Not Reading or Reading

So often than not i Find myself glancing blankly at my over stocked and under appreciated books, sometime I almost feel motivated to just glance an skim through them to keep the webs from forming. I felt alot of guilt about not completely reading every single book I’ve started, like I cheated myself. But after reading “Pedagogies of Reading and Not Reading” By Jesse Stommel I found a calm sense of relief to his philosophy about not taking reading to serious, I enjoyed his idea that books by design are meant to be read in entirety but that should not be the narrow in its scope. Everything we do to prepare ourselves to read, our curiosity, our environment, our reluctance to put the book down should all be considered equally as important in the process of learning. “Reading feels sometimes like eating. But more often like the murmur of hunger just before eating.” I feel that this statement capture the core of his idea, when i read i can feel myself sometimes drifting away in a boundless body of water to a destination unknown but yet to be seen.

I just don’t read in a one style but utilize many common techniques like speed reading, skimming, glancing, researching, imagining, creating and experience within itself. Its kinda like I’m just full filling a curiosity of the mind and every thing that’s connected in someway or another “Reading for me has always been more akin to a series of willful cursory glances.” He alleviates the “Shamefullness” that alot of teacher guilt their student for when they don’t read books completely, by sharing various reading techniques/ strategies that allow the students to develop their own ideas. His approach to teaching students allow them to see this experience and a “encounter” and not a compulsive task “Like teaching and learning, reading cannot be compulsory.” And that sometimes its better to stop reading and look away, giving yourself time for different aspects of the reading to develop spontaneously as your mind analysis and digest these ideas.

• The Pedagogies of Reading and Not Reading March 7, 2014