children and teens as well. Then when considering reading, that should be considered an adventure as well. Reading expands the mind in so many ways. With fiction the mind is transported into the story built by another person’s creative mind but the reader gets to also being absorbed into the creativity of the story. With non-fiction the adventure is opening up to new ideas and new information on topics for example I love topics such as psychology and spirituality. Each non-fiction reader has their favorite topics and it excites them to grow in new ways. So I am glad they chose the theme of adventure for the reading program. I am a little behind this year as the librarian said they would be winding down the program soon but he said there was a lot of involvement from all the ages at the library here in New Braunfels. Next year I will be more together and go back to announcing the Summer reading program at the beginning of the Summer. Reflection: How is reading an adventure in your life?

The Importance of Keeping Our Free Thought Free

Since we are celebrating the 4th of July this week I thought I would share thoughts on a book that relates to the freedoms we enjoy in the USA. At least for right now we do; but freedom is shaky as there are forces that would like to see our country destroyed to prepare for a dystopian WEF world. I was delighted to purchase a book entitled You Can’t Say That!: The demise of free thought in Australia. It was interesting to hear of the book as I had followed the author, Melinda Richards, on Social Media back in 2020 as I wanted to follow some Australian accounts to see views of life there as our daughter was engaged to a young man in Autralia. We followed the news in Australia during Covid as their plans were to marry but the COVID shut down postponed the wedding for two years. During that time it was shocking to see a country seemingly crazier that ours here in the US. Of course we had Fauci who helped cause the whole Plandemic. Thankfully our daughter did get the chance to go and marry in 2022 once they opened up. Back to the book, in her introduction she is honest and open that the ideas in the book are her opinions which in a free country we should respect and appreciate. Sad to say our world, with the help of “Social Elites”, is creating a world where only the “Official opinions” are allowed. Differing opinions must be canceled even to the point of being thrown in prison like we have seen recently here in the USA of Steve Bannon being sent to prison. The Left crazies are now admitting the main purpose was to shut down his famous, “War Room” podcast. Melinda tackles a number of important issues in the book such as Identity Politics, The Myth of Equality, Re-birth of Colour-coded Society and COVID to name some of the main topics. With each chapter she provides substantiated facts the media often hide and important related stories to help the reader critically think about the issue. The sad reality though in our world is that many people are molded by brainwashed feelings so they cannot understand the facts. My favorite section was the COVID discussion as I remember following what going on here but also watching Australia as I was concerned where our daughter may be moving. In our house we knew early on the whole COVID situation had nefarious roots. During the time we chose to get our information from the doctors the Mainstream press and so called Experts castigated. We stayed away from the planned solution of the vaccine as by then the whole situation was more about control than healing and helping. Her chapter covers many of the insanities that we knew were driven by keeping the public like fearful sheep. Those in charge knew that fear works. At the time of her writing the book she admits there was not much research on the full results on the effects of the vaccine. We now know that the vaccine was more of a harm than a help. More and more reports are coming out of vaccine injuries in the form of heart issues, strokes, neurological issues and even increased death. My wife and I often discuss how Bill Gates and Klaus Schwab of WEF fame must be happy how their plan of depopulation has worked through the vaccine. At the end of the book she gives the readers some tips on what they can do to be change agents to fight back against the elites. And thankfully we see signs of more people waking up and understand the Elites don’t have their best intentions at hand. We have seen farmer revolts in Europe and more people in the USA here waking up. I do hope the same happens in Australia as it is a wonderful country and of course my daughter is living there so I hope Australians wake up instead of being woke. She provides 10 action steps at the end of the book. I won’t list them all as I would rather you buy a copy of her book. I will list a few of my favorites. Understand your beliefs and values and I would say stand up for them. Talk about the issues of the day as your opinion is just as important as anyone else’s. Do not comply is important as we need to live out and stand for our values. Her idea of Becoming informed is so important as well. For example with COVID there was information available but people just obeyed and did not research information for themselves and how many died needlessly due to fearful obedience. In that section I wish she would have listed some good resources to find information from as too many still go to the mainstream news for their information which is a daily brainwashing session. If you want to read a book to open your mind to move you beyond the dystopian nightmare we face in the world I recommend this book by Melanie Richards. Here in the USA I purchased the book on Amazon. Reflection: With the various issues in the world do you just accept the common narrative or look at other sources and critically think about the issue? Take some time and journal about your beliefs and values. Why do you believe what you believe?