A week or two ago Sylvia mentioned Nick Senger’s free e-book ROMAN Reading: 5 Practical Skill for Transforming Life Through Literature. If you’ve spent any time here you know I love books about books and reading. Plus this one, Sylvia said, made mention of her. So I immediately went and downloaded a copy for myself. Last night I read it. And enjoyed it.
It’s short and, have no fear, easy to read on a computer screen. Senger, or can we call him Nick since he’s also a blogger? Nick, is an award-winning Catholic schoolteacher and developed the ROMAN reading idea to help his students become better readers. He readily admits the concepts aren’t new, but he presents them in such a nice, neat, easy to understand way sprinkled with quotes about reading and lots of encouragement, that they are not in the least intimidating.
Nick talks about books being neighbors and a personal library being like a neighborhood and asks, “What kind of neighborhood are you living in?” For some reason this tickles my funny bone as I imagine myself strolling through my “neighborhood.” It’s rather diverse with mixed income housing, multiple generations and representatives from lots of different countries. Mine is a friendly neighborhood where everyone gets along in spite of us all being rather crammed together.
But onward, to how to be a better reader. Easy, read. The more you read the better you get at it. And I think this is true. To think you don’t have enough time to read or aren’t smart enough to read, especially “great” books, is a myth. There’s plenty of time if you turn off the TV or the computer. And remember, A lot of the greats like Dickens or Dostoyevsky wrote for a common audience, not an intellectual elite.
What does ROMAN mean?
Read the book
Outline the book
Mark the pages
Ask the right questions
Name your experiences
Nick explains each one in detail. I particularly liked the section on marking up a book. I like writing in my books but I always feel bad about doing it, like I am ruining the book. Maybe it’s from years of being told by teachers in grade school that writing in books was bad. But I am slowly curing myself of the fear and learning to enjoy marking in my books more and more often. I find when I do I notice so much more, retain more, and enjoy the book more because I am usually more engaged with my reading.
Naming my experience, the last step, has evolved into blogging and I must say, I have better recall of the books I’ve blogged about these last three and a half years than the books that came before (except ones I studied in college). It really has added to my reading experience and pleasure.
Nick has an appendix that lists “great” books to help new readers get started and for experienced readers to find something new to read. He also lists websites and blogs and this one turns out mine is on the list. What a happy surprise!
As I mentioned before, ROMAN Reading is a simple, easy book. It’s great for new readers and readers who want to become better readers but may be intimidated by “literature.” It’s also good for experienced readers, a pleasant reminder to not be lazy. Oh, yeah, and it’s free!
I agree that blogging has certainly added to my reading experiences as well. As I read now, it’s always in the back of mind, “what am I going to say about this book?” and it forces me to pay closer attention and think more critically about what I’m reading.
The only step I’m not sure about is the “mark the pages” one. I guess I could take notes, but I get a lot of books from the library- I doubt they’d appreciate them being all scribbled on! I do however actually look for books that have been marked up at used books sales. Not (just) because they’re cheaper, but because I like to see what others thought about a particular passage, or what a prof or teacher told them was important.
I love the neighbourhood metaphor. But does that mean my anthologies are ghettos!? :-S
Hmm. My neighborhood is pretty nice, too, though the mystery section is pretty crime-ridden. There are lots of detectives out there trying to clean things up, though! (oh that was so bad–sorry). I saw this at Sylvia’s–I need to download it, too. How I read depends on the book, but I am still a little lazier than I should be. I am still not to the marking up stage (I will tag pages, though), but I do read lots more criticism, which I never did before.
I could never mark up a book. It would destroy any possibility of re-reading it. I find marks in books very distracting. My method is to have a school notebook sitting ready to jot down passages and ideas.
Oh, that book marking thing is controversial. My husband claims that his favourite book ever is the copy of the Norton Anthology of Poetry I gave him that had all my pencilled notes in it. On the other hand, highlighting, which I think is most people’s idea of marking a book, is a horrible habit, particularly in students, who tend to confuse highlighting with understanding.
Stephanie,
Thanks so much for this heads up. I read Spenger’s book immediately. I am a longtime admirer of Mortimer J. Adler. I like the way Spenger not only adds ideas about reading but also shows sophistication in current media. His book is designed to be read online with fewer sentences per page and is kind of like 21st century Adler.
On the marking up of books, I am a notorious book marker and have kept journals for years. In reply to John Munford, I also read library books. If I feel the need to mark a passage I use post-it-notes. I also put post-it-notes in the back and front of the book where I can write comments and notate the page numbers I have marked.
Often I end up purchasing a copy of the library book for my own use. I keep the notes and either put them in the new book or transfer them.
One thing Spenger doesn’t bring up in his ROMAN method is the way books themselves are in conversation with each other. This metaphor has helped me for a long time, so that often one idea or book leads to another.
Not to be too longwinded but this brings me to a recent recommendation I noticed (in a comment somewhere online, this web site?) about the book, “Cloud Atlas” by David Mitchell. I read it and loved it. Read another by him (“Ghostwritten”). Read an interview by him online in which he recommended Yukio Mishima’s tetralogy that starts with Spring Snow. So I tried the first volume of that(which was sitting in my particular book neighborhood, heh) and am now on the second volume, “Runaway Horses.” I can see how Mishima’s books are in “conversation” with Mitchell’s books but I think I better leave off here. I am prone to blabbing about reading and music. Hence my love for the internet and blogs.
Thanks again for pointing to Nick Spenger and congrats on making his Reader’s Blog list at the back!
Thanks for the review, Stefanie. Very kind of you. I’m enjoying reading all the comments.
Whatladder: I love the story about your husband’s favorite book. In fact, I liked it so much I blogged about it at Literary Compass.
It’s good to know that this kind of resource exists out there and is getting publicity. Anything that helps people get more out of their reading can only be a force for good!
I agree with you about blogging — I read more thoughtfully and remember more now that I’m blogging (and I have a record of my thoughts, so I can always go back and remind myself if I forget!).
I’ve been a dyed-in-the-wool book-marker, ever since college. The professor of the first English class I ever took encouraged all of his students to write in their books. He’d even check our books occassionally to see if we’d been marking in them! He didn’t mean highlighting as someone has mentioned above, but rather underlining and commenting in the margins. He said something to me that I’ve always remembered; it’s what I tell people who are either a) surpised that I write in my books given how much I love them, or b) disgusted that I “mutilate” a books pages in that way. He said, “Reading is a conversation. Writing in a book is your way of talking back.”
Boy, do I live in a schizophrenic neighborhood! But we’re all happy: classics butting up against chick lit and all. I have the same problem with writing in books, but am learning to squash that inner school teacher in me and mark up to my heart’s content when the book is mine.
“Neighborhood” is a nice metaphor. Mine has dragons, symbols, birds, wizards, lovers, professors, films, differential equations, monkeys, matrices and what not. Everyone is screaming for attention. It is the definition of a fish market
.
At this time, what I need is to do a ROMAN reading of a good book on how to do well in interviews.
I love the neighborhood metaphor, too.
And I can’t bring myself to mark my books, like some of the others who have commented. My semi-solution to that problem is index cards. I use index cards as bookmarks, and make notes there. Then I label the cards and stick them in a little index card file so I can go back and find passages that I loved or whatever. It’s not a great system, because it’s pretty easy to lose cards, and you have to have to be willing to keep a card file. But it’s better than nothing…
And I’ve seen many bloggers who keep reading notebooks, which is another way of keeping the “conversation” going…
John, marking in library books is verboten. I find it interesting that while you don’t like marking in books you like to buy books others have marked in.
Sylvia, anthologies are multipurpose buildings, you know the kinds that have apartments, condos, and retail space
Danielle, If your neighborhood is going to have crime, it’s good to have some of the best detectives on the case
Rod, marks in a book can be distracting, but it sounds like your notebook serves the purpose well.
Whatladder, your husband sounds like a really great guy. I agree with you on the highlighting. I only ever use pencil.
Steve, sounds like you have a great reading system. I love the conversation between books too, they way one book leads to another or provides additional information or commentary that adds to our experience. I’ve read Cloud Atlas and I have been wanting to read Mishima. You have me intrigued about Spring Snow. I’ll have to track down a copy for myself!
Nick, I’m always happy to talk about a god book
Litlove, your force for good comment made me smile.
Dorothy, I have yet to really go back and look at old posts, but I like knowing I can.
JS, what a wise teacher you had.
Not schizophrenic Emily, but energetic, active, and diverse
Polaris, I like the neighborhood metaphor too. Good luck with the interview!
Gentle Reader, index cards are a good solution, and even better that you save them. Kind of neat that you have all those cards you can flip through, a walk down memory lane of sorts.
Great resource, thank you! I started marking up books when I started Proust, and now I can’t read him without a pencil in hand.
I am a bit of a cheater still when it comes to blogging about a book. I get all freaked out, as if I am having to write a term paper. I am hoping to get over that and be as witty, succinct and helpful as other bloggers are about the books they read.
I’m a book marker, as long as it’s my own book. If not, I go the post-it route of taking notes. While reading your post I was thinking about why I write in books and when I started doing it and I suddenly realized it was because of church! Everyone I knew read their scriptures with colored pencils at the ready to mark verses, underline phrases, and write notes or cross-references in the margins. We were encouraged to do this in every church class I took. The more heavily marked your scriptures were, the more you had studied. I guess I just got used to reading with a pencil in my hand!
I have a pencil in hand while I read Proust too LK. And you blog about a book just fine!
Becky, what a fantastic story! Church would be the last place I’d think of learning something like marking up a text, but how wonderful that is!