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”?