I would exercise caution with most 'speed reading' help books, they're the get rich quick scheme of wannabe intellectuals.
That being said, it's hard to understate the productivity of a skilled reader- the person who can rapidly digest and critically understand written word at the highest level is dangerously effective. Getting to this level takes more work than most speedreading guides will admit.
I've read all sorts of books on this topic and one stands head and shoulders above the rest: How to Read A Book - Mortimer Adler. Its an old book but a classic. If you truly want to improve reading speed AND comprehension, or just want some motivation, this is the definitive place to start in my humble experience. I'm sharing because this book helped me tremendously and I think it will for you as well.
Plenty of opportunity to become well-read in 2019. Best of luck!
P.S. the original edition of this book (1940) mentions prevalence of speed reading books... Fascinating that they were popular back then, and have been around much longer than one might think.
This isn't quite what you requested, but Adler's How to Read a Book gives you a framework for something similar that can be used with any reading you do. The book features a brief set of questions designed to get you to express the main idea of what you read, how to apply the knowledge, etc. It's far more difficult than it appears, but it makes reading much more rewarding.
The method was introduced to me in my college philosophy classes and has served me well ever since.
Sometimes if you read you learn things.
If you plan not to touch sugar due to addiction, you might like this book: https://www.amazon.com/Rational-Recovery-Cure-Substance-Addiction/dp/0671528580/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1549636238&sr=1-1&keywords=rational+recovery
It's targeted towards alcoholics, but I have found it amazing to instantaneously flip my mind around food. Saying 'no' becomes easy when you have these strategies in mind. (Sounds weird, but it's very true.)
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Live long and prosper! You do you!!
How to Read a Book. Actually really good and useful.
Anyone who wants a fairly short, fun-to-read book about how the Church kept literacy and the written heritage of Greece and Rome alive during the Dark Ages should read "How the Irish Saved Civilization: The Untold Story of Ireland's Heroic Role From the Fall of Rome to the Rise of Medieval Europe". It's a tremendously inspiring and uplifting true story about people persevering as their world collapsed around them - great for these black-pilled times. There's an Audible version, too.
https://www.amazon.com/How-Irish-Saved-Civilization-Irelands/dp/0385418493
If you do decide on Mythology by Edith Hamilton, be sure to buy the 75th Anniversary Edition. Beautiful book, worth it for the illustrations alone :)
I’m completely unafraid of hell because it’s an incoherent idea (I think the same about “god” btw). I can’t be afraid of a married bachelor or a round square because I am unable to even imagine a logically coherent representation of those things since they are self-contradictory.
We’ve all been taught to be afraid of hell since early childhood, but just like we’re told not to look directly at the sun, we weren’t encouraged to think clearly about the details of hell, were we? That’s because there aren’t any, and attempts to form a coherent description of hell that is consonant with “god’s” supposed nature, scripture, and logic always fail.
David Bentley Hart, possibly the most prominent English-speaking theologian working today, wrote an entire book about how he thinks the eternal conscious torment version of hell not only doesn’t exist but can’t exist. Further, he argues that if any form of Christianity truly teaches this, it’s a sign that form of Christianity is false.
I’m personally biased to think that all forms of Christianity, indeed all human religions are false in the sense that none of them fully and accurately describe reality…but anyway maybe this theologian is right? If he is right, then you have nothing to fear. Be a good person, do your best, the “god” this guy believes in is not a sadistic, evil maniac like the Catholic “god.”
Viking Language 1 and 2 by Jesse L. Byock. Here's the first one:
https://www.amazon.com/Viking-Language-Learn-Norse-Icelandic/dp/1480216445
You can get audio recordings for the lessons on Amazon or iTunes as well.
The courses are by far the most modernized, user-friendly courses available. A close second would be 'A New Introduction to Old Norse,' which can be purchased here:
https://acmrs.org/publications/catalog/new-introduction-old-norse-part-i-ii-and-iii-discount-set
The HoMe books are really just the collected earlier, abandoned and alternative drafts of the main 'canon' material that makes up the contents of the Silmarillion and LOTR. There are some very interesting bits and pieces that are only found in them, but yeah I'd read the main books again first. Also, if you want a quick path to a deeper understanding of the whole mythos, add to your list one more book, the Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, which does in fact touch on this and a whole lot of other fascinating core details.
https://www.amazon.com/Letters-J-R-R-Tolkien-J-R/dp/0618056998 An Amazon link to The Letters of Tolkien Unfortunately I can't help you I asked because I plan to do the same after I finish with the Witcher and I wasn't sure about the order
NTA, but please don't intentionally let your grades slip. The best way to handle the situation is to talk with your teacher and also reach out to some friends to make a study group. Divide up the readings and share notes with each other! Since this is an AP class, there are hundreds of former, overworked, 16-year-olds who have been through the exact same class and posted their notes online. Reading those notes will save you a lot of time!
Also, you definitely don't have to actually read everything! There are strategies you can use to figure out the main concepts in each chapter/section. Below is a book a professor showed our class when I was in grad school that gives strategies on how to get important information without actually reading the whole book. Maybe your local library has it? https://www.amazon.com/dp/0671212095/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_Yc.yFbC67FTB0
Hey buddy. Here’s a book about universal salvation that is sure to relieve you of your worries:
https://www.amazon.com/That-All-Shall-Saved-Universal/dp/0300246226
I suffer from OCD also. If you want to talk about it, message me. I would love to talk about it and share my experiences with you. Trust me, I know OCD and the thoughts that it presents extremely well. I know you are in a dark place right now, but you will be okay. You are safe.
“Fear not” is in the Bible 365 times. God wants you to be free of anxiety, not full of dread and despair. You are not going to Hell, nor are your loved ones.
If you have not yet done so, check out David Bentley Hart's book That All Shall Be Saved. He is a reputable scholar, and in that book he provides not only an excellent argument in favor of universalism, but answers your specific question about αιον.
Below is just one paragraph from several pages dealing with the Greek words αιων and αιωνιος:
>No matter how we interpret the discrete terms, however, we must never forget that today the entire ensemble of references that we bring to these phrases is wholly detached from the religious world of Christ's time, and particularly from its eschatological expectations. It seems absolutely certain, for instance, that the words αιων and αιωνιος are frequently used in the New Testament as some kind of reference to the 'olam ha-ba, "the Age to come," which is to say the Age of God's Kingdom, or of that cosmic reality now hidden in God that will be made manifest at history's end. It seems fairly certain, at least, that in the New Testament, and especially in the teachings of Jesus, the adjective αιωνιος is the equivalent of something like the phrase le-olam; and yet it is no less certain that this usage cannot be neatly discriminated from the language of the 'olam ha-ba without losing something of the special significance it surely possessed in Christ's time. The issue then is not one of how long, but rather of when, or of what frame of reality -- what realm, that is, within or beyond history.
That last sentence answers your question most succinctly: the words αιων and αιωνιος refer more to a "when" and less to a "how long" time frame.
I recommend reading Jack Trimpey's Rational Recovery. I find this superior to to the hackbook insofar as dealing with the little monster. He teaches the reader about AVRT (Addictive Voice Recognition Technique) a method to counter the inner voice of the more primitive part of your psyche, the Beast. He emphasizes that our humanity gives us an unparalleled advantage over the Beast, we need to be deprogrammed that our addiction is difficult to cast away. Because of our innate superiority, there is a theme of "The best defense is a good offense." against your addiction. That means boldly stating you will never cave in to the Beast, because this creature as deceptive, clever and slippery as it is, can not force you to do anything. It needs your consent for it to get its fix.
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Recognizing the Beast's voice, posing as your own whenever it surfaces ensures it will never fool you again.
I'm not an academic, nor am I extremely well read- however, I recommend you check out Mortimer J Adler's How to Read a Book if you haven't already, as you might find it helpful. It covers some of the different "levels" of understanding a text and you might find it helpful in developing a method to breeze through other texts and scan for potentially important passages.
To me, this looks more like a phrase book than anything else. Which could certainly supplement your other studies, but I don’t love phrase books myself.
I took a crack at old Norse a while ago (I only stupore because I lost my study buddy) and I liked this
https://www.amazon.com/Viking-Language-Learn-Norse-Icelandic/dp/1480216445
Hi. I have worked in addition therapy for years and I really don't like the cultiness of AA. I was very disappointed when the church adopted it as their addiction recovery programme.
Anyway, try this book as it's a CBT based programme which is harder in many ways as you have to take responsibility, but ultimately because of that, you also take control.
Best of luck to you. You can do this.
Sure thing-- best of luck. Grab a copy of Adler if you haven't read it (look for the 1972 edition with Charles Van Doren's updates). Read part II carefully (that's the general methodology) and then read the sections of part III that are specifically about reading history. It'll take you an hour perhaps and that will be time well spent I'd say.
Check out David Bentley Hart. He's an Eastern Orthodox theologian who defends universalism very well. His book that does so is That All Shall Be Saved.
Search David Bentley Hart into YouTube or podcast outlets for interviews surrounding his fantastic, sophisticated, formidable, and so far undefeated book That All Shall Be Saved
I have this template I made after reading How to Read a Book. In conjunction with How to Take Smart Notes, I find myself remembering most of everything I read once I read the notes from the books I've read in the past. Within Abdaal's levels, this puts me at a level 7.
It helped me think about my addiction differently and helped me hear that little voice that tells me to drink a bit more clearly. Simply being aware of the voice helped immeasurably.
It didn't keep me sober long-term (AA has worked best for me so far), but it still benefits me on days when drinking sounds like a good idea.
EDIT: the book is about $15 on Amazon ( Rational Recovery: The New Cure for Substance Addiction https://www.amazon.com/dp/0671528580/ref=cm_sw_r_awd_.0U.vb1KFN9MN)
Also, it's religion/faith-free, which was a must-have for me at that point in my life.
Yale University Press: https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300246223/all-shall-be-saved
Amazon: $23.40 USD That All Shall Be Saved: Heaven, Hell, and Universal Salvation https://www.amazon.com/dp/0300246226/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_O44.CbWM0VRCF
Will be released September 24, 2019
It depends on the subject matter and what you need to do with it. How to Read a Book: The Classic Guide to Intelligent Reading has great advice for the different purposes. Don’t just trudge through each reading from page one. Scan, skim. Be careful what you decide to give a close reading of.
Keep a journal of your readings and make notes. That will help review the insights you pick up and remember where important references are from.
Instead of one notebook per class I personally recommend keeping all your reading notes in one book. Save the first four pages as a table of contents. Number the rest of the pages. That way when you get a new reading assignment you can add it to the TOC list and next to it note what page it starts on. That way you can skim it quickly to find it again. These tips are from the Bullet Journal method.
Good morning!
I have one more suggestion for you/someone else with similar problems.
In grad school, it helped me a lot to do an initial quick read-through of the material before going back over the piece with a fine-toothed comb.
As you've said, a lot of these materials include a lot of fluff and it's easy to get distracted while trying to write as you read. The quick initial read (or skim, whatever you want to call it) is good for identifying what will be important to focus on when you go back and identifying what needs to be written down. I often found myself highlighting a lot of unnecessary stuff and writing a lot more than I needed because I wasn't really sure what was going to be important later on. This process helped to curb that and cut out A LOT of time that was being wasted.
I think it was in Adler and Van Doren's How to Read a Book that I learned the following strategy:
First, read all of the incidentals (title, author, abstract/summary, section titles). Then, read the introduction and conclusion. Then, look at the first and last sentences in every paragraph.
After that, go back through and give the piece a good read-through. You should be able to do so fairly quickly because you already know what to expect, for the most part. You'll pick up whatever you missed the first time around, and gain a really strong sense of the piece.
I really recommend their book if you ever get a chance. It's broken up really well, too, so you can just pick out sections rather than reading it front-to-back. I consult it whenever I need a refresher.
I use memrise as an instrument to build some vocab. When I have collected enough pretty words I'll raid this guy's book for me grammars:
http://www.amazon.com/Viking-Language-Learn-Norse-Icelandic/dp/1480216445/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8
Started reading the Great Books of Western World after seeing the list in the Appendix of How to Read a Book by Mortimer Adler. Set a goal of 50 pages a day, 6 days a week. Some days I read more, some less. Missed a few days here and there because life happens. But was consistent and just kept at it. Started shortly after my 30th birthday, just turned 41 and still reading my 50 pages a day most days.
i'm a huge Tolkien fan too. if you read his letters https://www.amazon.com/Letters-J-R-R-Tolkien-J-R/dp/0618056998 it discussed this and says that a different letter was probably sent to the German publisher. the one that you quoted was in Tolkien's publishers files which means it wasn't actually sent.