Things to keep in mind:
The secret of reading.
The student who is generally superficial may, for a special reason, read some one thing well. Scholars who are as superficial as the rest of us in most of their reading often do a careful job when the text is in their own narrow field, especially if their reputations hang on what they say. On cases relevant to his practice, a lawyer is likely to read analytically. A physician may similarly read clinical reports which describe symptoms he is currently concerned with. But both these learned men may make no similar effort in other fields or at other times. Even business assumes the air of a learned profession when its devotees are called upon to examine financial statements or contracts, though I have heard it said that many businessmen cannot read these documents intelligently even when their fortunes are at stake.
If we consider men and women generally, and apart from their professions and occupations, there is only one situation I can think of in which they almost pull themselves up by their bootstraps, making an effort to read better than they usually do. When they are in love and are reading a love letter, they read for all they are worth. They read every word three ways; they read between the lines and in the margins; they read the whole in terms of the parts, and each part in terms of the whole; they grow sensitive to context and ambiguity, to insinuation and implication; they perceive the color of words, the odor of phrases, and the weight of sentences. They may even take punctuation into account. Then, if never before or after, they read.
—posted 5461 days ago
