10 Ways to Improve Your Mind by Reading the Classics

6. Educational Entertainment
Reading great books is fun. The key is getting past the initial vocabulary barrier. It’s actually less difficult than you think. Even challenging authors use a limited vocabulary. After the initial learning curve, you’ll find the classics as readable as modern books and infinitely more stimulating. Classics have endured because of entertainment value. There’s a reason filmmakers keep remaking old books — they have the best content.

7. Sophistication
If you’d like to excel in conversation, knowledge of the classics is essential. These are books that keep coming up. They’re a part of human history that isn’t going to disappear in 10 years like 99% of books on the bestsellers list. By reading the classics you gain a deeper appreciation of ideas generally taken for granted. Plus quoting Aristotle or Voltaire is a great way to win an argument.

8. More Efficient Reading
I just finished reading The Road by Cormac MacCarthy. It’s so good that it won the Pulitzer Prize. Afterwards I read the first few chapters of Lolita. I was shocked by Lolita’s superiority. Truly great books don’t come around every year. If you only read contemporary literature, you’re drawing from a diluted pool. Why not make the most of your reading time by finding the best of the best?

9. Develop a Distinct Voice
If you’re a writer/blogger, ignoring the classics is a mistake. This has nothing to do with subject matter. Regardless of what you write about, you need to be persuasive and develop a distinct voice. The best way to learn is from the masters. I’ve seen several articles recommend examples of good writing — they’ve all been other blogs. I have a feeling most people reading this article already read enough blogs. Spending some time with the classics will give you an edge.

10. Learn Timeless Ideas
We like to believe, in our modern arrogance, that technology has changed everything. In truth, it feels the same to be alive today as it did a thousand years ago. The lessons of the classics carry as much weight as ever. They contain information that is directly applicable to your life. Don’t believe me? Try reading Ben Franklin’s Autobiography without learning something. Reading the classics develops an understanding of the human condition and a deeper appreciation of modern problems.

In closing, I’d like to briefly anticipate criticism. This is not an attack on everything modern.

To read nothing but the classics would be as foolish as completely ignoring them. The aim is to combine the wisdom of the past with the innovation of the future. The two are inextricably linked — the best books are yet to be written.
Also, this is not an appeal to snobbery. Quite the opposite. Reading the classics is a cheap hobby. Used copies can be borrowed from the library or purchased for 1/20 the cost of trendy books that are the talk of high society. Please stop associating the classics with your English Lit. Professor.

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Here is the article that I mentioned in my previous post…

I am posting the first 5 of the list of 10… the rest will be in my next post.
take a few moments to read this over, and give me your thoughts.

10 Ways to Improve Your Mind by Reading the Classics

The other day I came across some disturbing statistics on reading. According to a Jenkins Group survey, 42% of college graduates will never read another book.

Since most people read bestsellers printed in the past 10 years, it follows that virtually no one is reading the classics. Although it’s unfortunate that the intellectual heritage of humanity is being forgotten we can use this to our benefit. By reading the classics to improve your mind you can give yourself an advantage. These examples illustrate 10 ways reading the classics will help you succeed.

1. Bigger Vocabulary
When reading the classics you’ll come across many words that are no longer commonly used. Why learn words most people don’t use? To set yourself apart. Having a bigger vocabulary is like having a tool box with more tools. A larger arsenal of words enables you to express yourself more eloquently. You’ll be able to communicate with precision and create a perception of higher intelligence that will give you an advantage in work and social situations.

2. Improved Writing Ability
Reading the classics is the easiest way to improve your writing. While reading you unconsciously absorb the grammar and style of the author. Why not learn from the best? Great authors have a tendency to take over your mind. After reading, I’ve observed that my thoughts begin to mirror the writer’s style. This influence carries over to writing, helping form clear, rhythmic sentences.

3. Improved Speaking Ability
Becoming a better speaker accompanies becoming a better writer because both are caused by becoming a better thinker. Studying works of genius will teach you to express yourself with clarity and style. By improving your command of the English language, you’ll become more persuasive, sound more intelligent, and enjoy an advantage over less articulate people.

4. Fresh Ideas
Isn’t it ironic that the best source for new ideas are writers who’ve been dead for centuries? I’ve derived some of my best ideas directly from the classics. It makes sense when you consider the competition. Everyone you know is reading the same popular blogs and bestselling books. Observing the same ideas as everyone else leads to generic and repetitive thinking. No wonder it’s difficult to sound original! By looking to the classics for inspiration you can enhance your creativity and find fresh subject matter.

5. Historical Perspective
I could argue this point myself, but why bother if Einstein has already done it?
Somebody who reads only newspapers and at best the books of contemporary authors looks to me like an extremely nearsighted person who scorns eyeglasses. He is completely dependent on the prejudices and fashions of his times, since he never gets to see or hear anything else. And what a person thinks on his own without being stimulated by the thoughts and experiences of other people is even in the best case rather paltry and monotonous.
There are only a few enlightened people with a lucid mind and style and with good taste within a century. What has been preserved of their work belongs among the most precious possessions of mankind.
Nothing is more needed than to overcome the modernist’s snobbishness.

Stay tuned for the conclusion in the next post.

“10 WAYS TO IMPROVE YOUR MIND BY READING THE CLASSICS”

It is perfect!
I couldn’t have said it better as an advocate
of not just of reading but of good reading.

I have been an advocate of “good reading are the older books”
That is a page out of CS Lewis.

Lewis said it this way….
“new books are still on trial…. and the amateur is not in a position to judge it. It has to be tested against the great body of Christian thought down the ages….. the new books are like joining a conversation at 11 that started at 8”

Spurgeon speaks clearly to reading:
“As the apostle says to Timothy, so also he says to every-one, ‘Give yourself to reading.’ … He who will not use the thoughts of other men’s brains proves that he has no brains of his own… You need to read. Renounce as much as you will all light literature, but study as much as possible sound theological works, especially the Puritanic writers, and expositions of the Bible… the best way for you to spend your leisure is to be either reading or praying”
(C.H. Spurgeon )

In my next post, I will share the article that would serve you well to read.
It’s not long, but it has such value that you should take the time and read it.

You will not be known for how many movies you have watched or just because you can quote Godfather lines. I have never read a book about the guy who has rented every movie at Netflix or Itunes. But the great leaders in history were readers.

Or as someone once said “great leaders are readers”

It started to get frustrating as I kept saying…

“a plain cheeseburger with nothing on it”

and they kept saying..

“so no cheese either”.

“No that would then be a hamburger” I responded.

As the dialogue went on my mind went back to one of the ancient fathers who said….

“Be Kind! for everyone you meet is fighting a great battle”

I started to see the person behind the counter as someone
who needs kindness not my frustration.  And then Paul’s words popped in my heart

Col. 4:6
Let your speech always be  with grace,
seasoned, as it were, with  salt….

I realized that in the end, as a Christian, no matter if they put  ketchup and pickles on the hamburger,
the more important issue is that I had salt and grace  on my speech.

I thought praise was for us!
It is and it will be for eternity.  But there will come a day that God will praise.
That sounds odd. Yeah, but It’s in the Bible.
Will God praise Himself?  That would seem odd.
It’s even odder than that…..God will one day praise us!

Listen to the words of Paul…

1Cor. 4:5
Therefore  do not go on  passing judgment before  the time,
but wait  until the Lord comes who will both  bring to light the
things hidden in the darkness and disclose the motives of men’s hearts;
and then each man’s  praise will come to him from God.

Incredible….

”each man’s praise will come to him FROM GOD” .

That’s what it says.
It’s the day that the Christians stand before God and He lifts a praise up that we are with Him for eternity.
What is mind boggling is that the word for “praise” here is the root for “Hallelujah”. God’s first shout of Hallelujah will be over you and me that have finally come home to be with Him forever.  What a day that will be. We praise Him for Who He is and He praises us with a “well done good and faithful servant.”

Deut 5:22

Have you ever sat in a lecture, a staff meeting, or dare I say it… a church service and wish the talking would stop…. that it would be over, but they kept going on and on?

I remember the story of the Gettysburg address….”4 score and 7 years ago” spoken by Abraham Lincoln.
The man before Lincoln, Edward Everett spoke for 2 and half hours.  Lincoln spoke 270 words.
No one remembers Everett, but centuries later we still remember Lincoln’s words.

Less is not more if less has no substance.
And Lincoln’s less had substance.

Greater than a Gettysburg address is what God spoke 5 millenniums ago, and it is still remembered, quoted, and lived by.
God  is The Great Economist, even when it comes to words…
Not a word is wasted

No man can add to what God said because nothing needs to be added.

Why is there not more than 10 commandments?
Why not 11 or 11,000?  Simple….
Because “He added no more.”

I bet our list would be different. And those who have additions to the list are saying “just one more God; you forgot something.”

“HE ADDED NO MORE” ….God is a God of completion
He finishes the job!

God knows when to stop

Spurgeon said it best when he said…
“it’s the empty truck that makes the most noise”
The more we talk, I think the less and less we say.
Wordiness is not a sign of knowledge. I think it is sign of shallowness

That is what God does in the 10 commandments.
Every word counts.

And in the spirit of our national recession, God did downsize but never added….
When the NT opens up Jesus downsizes the 10 down to  2 commandments:
love God and love your neighbor
and can I say to that….
HE ADDED NO MORE

”I don’t have to go to church to be a Christian do I ?”

And the answer to that is an obvious and resounding “no”.

Nothing that I know has changed… we are all still saved BY GRACE NOT CHURCH.
However (and that’s a big however) though you don’t have to go to church to be a Christian,
you do have to go to church TO BE A GROWING CHRISTIAN.

Let me say that again…..
You don’t have to go to church to be a Christian
But you do have to go to church to be a growing Christian.
The writer of Hebrews says it this way.

Heb. 10:24 Let’s see how inventive we can be in encouraging love and helping out,
Heb. 10:25 not avoiding worshiping together as some do but spurring each other on, especially as we see the big Day approaching.

You need the church, someone is waiting to help you grow.
And we need you here, you can help us grow.