How To Read 

You're definitely not the only one, Gary :)

Me too.

I second this motion...

I wish I had you to listen too when I was attending college. Very useful tips. Thank you 🙏🏻

I even read this comment twice.

This is very enlightening for me to read as a 17year old

Me too, hope watched earlier like 40years ago. Surely would have been in a better position than now. Thanks Benjamin.

I understand your point, but perhaps it's still worth pointing out that RU-vid was started in 2007 (15 years ago), and Benjamin McEvoy, I believe, is also less than 50 years old. He started this channel in January, 2020.

Please put me on the list.

I'm right there with you at 68. I wish I would have been reading 50 years ago. In high school you couldn't pay me to read. Since earning a degree in English Literature, 99% of what I read is classic literature. I feel I'm playing catch-up.

I am so happy for you! I was a prodigy of sorts with reading, having learned how to read in about 45 minutes when I was 4 years old (it's too bad I was not a genius to go along with the early reading, LOL), and I have been reading my entire life. I can't imagine the joy it must be to you to be able to read. You probably appreciate it so much more than I do, even though I appreciate it very much. There are so many books to read! I own around 4,200 physical books and around 8000 electronic books, and I will not make it through all of the books I own before I die, let alone all the other ones in the world that I want to read. I have a neurological disorder in my right wrist that makes reading electronic books easier for me than reading physical books, but there is nothing like the feel of a physical book in your hands. I still read them when I can, even though it's a difficult, but most of my reading is done through audio and electronic books nowadays. And one of those people who likes to write in my books, too. I will argue with the author and the margins, I'll cross reference to other books, I'll agree with the author in the margins, LOL. Sometimes I'm inspired to write a journal entry, and I will reference my journal in the margin. One habit I never picked up but I'm trying to develop is to create a summary or a summary outline of a book on the back page. C.S. Lewis, author and professor of English, said that that practice caused Tim to enjoy many a book he would not otherwise have enjoyed.

Indeed

Aw, thank you, Yazeed :) I appreciate you being here!

Beautiful approach. I'd love to learn Go myself. I've been a lover of chess since university and it's extraordinary how much of that game is applicable to so many other areas of life.

Thank you, Jace :) Mr. Adler and Mr. Bloom certainly do make wonderful companions on a deep-reading journey. Rarely a week goes by without my consulting both of them!

Thank you, Anita :) I appreciate you being here!

Lmao this is the whole reason I'm watching this video.

Thank you for being here, my friend :)

Thank you, Sam :) I'm so glad you found it useful!

Thank you, Julián. I certainly will do more videos like this :) There's currently 8 hours of similar videos over at the Essay Masterclass, but I will always keep uploading to RU-vid too! I'm glad you're enjoying them!!

I'm so happy to hear that :) Thank you very much, and very warm welcomes to the club! It's great to have you reading with us :)

Agree. Thanks so much.🙌🏼🙌🏼🙏🏼

Thank you, Santiago :) I'm glad you found it helpful!

Thank you, Steve :) I really appreciate that!

@@BenjaminMcEvoy most welcome

They were so lucky to have you as a teacher, Mary!

Aw, thank you so much :) Happy reading! Let me know how your reading adventure goes!

@@BenjaminMcEvoy will definitely do, currently reading crime and punishment.

Thank you :) I’m glad you’ve found this channel too!

Thank you so much :) I look forward to it - it would be great to hear your insights on any of the great books!

I also have ADHD and have “read” a lot of non prose types of books using the Synoptic method. While I got exactly what I was looking for from the book I told I was being lazy or just not “getting” all of it. A relief knowing I don’t have to get it all and many other people don’t either.

You're so welcome :)

My pleasure! Thank you for watching 😊

I'm pleased to have you here, Heather :)

Thank you! :) I'm thrilled to have a fellow jazz lover here!

Thank you! :)

Oh, yes :) And did you spot Jelly Roll Morton peeking out too? Great to have a fellow jazz fan here. I love Oscar's Night Train - listen to it endlessly!

Ha :) That's amazing. Certainly with great novels like Moby Dick, Middlemarch, and Crime and Punishment you could end up highlighting every single line!

@@BenjaminMcEvoy definitely - I like to highlight parts where I can translate that into meaningful action in my own life so I'm implementing fictional lessons in reality

Top job, cool beans!

You just read it slow-like in your head, taking in the sentence, as if you’re David Attenborough in a nature documentary. It’s a very rewarding technique on books like Blood Meridian; that turn the words into a movie in your head.

You're so welcome, my friend. Thank you for watching!

It is indeed :) I rarely go a day without throwing on one of his albums!

@@BenjaminMcEvoy Nice! I haven't listened to Monk in a while, absolutely love his stuff though. Misterioso is one of the best albums ever.

Envious! I read Edmund Morris' biographies on Theodore Roosevelt and found his reading habits very interesting. I think Cal Newport in Deep Work actually discusses his "technique" in a way that is replicable - Law and Medicine students (and us pesky English lot at Oxford) have to use this sort of approach because we have no other option given the workload. My critical hero Harold Bloom was said to be able to read 1,000 pages an hour in his prime. But he also had a photographic memory. Speed-reading can be trained, but one is also going to brush up against their natural limitations.

@@BenjaminMcEvoy fantastic reply. thank you!

Sylvia Plath is great. 'Ariel' - wow. What a volume!

Don Quixote won't be boring, I promise :) That's my top recommendation for you. Anything from the book club list comes highly recommended, Pratik!

@@BenjaminMcEvoy I've ordered Crime & Punishment and Anna Karenina, I'll pick anyone and deep read it followed by other book of the same author and I'll keep other book as a buffer for future.

@@pratikrajsah read the gambler and notes from underground before reading crime and punishment

When I decided to start reading fiction, the first book that I really got was "Burmese Days" by George Orwell. It's easy, not long, and I was really interested in the plot and touched emotionally. It was the first fiction book that I read the way you're supposed to read fiction.

"The Plague" by Albert Camus and Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tales are good too. I love re-reading Andersen because I think his stories teach me to be more humble and sensitive. I have it in English, Dutch and Russian and now I want to get a Danish copy 🙈

❤️☺️

Same, contradictory to what he said in the beginning of the video, I have found that highlighting, taking notes for each chapter, and watching RU-vid breakdown videos for each chapter helps a lot for someone that has ADHD and dyslexia. Hopefully this helps you.

And Dave Brubeck take five! First thing I noticed also.