How to Read

It almost seems to be a redundant topic, but I found value in this post from the Copyblogger. The audience for it consists of the people who have managed to get past the gossip, innuendo, unsubstantiated opinions, disconnected facts and plainly incorrect stuff which makes up the preponderance of written material today. It expands from the topic of “information” (described by Wilson as “. . . a full, accurate, and properly nuanced body of knowledge about important matters. . .”) and goes to how to read for discovery and to achieve understanding.

The focus of the article is on reading to make yourself a better writer, however the concept can be expanded to reading to make yourself a better citizen and more enlightened voter. As David Brin points out, human nature always conspires against Enlightenment. And there is a substantial fraction of American citizens today who in on that conspiracy.