One great thing about being a reader is being able to participate in The Great Conversation. You learn to recognize quotations and take them and repeat them and tweak them and let them develop your own voice. This is not to be confused with your own truth. Do not under any circumstances try to develop your own truth. But how you express yourself, even in ordinary conversation does matter. 

Clarity of speech is something that Christians in particular should strive after. Speech is a gift from God that we can and should take dominion of. There are better and worse ways of speaking. There is definitely a place for colloquial speech. But we also want to be able to elevate our speech when the occasion calls for it, and to be able to do so in a way that doesn't seem strained or forced.

By reading, collecting, and USING the language of others, we can become funnier, clearer, and more gracious in how we talk.

On this episode we talk about commonplace books, what they are, and some ways to use them profitably.

Registration is open for Niagara Classical Academy! Visit www.niagaraclassical.com today.

It's called Niagara Classical Academy and in this episode we break from our normal format to talk about a philosophy of education and what it might mean for you. We've been homeschooling happily for the past five years, but a school environment allows us to better serve our children as well as other families by providing a division of labour and more comprehensive instruction. Learn more at www.niagaraclassical.com. Email us at [email protected], and make a tax-deductible donation at [email protected]

Why Listening Counts

As an adult, is goal of reading to decode the words, or consume, consider and then digest ideas

Historically, reading was a group activity, done with one person–the literate person–reading aloud to another or a group of another. 

The Old English word, raedan means to advise, guess. …It’s not about the act of decoding at all!

You likely have significantly more time to use your ears than to use your eyes

How to Leverage Listening as a Way to Read Widely, Deeply, and Frequently

1. While you get ready for the day. 

2. Commute Time: Swap out music or radio for audiobooks during your daily commute (or any regular consistent time in your daily/weekly routine)

3. Household Chores: Turn mundane tasks into opportunities for literary enrichment. 

5. Exercise Routine

6. Waiting Periods: waiting in lines, at the doctor's office, or during any other moments of waiting

5. Multitasking: If your tasks don't require intense concentration, consider listening to audiobooks while working on other projects or tasks. **This one is a bit tricky; multi-tasking is a bit of a lie, but I digress.

6. Before Bed

7. Lunch Breaks Instead of scrolling through social media during lunch, use that time to listen to a chapter of an audiobook

8. Mindful Listening: during activities that don't require your full attention, such as doing puzzles, knitting, or other hobbies.

9. Family Time: Consider incorporating audiobooks into family activities, such as listening together during road trips or quiet evenings.

10. Podcast or News Substitution: Swap out one or more of your regular podcasts for an audiobook episode. That could be an additional 15 or so minutes every day!

Tips for Listening

If you aren’t used to learning by listening, start with small chunks of time.

If you aren’t a default auditory learning, start by choosing audiobooks that align with your interests or learning goals to make the most of your listening time as you get used to learning by listening.

Scheduled Listening Sessions: Figure out times in your day and week that you can treat as a planned activity rather than an impromptu one.

Experiment with listening at different speeds. Slow it down or speed it up. Some people find that increasing the playback speed allows them to consume content more quickly and more effectively.

Make it easy: Get yourself a nice bluetooth speaker that you can take with you to the beach or camping or the park; get comfortable headphones, etc.

Accessing the Listening Library

If you have a CD player, take them out of the library

Librivox (for classics)

Hoopla

Cloud Library

Canon Press

Audible

YouTube

Spotify

Being able to remember what you read is almost the entire point of reading. Here are some good habits to develop when approaching a book

Before

Don’t skip the introductions!

Do read the reviews (Good Reads is great for this.)

During

Read with a pencil in hand

Look up words that you don’t know

Remove all barriers and distractions (my phone is the worst distraction for me when reading)

Be cautious about reading for sake of ticking the box of “Being a Reader”

Talk about what you are reading with others

Practice summarizing in your own words the points, plot, etc.

Talk about what is different about this book or similar to other books

Share quotations that stuck with you

Keep a Commonplace Book

After

Talk about it with others

If you have chosen a good book based on the best information available to you, and it’s presented in an interesting way, you probably will want to talk about it. So write a review of it. 

In this episode we offer some suggestions for finding books that you'll enjoy, hear a cautionary tale about librarians, and realize too late that Erika's mic wasn't on. We promise it's better next time.

Ask people who you know you already share a worldview

Think about what you like and enjoy. 

There is a difference between something you enjoy and something that is objectively good. Becoming a reader involves a level of humility; you need to develop your taste in good books.

Use a standard booklist; classics in most cases are classics for a reason, and this general consensus can be helpful.

Short books, children’s books, abridged versions, etc. are good places to start

Last time we talked about reading widely and deeply and didn’t quite make it to frequently. To catch up in summary, what I mean by frequently is every day. Read every day. Today we’ll talk about how to make reading a habit.

Set goals:

* Find the balance between realistic and challenging

* Start by either setting a page goal (3 a day) or a time goal (10 minutes)

* Pick a time of day; just before bed might not work

* Attach to another habit

* Remove friction

* Make a habit tracker; use postit notes, alarm on your phone, location reminder, background 

* When you fail, keep going

* Stick to the new plan religiously for a few weeks, don’t be a slave to your goals

Keep track of what you read

* Goodreads, spreadsheet, notebook 

* Community 

One at a time/multi on the go

* Try one style for a few weeks then change if that isn’t working

* Multi - one audio, one serious, one “easy”/fun