What is the purpose of your reading? Is it merely to kill time? But if you are out to learn, if you want to feel that you have progressed as a result of your reading, then you must realize that there is a wrong way and a right way to read. Remember you have not mastered any study until you can restate it in your own words. The best way to master the essence of a book or lecture is to select only the meaning of it, state it in your own words, and apply the meaning to examples drawn from your own experience, and not from the lecturer's or author's.
The wrong way merely wastes time for the serious student. It scatters your thoughts and diffuses your mental powers. It weakens your mental energy. And when you try to remember what you have read the net result is--nothing! Moreover the wrong way has no effect upon your active life--the way you work and live. That remains unbenefited by your study.
Now there is a better way to read.
-- Notebooks Category 7: The Intellect > Chapter 3 : The Development of Intellect > # 297
