A post that I like but never quite got beyond draft status. Enjoy. -P
You got a book to read that's sooo big it influences the tide? that medical students pray for you? that it is now finally illegal to drop a penny from the top? I got nuttin for ya. Well, except maybe this:
1. Check it out. Look for the form first. Peruse that table of contents to get a map of the adventure you are daring with this read… also to get some mnemonic sense of the contents. If no easy inherent order is apparent, try to imagine a tentative Beginning Middle and End, and if it is your book, annotate the TOC with B M and E respectively. (If it has a BIG M , maybe try to get some sense of the order of the Middle part, too.)
2. Bookend. Read the B and the E. And read it well. I mean well.
3. Dip. Read the first bits of all the chapters in M. Better: Go through the chapters, reading their first paragraphs, section headings, and last paragraphs. Maybe hit them with a highlighter as you go, perhaps one of a color you use for surveying only. Comprehension is great, but right now, introduction is key.
4. Reflect. Try to get a working sense of the whole. No matter how surface-level.
5. Play. You've earned it. Leave mastery aside for a bit and just play with what parts most interest you. Read. Reflect. Maybe repeat 1 – 4 with a favorite chapter. Get on twitter (if you must), and ask questions / post quotes. Get feedback. Look smart. Stay humble.
6. Play more. Your interests will most likely expand. Maybe also pray for God to influence your heart unto areas relevant for due diligence in the project and unto things he would like to share with you.
7. Overcome. When you have played aplenty, perhaps enough that the book stares at you when you're eating (or otherwise haunts you for its neglect), when you have salivated enough on the material and acclimated enough to it that you feel ready to attack and devour the whole, then go my son. Make your people proud.