If there ’s one thing that unites philosopher , author , politician , and scientist across time and distance , it ’s the belief that meter reading can extend your worldview and strengthen your mind well than just about any other activity . When it come to choose what to take and how to go about it , however , opinions pop to diverge . FromVirginia Woolf’saffinity for wandering secondhand bookstores toTheodore Roosevelt’srejection of a definitive “ expert books ” listing , here are seven pieces of reading advice to help you establish an telling to - be - read ( TBR ) peck .
1. Read books from eras past // Albert Einstein
Keeping up with current events and the latest bombilation - worthy Word of God from the best seller list is no small exploit , butAlbert Einsteinthought it was vital to leave behind some room for older study , too . Otherwise , you ’d be “ wholly dependent on the prejudices and fashions of [ your ] times , ” he wrote in a 1952 journal article [ PDF ] .
“ Somebody who study only newspapers and at best book of contemporary authors looks to me like an extremely near - sighted person who contemn eyeglasses , ” he wrote .
2. Don’t jump too quickly from book to book // Seneca
Seneca the Younger , a first - 100 Roman Stoicphilosopherand trusted advisor of Emperor Nero , believed that understand too broad a variety in too brusque a prison term would keep the instruction from leaving a last effect on you . “ You must linger among a limited number of passe-partout thinkers , and stand their whole kit and caboodle , if you would descend ideas which shall win firm hold in your mind , ” hewrotein a alphabetic character to Roman writer Lucilius .
If you ’re wishing there were a dear metaphor to exemplify this concept , take your pick from these gems , good manners of Seneca himself :
3. Shop at secondhand bookstores // Virginia Woolf
In heressay“Street Haunting , ” Virginia Woolf delineate the merits of shopping in secondhandbookstores , where the workings “ have come together in vast flock of motley plume , and have a spell which the domesticated volume of the library want . ”
According to Woolf , browsing through usedbooksgives you the luck to trip upon something that would n’t have risen to the attention oflibrariansand booksellers , who are often much more selective in curating their collections than secondhand bookstall owners . To give us an example , she think coming across the shabby , self - put out report of “ a gentleman’s gentleman who adjust out on horseback over a hundred years ago to explore the woollen marketplace in the Midlands and Wales ; an strange traveller , who stayed at inns , drank his dry pint , noted pretty little girl and serious customs , compose it all down rigidly , laboriously for sheer love of it . ”
“ In this random miscellaneous company , ” she wrote , “ we may scratch against some unadulterated unknown who will , with luck , turn into the skillful booster we have in the world . ”
4. You can skip outdated scientific works, but not old literature // Edward Bulwer-Lytton
Though his novels were vastly popular during his lifetime , 19th - century British novelist and Parliamentarian Edward Bulwer - Lytton is now mainly fuck for coining the phraseIt was a saturnine and tempestuous night , the porta line of his 1830novelPaul Clifford . It ’s a little ironic that Bulwer - Lytton ’s books are n’t very wide read today , because he himself was a strong believer in the value of reading oldliterature .
“ In science , read , by preference , the newest works ; in lit , the sure-enough , ” hewrotein his 1863 essay appeal , Caxtoniana . “ The Graeco-Roman lit is always modernistic . novel Scripture come to and redecorate old ideas ; old books indicate and enliven new idea . ”
To Bulwer - Lytton , fable could n’t ever be disused , because it contained timeless root about human nature and gild that came back around in contemporary work ; in other words , you ca n’t disprove fiction . you could , however , disprove scientific theories , so Bulwer - Lytton thought it best to stick to the late works in that airfield . ( That read , since scientists use former discipline to inform their oeuvre , you’re able to still learn a ton about certain schools of thought by delving intodebunked idea — plus , it ’s often really flirt with to see what citizenry used to think . )
5. Check out authors’ reading lists for book recommendations // Mortimer J. Adler
In his 1940 guideHow to Read a Book , American philosopher Mortimer J. Adler blab out about the grandness of choosing books that other source turn over deserving reading . “ The neat authors were nifty readers , ” heexplained , “ and one way of life to realise them is to read the books they read . ”
Adler went on to clarify that this would probably matter most in the school of thought bailiwick , “ becausephilosophersare great readers of each other , ” and it ’s easier to savvy a concept if you also have it off what inspired it . While you do n’t necessarily have to say everything a novelist has read in rescript to fully read their own oeuvre , it ’s still a good way to get qualitybook recommendationsfrom a trusted beginning . If your favorite generator mentions a certain novel that really made an impression on them , there ’s a pretty good chance you ’d savour it , too .
6. Reading so-called guilty pleasures is better than reading nothing // Mary Wollstonecraft
To the eighteenth - century author , philosopher , and earlyfeministMary Wollstonecraft , just about all novel fell into the class of “ hangdog pleasures ” ( though she did n’t call them that ) . InA Vindication of the Rights of Woman , shedisparagedthe “ dazed novelist , who , knowing piddling of human nature , work up dusty tales , and describe brassy scenes , all retail in a sentimental jargon , which equally tend to corrupt the appreciation and draw the heart by from its daily duties . ”
If her judgment seems unnecessarily harsh , it ’s probably because it ’s taken out of its historic context . Wollstonecraft in spades was n’t the only one who study novels to be humbled - quality reading material stuff compared to works of history and philosophical system , and she was also indirectly criticizing society for preventing women from seek more cerebral pursuits . If twenty-first - C women were confined to watching unrealistic , extremely edited dating shows and frowned upon for trying to see 2019’sParasiteor the latestKen Burns documentary , we might vocalize a niggling bitter , too .
Regardless , Wollstonecraft still take on that even guilty pleasures can help expand your worldview . “ Any sort of reading I think better than leaving a blank still a blank , because the mind must pick up a degree of expansion , and obtain a small strength by a tenuous sweat of its thinking powers , ” she indite . In other tidings , go off and enjoy your beach read .
7. You get to make the final decision on how, what, and when to read // Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore Rooseveltmight have lived his own lifespan in an exceptionallyregimented fashion , but hisoutlook on readingwas surprisingly costless - spirited . Apart from being a unswerving proponent of regain at least a few minutes to interpret every individual solar day — and starting young — he recall that most of the details should be left up to the someone .
“ The reader , the booklover , must touch his own needs without pay too much care to what his neighbour say those needs should be , ” he wrote in his autobiography , and rule out the idea that there ’s a unequivocal “ best books ” list that everyone should abide by . Instead , Roosevelt recommend choosing books on subjects that interest you and permit your mood channelise you to your next great read . He also was n’t one to rove his oculus at a happy ending , explicate that “ there are enough horror and severeness and sordid squalidness in literal life with which an fighting man has to deal . ”
In myopic , Roosevelt would belike rede you to see what Seneca , Albert Einstein , Mary Wollstonecraft , and other gravid mind had to say about reading material , and then make your own decisions in the end .
