Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Ship's School - Readin', Writin', Rowin'

I recently read an article about President Roosevelt - no, not the one responsible for the New Deal, the one who was the Real Deal.  Apparently Roosevelt was a voracious reader, often reading multiple books in a single day.  He was known and appreciated by many of the dignitaries of other countries for his in-depth understanding of such a wide variety of topics.  It made me think about the fact that I used to speed-read quite well myself.  Not that I have aspirations to the presidency or anything like that, but I'd like to put some of those skills I slaved away learning to more use.

I realize that one of my weaknesses in reading has always been that I forget what I have read.  It doesn't seem to matter if I comprehend it well.  I then don't remember what I comprehended so it doesn't seem to do much good.  As I practice my reading more rigorously I think I'll work on making brief organized outline-type notes of what I read.  Then writing up a more understandable but brief summary will serve to help me seal content into my mind.

What's the goal?  Maybe I can communicate more and better about what I learn.  Maybe I can also have more time for other activities if I don't have quite as many books calling me and making me feel guilty.  So I'll try to speed up my reading a bit, organize my writing more, and have time left over to go rowing (if I want).
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