I love autobiographies and memoirs. It's probably the genre I go to first when seeking out something new or serendipitous
Beginnings in the Middle Ages
I just learned two things. First, Augustine was from Africa. Second, he was the first autobiographer. [1]
Although I do not want to start my reading with the list of novels, I am reading, as she recommended, the author's thoughts on HOW to read novels.
“Understanding half of a really tough book,” writes Mortimer Adler in his classic How to Read a Book, “is much better than not understanding it at all, which will be the case if you allow yourself to be stopped by the first difficult passage you come to”
“Once a day . . . call yourselves to an account what new ideas, what new proposition or truth you have gained, what further confirmation of known truths, and what advances you have made in any part of knowledge.”
“Rule One: The more abstract words a passage contains, the harder it is to read quickly.
Rule Two: The fewer ideas a passage contains, the easier it is to read fast.
Rule Three: The more prior knowledge of the subject of a written passage the reader has, the easier it is to read fast.” - Peter Kump“Any literate man (or woman, we would add) can rely on self-education to train and fill the mind.” (pg. 22)
Obviously, my mind goes to Good Will Hunting. I aspire to be a well educated autodidact, but my lack of self discipline has made this just a dream. It feels like a moral failing that I lack a solid foundation in history and geography.