Learning to Read Difficult Books: A Pep Talk 

Thank you! I really identified with the idea of not writing in books. I remember like it was yesterday my elementary school teacher telling us that books were sacred and should never be marked on. As a consequence, I have adopted the use of e-Books which allow me to highlight and take notes without all of the trauma. It's been a blessing. Thanks you!

How are you doing mrs Linda. Thank you for your wonderful cultural channel. Honestly I feel my self as real university student but unfortunately without certificate. With every new video you are posting I learn new information and new vocabularies. Pep talk means short speech that is given to encourage someone to work harder , to feel more confident and enthusiastic. There are necessary tips we must follow to read difficult books such as reading spot ,place where can be comfortable and read. Keep dictionary with us as we read . Look how book is organized by reading through table of contents and reading introduction. Try to avoid skimming as much as possible. Inspectional reading is also referred to as skimming or pre - reading. This is when reader intentionally reads book or article superficially with intenton absorbing main points and takeaways in short amount of time . Thank you for giving us chance to read learn new information improve our English as well. Good luck to you your family friends.

Some books I like a buy two paperback copies A "dog ear copy" I can mark up for understand the book And a second clean copy

Thank you 😊

The look on your face when you said they wanted us to write in our books - I had the same look on mine! 😄 Signed, The Daughter of Schoolteachers (TWO of them)

They want you to mark up your book? *FAINTS* ... Okay, now that I've picked myself up off the floor, I can see doing this with a copy that I've purchased from a thrift shop or a yard sale or if I have a duplicate copy. I need some time to get my head around this advice but I can definitely see the advantages.

What makes for a difficult book? Is it in the style of writing from the time it was written in? Or is it the ideas themselves? Or both? I think sometimes books are hard to understand because they use old-fashioned English, like from a hundreds years ago, like Edwardian or Victorian-era English, or even older with King James's English. They have words and sentences that we don’t use anymore, and that most people aren't used to. I don’t think the ideas in those books are too hard to understand, at least not for me. The stories are pretty simple, like the Canterbury Tales, for example. And Shakespeare's plays aren't difficult to comprehend: the concepts are easy, and the themes are timeless, but the English of his time is a barrier for most people. That's what makes Shakespeare difficult. Conversely, there are books that are hard to understand even when written in modern English, like Einstein’s concepts about time and space. As far as philosophy, I never read philosophy books that use old-fashioned English because it creates a time-wasting barrier, meaning a reader has to first figure out what the archaic passages mean, and then, after that, what the actual philosophical ideas mean. If a philosophy book is written in modern English, then it’s easier to focus on the philosophical ideas themselves, which is the point. Reading a modern translation of an old philosophical work means one less barrier to deal with in trying to understand the actual philosophical concepts. Also stories, the Odyssey is easier to understand when it’s not in Alexander Pope’s English. A book can be difficult purely because of the archaic writing style itself. And for those books, I’d rather find a newer version so I can enjoy the story and the ideas more efficiently and with less time. 😊