Dear Readers
Apologies for the silence on last Sunday- 3rd of July. A family commitment, travel plans and exhaustion kept me in bed.
I am back again.
It’s a new month- the seventh of the year- I can’t believe we are already half way through 2022! And this month we are going to look at learning from various mediums and what it means. We will also explore what it means to learn about oneself, philosophy behind why we get educated and like always you will have resources to help you learn more.
I am excited. 💛
I hope so are you!
Issue #22
In this issue you will find:
Reading to Learn
The Learning Bank
An update on Femreads
A call to action
And a way to connect with me!
Let's begin. 🏁
Reading to Learn
If I have to argue, why do we learn to read? It is so we can read to learn, we can discover the world through the word and we can challenge our understanding and perspectives and broaden our intellectual horizons. We read for self actualisation and that is the true purpose of reading.
Yes, reading also serves functional purposes such as being a productive part of the workforce or basal purposes such as reading for entertainment but it’s highest and the most important purpose is to push us to become our best selves. To be critical, to not be the flock of sheep, to grow.
And that’s why we learn too, isn’t it?
I say, that one can not learn without reading. One can learn through many other mediums, but every learning journey will have in itself a component of reading, where we sit and struggle with a text, the words and the ideas it represent.
Can we read a text once and be done?
I was naive enough to believe it so. But every worthy text needs to be re-read- once, twice, thrice or on regular intervals.
On re-reading, is when you truly discover the text. It is as Vladimir Nabokov said-
Curiously enough, one cannot read a book; one can only reread it. A good reader, a major reader, and active and creative reader is a rereader.
So how do learn from our readings and our re-readings?
Here are some things you can do:
Work with the text- Don’t be afraid to mark your books, make it your own - underline it, highlight it, write in the margins.
Write a summary of what you read- I love this one tip I found on TikTok or some social media site - After every chapter, the person wrote a 200 word paragraph on it!
Make active connections- When you read, think about what it reminds you of, go back to that. Then think about what it reminded you of. Do this exercise deliberately.
Practice Active Recall- Try to remember what you had read after 3 days, 5 days, 10 days. Share it with a friend, use blogs/social media to talk about it or just do it independently.
If there is one book that I will recommend everyone to read on reading, it would be How to read a book by Mortimer J.Adler and Charles Van Doren.
The Learning Bank 🏦
Here are 5 resources you can explore and learn from:
Learn a foreign language with this fun tool- Toucan.
Learn this fun new form of doodling with this short video.
Learn about Cognitive Flexibility here and follow this newsletter where I found it here.
Learn about how to improve your focus with this medium article.
Learn about Ikigai and how to improve the quality of your life with this medium article.
Femreads
Our small community has voted!
And for the month of July, we are reading Toni Morrison- Mouth Full of Blood.
If you’d like to be a part of the book club, join this whatsapp group.
Piddi and Leo are still looking for their forever families!
Connect with me!
If you want to talk about learning and how to facilitate it in different settings or just need a conversation you can book a call with me here.
Alternatively, you can reach out to me LinkedIn or send me a “hey” on avnivij3@gmail.com.
If you liked this newsletter, maybe share it with someone else who’d like it?
Keep learning!
Adios,
Avni