by A. W. Tozer
A book is a reservoir in which the raw material of thought is stored; or, otherwise viewed, a channel through which ideas are piped from one mind to another. It is therefore not an end but a means only. In itself it is but a few ounces of paper and cloth and ink, the sum of which can be bought anywhere for a few cents.
It is necessary that we understand this, for some persons confuse the means with the end and by association come to attribute to a book powers almost magical. There are those who acquire books from a sort of compulsion, imagining that there is some kind of intellectual advantage in the mere fact of possession. Others seem to believe that they are the better for merely reading the book, as if its mysterious treasure passed into the mind as the eye travels over the page. I have seen men stroke and fondle a book with a kind of superstitious reverence as if they hoped that something wonderful would rub off on them by physical contact. The bibliophile who gloats over his volumes is no better off than the miser who, with drawn shades, counts his money over and over before returning it to its hiding place again. Books and money are alike in that they are useless when hoarded. Each has a purpose and is valuable only when allowed to fulfill that purpose.
The Greek moral philosopher, Epictetus, understood well the difference between means and end, and exhorted his listeners constantly to beware mistaking the one for the other. The wise old Stoic looked for results in the life and was not impressed by the number of books his students had read. "Show me then your progress in this point," he demanded. "As if I should say to a wrestler, `Show me your muscle' and he should answer, `See my dumbbells.' Your dumbbells are your own affair. I desire to see the effect of them."
That brings us naturally to inquire whether or not there is any advantage in the new stepped-up speed reading advocated so widely today and, conversely, whether there is any real disadvantage in slow reading habits.
The advocates of speed reading like to tell of such men as Theodore Roosevelt who, it is said, could sweep his eyes down a page and grasp what was written there at a glance and almost without effort. Such a man is too rare to set the pace for the rest of us. His kind occurs about as frequently as an albino crow and for all practical purposes may be passed over as having no meaning for the ordinary student. If our only desire were to pack information into our heads, then we might profit by the ability to race over the page. Since, however, we seek in books more than information, such ability is surely of questionable worth. If reading has for one of its most important benefits intellectual communion with superior souls, then rapid reading is a positive disadvantage. The slow, leisurely walk through the woods will teach us more than a sprint that makes observation impossible; and the quiet, deliberate perusal of a great book, with many stops and frequent retracings of our steps, will always be best. In that way we learn from the book and from ourselves at the same time. Briefly, no one should worry about his reading rate. Just find your natural easy pace and let who will race past you. Remember the hare and the tortoise.
Closely related to the idea of reading rate is that of the relative importance of memorizing-whether we should try to memorize, and if so, how much.
Certain cultures have stressed memorization to a point where education consists largely in learning by rote a few of the classics. This was true in ancient China, in India, and I believe is still true in some parts of the world, such as Arabia. Missionaries tell us of the remarkable ability to memorize possessed by some of the Orientals, an ability which they find they cannot possibly match.
About this two things may be said: One, that great skill in memorizing is found almost exclusively among peoples where books are scarce and where a certain limited few important classics are about all the reading matter required for an education as understood by those peoples. In the English-speaking world of today we have available not only everything that has ever been written in our mother tongue, but everything that has ever been written in any language, done for us in English translation. In the face of such a mountain of books, memorizing on any wide scale will be seen to be altogether impossible.
The second thing is that excessive memorization kills the impulse to think independent thoughts and makes us into tape recording machines full of other men's words but without a vital idea of our own. It is my considered opinion that a book that has fed a great thought into my mind and inspired me to explore new ideas on my own has done vastly more for me than the book I have memorized from cover to cover.
My own method is to confine my memorization to the Scriptures and the great hymns. I memorize passages of Scripture so I can use them in my sermons and meditate on them as I travel. And I like to store the great hymns in my mind to sing under my breath anywhere under any circumstances at any time. Further than that I do not give myself too much concern about memorizing.
( The Size of the Soul, Chapter 8 )
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